No abstract

[1] Snowmelt runoff in high latitudes has significant impacts on global climatic and hydrologic systems. Snowmelt timing and snow water equivalent (SWE) from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) are inputs to the new flux-based SWEHydro model to simulate the spring streamflow without meteorological data for high-latitude, snow-dominated drainages. The model was developed for the Ross River (7250 km 2 ) and tested on the Pelly River (49,000 km 2 ), nested tributaries to the Yukon River. The model uses four parameters: snowmelt rate during and after the melt transition (as defined by passive microwave observations), and flow timing during and after the melt transition. A normalized mismatch function was used to calculate the error compared with observed discharge. Curves were ranked by lowest error in freshet timing, peak timing, and magnitude. Melt timing is a good predictor of freshet timing across years and basins. The system is most sensitive to the flow timing after the transition.