edu.ucar.opensky::articles:23705 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-25T06:45:16.604207 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76m3b3t Assessment of uncertainty sources in snow cover simulation in the Tibetan Plateau 2020-09-27T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76m3b3t https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD032674 Jiang, Y. author Chen, Fei author Gao, Y. author He, Cenlin author Barlage, Michael J. author Huang, W. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays an important role in Asian climate. State-of-the-art models, however, show significant simulation biases. In this study, we assess the main uncertainty associated with model physics in snow cover modeling over the TP using ground-based observations and high-resolution snow cover satellite products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and FengYun-3B (FY3B). We first conducted 10-km simulations using the Noah with multiparameterization (Noah-MP) land surface model by optimizing physics-scheme options, which reduces 8.2% absolute bias of annual snow cover fraction (SCF) compared with the default model settings. Then, five SCF parameterizations in Noah-MP were optimized and assessed, with three of them further reducing the annual SCF biases from around 15% to less than 2%. Thus, optimizing SCF parameterizations appears to be more important than optimizing physics-scheme options in reducing the uncertainty of snow modeling. As a result of improved SCF, the positive bias of simulated surface albedo decreases significantly compared to the GLASS albedo data, particularly in high-elevation regions. This substantially enhances the absorbed solar radiation and further reduces the annual mean biases of ground temperature from -3.5 to -0.8 degrees C and snow depth from 4.2 to 0.2 mm. However, the optimized model still overestimates SCF in the western TP and underestimates SCF in the eastern TP. Further analysis using a higher-resolution (4 km) simulation driven by topographically adjusted air temperature shows slight improvement, suggesting a rather limited contribution of the finer-scale land surface characteristics to SCF uncertainty. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright 2020 American Geophysical Union. None eng geoscientificInformation