Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica
Drifting snow, or the wind-driven transport of snow particles originating from clouds and the surface below and above 2 m above ground and their concurrent sublimation, is a poorly documented process on the Antarctic ice sheet, which is inherently lacking in most climate models. Since drifting snow...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:gmd90795 2023-05-15T14:02:17+02:00 Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica Amory, Charles Kittel, Christoph Toumelin, Louis Agosta, Cécile Delhasse, Alison Favier, Vincent Fettweis, Xavier 2021-06-09 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3487/2021/ eng eng doi:10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3487/2021/ eISSN: 1991-9603 Text 2021 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 2021-06-14T16:22:13Z Drifting snow, or the wind-driven transport of snow particles originating from clouds and the surface below and above 2 m above ground and their concurrent sublimation, is a poorly documented process on the Antarctic ice sheet, which is inherently lacking in most climate models. Since drifting snow mostly results from erosion of surface particles, a comprehensive evaluation of this process in climate models requires a concurrent assessment of simulated drifting-snow transport and the surface mass balance (SMB). In this paper a new version of the drifting-snow scheme currently embedded in the regional climate model MAR (v3.11) is extensively described. Several important modifications relative to previous version have been implemented and include notably a parameterization for drifting-snow compaction of the uppermost snowpack layer, differentiated snow density at deposition between precipitation and drifting snow, and a rewrite of the threshold friction velocity above which snow erosion initiates. Model results at high resolution (10 km) over Adélie Land, East Antarctica, for the period 2004–2018 are presented and evaluated against available near-surface meteorological observations at half-hourly resolution and annual SMB estimates. The evaluation demonstrates that MAR resolves the local drifting-snow frequency and transport up to the scale of the drifting-snow event and captures the resulting observed climate and SMB variability, suggesting that this model version can be used for continent-wide applications. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic Geoscientific Model Development 14 6 3487 3510 |
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English |
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Drifting snow, or the wind-driven transport of snow particles originating from clouds and the surface below and above 2 m above ground and their concurrent sublimation, is a poorly documented process on the Antarctic ice sheet, which is inherently lacking in most climate models. Since drifting snow mostly results from erosion of surface particles, a comprehensive evaluation of this process in climate models requires a concurrent assessment of simulated drifting-snow transport and the surface mass balance (SMB). In this paper a new version of the drifting-snow scheme currently embedded in the regional climate model MAR (v3.11) is extensively described. Several important modifications relative to previous version have been implemented and include notably a parameterization for drifting-snow compaction of the uppermost snowpack layer, differentiated snow density at deposition between precipitation and drifting snow, and a rewrite of the threshold friction velocity above which snow erosion initiates. Model results at high resolution (10 km) over Adélie Land, East Antarctica, for the period 2004–2018 are presented and evaluated against available near-surface meteorological observations at half-hourly resolution and annual SMB estimates. The evaluation demonstrates that MAR resolves the local drifting-snow frequency and transport up to the scale of the drifting-snow event and captures the resulting observed climate and SMB variability, suggesting that this model version can be used for continent-wide applications. |
format |
Text |
author |
Amory, Charles Kittel, Christoph Toumelin, Louis Agosta, Cécile Delhasse, Alison Favier, Vincent Fettweis, Xavier |
spellingShingle |
Amory, Charles Kittel, Christoph Toumelin, Louis Agosta, Cécile Delhasse, Alison Favier, Vincent Fettweis, Xavier Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
author_facet |
Amory, Charles Kittel, Christoph Toumelin, Louis Agosta, Cécile Delhasse, Alison Favier, Vincent Fettweis, Xavier |
author_sort |
Amory, Charles |
title |
Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_short |
Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_full |
Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Performance of MAR (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of Adélie Land, East Antarctica |
title_sort |
performance of mar (v3.11) in simulating the drifting-snow climate and surface mass balance of adélie land, east antarctica |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3487/2021/ |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
eISSN: 1991-9603 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/3487/2021/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3487-2021 |
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Geoscientific Model Development |
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14 |
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6 |
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3487 |
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3510 |
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