Simulation of terrain and forest shelter effects on patterns of snow deposition, snowmelt and runoff over a semi‐arid mountain catchment

Abstract

AbstractIn mountainous regions, topographic structure and vegetation control patterns of snow deposition, climate conditions, and snowmelt. A topographically distributed snow accumulation and melt model (ISNOBAL) was coupled to a wind field and snow redistribution model to simulate the development and ablation of the seasonal snow cover over a small mountainous catchment, the Reynolds Mountain East basin (0·38 km2) in southwestern Idaho, USA. The model was driven by hourly terrain‐ and canopy‐corrected data grids derived from meteorological data from two stations located within the catchment for four water years (1986, 1987, 1989 and 1997). The catchment was divided into four shelter classes, based on terrain and vegetation; these were used for an analysis of how the mass and energy balance of the snowcover varies over the basin as a function of terrain and forest characteristics for each of the selected years. As shown by the simulations and verified by detailed point measurements and the late‐season areal photographs of snow‐covered area, in all years the wind‐exposed areas developed thinner snow covers and were essentially bare of snow prior to the onset of spring meltout in wind‐sheltered areas. The meltout of the wind‐sheltered drift and canopy‐enclosed regions occurred in conjunction with the springtime increase in solar radiation generating the bulk of springtime runoff. Melt contributions from the drifts may continue into the late spring and early summer. This research uses a unique set of point and spatial verification data to show that a snow accumulation and ablation model, adjusted for wind redistribution effects, reliably simulated the topographic and vegetation influences on snow distribution, the energy balance, and the hydrology of snow and wind‐dominated mountainous regions. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.