An Intercomparison of Three Snow Schemes of Varying Complexity Coupled to the Same Land Surface Model: Local-Scale Evaluation at an Alpine Site

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere land surface scheme is currently used coupled both to atmospheric models and to a distributed hydrological model. There are two snow-scheme options available for hydrological modeling: the baseline force–restore approach, which uses a composite snow–soil–vegetation energy budget and a single snow layer; and a multilayer detailed internal-process snow model. Only the force–restore method is routinely used in atmospheric modeling applications. Recent studies have shown that hydrological simulations for mountainous catchments within the Rhone basin, France, are significantly improved using the detailed snow scheme. The main drawback is that the scheme is computationally expensive, and it is not currently feasible for routine application in atmospheric models. For these reasons, a third new intermediate-complexity scheme has been developed that includes certain key physical processes from the complex model for improved snowpack realism and hydr... Abstract The Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere land surface scheme is currently used coupled both to atmospheric models and to a distributed hydrological model. There are two snow-scheme options available for hydrological modeling: the baseline force–restore approach, which uses a composite snow–soil–vegetation energy budget and a single snow layer; and a multilayer detailed internal-process snow model. Only the force–restore method is routinely used in atmospheric modeling applications. Recent studies have shown that hydrological simulations for mountainous catchments within the Rhone basin, France, are significantly improved using the detailed snow scheme. The main drawback is that the scheme is computationally expensive, and it is not currently feasible for routine application in atmospheric models. For these reasons, a third new intermediate-complexity scheme has been developed that includes certain key physical processes from the complex model for improved snowpack realism and hydr...