Abstract
Abstract. A model for the coupled mass and energy balances of snow on the ground requires representations of absorption of solar radiation by snow, heat conduction in snow, compaction of snow, transfer of heat to snow from the air and retention and refreezing of meltwater in snow. Many such models exist, but it has proven hard to relate their relative performances to the complexity of their process representations. This paper describes the systematic development of an open-source snowpack model with two levels of representation for each of the five processes mentioned above, allowing factorial experimental designs with 32 different model configurations. The model is demonstrated using driving and evaluation data recorded over one winter at an alpine site.
Highlights
Snow on the ground reflects solar radiation, limits surface temperatures, insulates the ground and stores water
This paper describes the much more systematic development of a new snowpack model called a factorial snowpack model (FSM) with five parametrizations that can be turned on or off independently, giving an ensemble of 32 possible configurations with similar spread but much faster run times than the model of Essery et al (2013)
The parametrizations used are all simple, and none of them are entirely new; similar parametrizations can be found in the CLASS (Verseghy, 1991), CLM (Oleson et al, 2010), HTESSEL (Dutra et al, 2010), ISBA (Douville et al, 1995; Boone and Etchevers, 2001), JULES (Best et al, 2011), MOSES (Cox et al, 1999) and ORCHIDEE (Wang et al, 2013) land surface models, and more complex parametrizations of the same processes can be found in the Crocus (Vionnet et al, 2012), SNOWPACK (Bartelt and Lehning, 2002) and SNTHERM (Jordan, 1991) snow physics models
Summary
Snow on the ground reflects solar radiation, limits surface temperatures, insulates the ground and stores water. The parametrizations used are all simple, and none of them are entirely new; similar parametrizations can be found in the CLASS (Verseghy, 1991), CLM (Oleson et al, 2010), HTESSEL (Dutra et al, 2010), ISBA (Douville et al, 1995; Boone and Etchevers, 2001), JULES (Best et al, 2011), MOSES (Cox et al, 1999) and ORCHIDEE (Wang et al, 2013) land surface models, and more complex parametrizations of the same processes can be found in the Crocus (Vionnet et al, 2012), SNOWPACK (Bartelt and Lehning, 2002) and SNTHERM (Jordan, 1991) snow physics models. Following a detailed description of the model an ensemble of simulations is compared with observations and the influence of each process on the results is determined
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