Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack
The interaction of mountain terrain with meteorological processes causes substantial temporal and spatial variability in snow accumulation and ablation. Processes impacted by complex terrain include large-scale orographic enhancement of snowfall, small-scale processes such as gravitational and wind-...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Copernicus Publications
2021
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/743/2021/tc-15-743-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 2023-05-15T18:32:16+02:00 Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack V. Vionnet C. B. Marsh B. Menounos S. Gascoin N. E. Wayand J. Shea K. Mukherjee J. W. Pomeroy 2021-02-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/743/2021/tc-15-743-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/743/2021/tc-15-743-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 undefined The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 743-769 (2021) geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2021 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 2023-01-22T17:50:58Z The interaction of mountain terrain with meteorological processes causes substantial temporal and spatial variability in snow accumulation and ablation. Processes impacted by complex terrain include large-scale orographic enhancement of snowfall, small-scale processes such as gravitational and wind-induced transport of snow, and variability in the radiative balance such as through terrain shadowing. In this study, a multi-scale modelling approach is proposed to simulate the temporal and spatial evolution of high-mountain snowpacks. The multi-scale approach combines atmospheric data from a numerical weather prediction system at the kilometre scale with process-based downscaling techniques to drive the Canadian Hydrological Model (CHM) at spatial resolutions allowing for explicit snow redistribution modelling. CHM permits a variable spatial resolution by using the efficient terrain representation by unstructured triangular meshes. The model simulates processes such as radiation shadowing and irradiance to slopes, blowing-snow transport (saltation and suspension) and sublimation, avalanching, forest canopy interception and sublimation, and snowpack melt. Short-term, kilometre-scale atmospheric forecasts from Environment and Climate Change Canada's Global Environmental Multiscale Model through its High Resolution Deterministic Prediction System (HRDPS) drive CHM and are downscaled to the unstructured mesh scale. In particular, a new wind-downscaling strategy uses pre-computed wind fields from a mass-conserving wind model at 50 m resolution to perturb the mesoscale HRDPS wind and to account for the influence of topographic features on wind direction and speed. HRDPS-CHM was applied to simulate snow conditions down to 50 m resolution during winter 2017/2018 in a domain around the Kananaskis Valley (∼1000 km2) in the Canadian Rockies. Simulations were evaluated using high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) snow depth data and snow persistence indexes derived from remotely sensed imagery. Results ... Article in Journal/Newspaper The Cryosphere Unknown The Cryosphere 15 2 743 769 |
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geo envir V. Vionnet C. B. Marsh B. Menounos S. Gascoin N. E. Wayand J. Shea K. Mukherjee J. W. Pomeroy Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
topic_facet |
geo envir |
description |
The interaction of mountain terrain with meteorological processes causes substantial temporal and spatial variability in snow accumulation and ablation. Processes impacted by complex terrain include large-scale orographic enhancement of snowfall, small-scale processes such as gravitational and wind-induced transport of snow, and variability in the radiative balance such as through terrain shadowing. In this study, a multi-scale modelling approach is proposed to simulate the temporal and spatial evolution of high-mountain snowpacks. The multi-scale approach combines atmospheric data from a numerical weather prediction system at the kilometre scale with process-based downscaling techniques to drive the Canadian Hydrological Model (CHM) at spatial resolutions allowing for explicit snow redistribution modelling. CHM permits a variable spatial resolution by using the efficient terrain representation by unstructured triangular meshes. The model simulates processes such as radiation shadowing and irradiance to slopes, blowing-snow transport (saltation and suspension) and sublimation, avalanching, forest canopy interception and sublimation, and snowpack melt. Short-term, kilometre-scale atmospheric forecasts from Environment and Climate Change Canada's Global Environmental Multiscale Model through its High Resolution Deterministic Prediction System (HRDPS) drive CHM and are downscaled to the unstructured mesh scale. In particular, a new wind-downscaling strategy uses pre-computed wind fields from a mass-conserving wind model at 50 m resolution to perturb the mesoscale HRDPS wind and to account for the influence of topographic features on wind direction and speed. HRDPS-CHM was applied to simulate snow conditions down to 50 m resolution during winter 2017/2018 in a domain around the Kananaskis Valley (∼1000 km2) in the Canadian Rockies. Simulations were evaluated using high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) snow depth data and snow persistence indexes derived from remotely sensed imagery. Results ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
V. Vionnet C. B. Marsh B. Menounos S. Gascoin N. E. Wayand J. Shea K. Mukherjee J. W. Pomeroy |
author_facet |
V. Vionnet C. B. Marsh B. Menounos S. Gascoin N. E. Wayand J. Shea K. Mukherjee J. W. Pomeroy |
author_sort |
V. Vionnet |
title |
Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
title_short |
Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
title_full |
Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
title_fullStr |
Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
title_full_unstemmed |
Multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
title_sort |
multi-scale snowdrift-permitting modelling of mountain snowpack |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/743/2021/tc-15-743-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 |
genre |
The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 15, Pp 743-769 (2021) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/743/2021/tc-15-743-2021.pdf https://doaj.org/article/f8ba05637e2b4b8083f7b631640d3676 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-743-2021 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
743 |
op_container_end_page |
769 |
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1766216367065792512 |