Impact on ECMWF forecasts of changes to the albedo of the boreal forests in the presence of snow

Abstract

A change in the calculation of the albedo for the boreal forests in the presence of snow in the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model, which reduces the deep snow albedo from 0.8 to 0.2, greatly reduces the model systematic cold temperature bias both at the surface and in the lower troposphere at high northern latitudes in the spring.