Identification

Title

Impact of errors in the downwelling irradiances on simulations of snow water equivalent, snow surface temperature, and the snow energy balance

Abstract

The forcing irradiances (downwelling shortwave and longwave irradiances) are the primary drivers of snowmelt; however, in complex terrain, few observations, the use of estimated irradiances, and the influence of topography and elevation all lead to uncertainties in these radiative fluxes. The impact of uncertainties in the forcing irradiances on simulations of snow is evaluated in idealized modeling experiments. Two snow models of contrasting complexity, the Utah Energy Balance Model (UEB) and the Snow Thermal Model (SNTHERM), are forced with irradiances with prescribed errors of the structure and magnitude representative of those found in methods for estimating the downwelling irradiances. Relatively modest biases have substantial impacts on simulated snow water equivalent (SWE) and surface temperature (Ts) across a range of climates, whereas random noise at the daily scale has a negligible effect on modeled SWE and Ts. Shortwave biases have a smaller SWE impact, due to the influence of albedo, and Ts impact, due to their diurnal cycle, compared to equivalent longwave biases. Warmer sites exhibit greater sensitivity to errors when evaluated using SWE, while colder sites exhibit more sensitivity as evaluated using Ts. The two models displayed different sensitivity and responses to biases. The stability feedback in the turbulent fluxes explains differences in Ts between models in the negative longwave bias scenarios. When the models diverge during melt events, differences in the turbulent fluxes and internal energy change of the snow are found to be responsible. From this analysis, we suggest model evaluations use Ts in addition to SWE.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cz38b4

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-03-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact