A distributed model of blowing snow over complex terrain

Essery, Richard; Li, Long; Pomeroy, John W.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(199910)13:14/15<2423::aid-hyp853>3.0.co;2-u

Cited by 195 publications

(224 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…8). Similar sheltering effects on snow distribution are observed from 21 detailed snow surveys over 11 years in RCEW , in arctic tundra (Essery et al, 1999), and in alpine and boreal forests .…”

Section: Spatiotemporal Differences In Snow Distribution and Water Avsupporting

confidence: 75%

A Process-Based Application of State-and-Transition Models: A Case Study of Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) Encroachment

Petersen

Stringham

Roundy

2009

Rangeland Ecology & Management

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Section: Spatiotemporal Differences In Snow Distribution and Water Avsupporting

confidence: 75%

A Process-Based Application of State-and-Transition Models: A Case Study of Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) Encroachment

Petersen

Stringham

Roundy

2009

Rangeland Ecology & Management

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“…This assumption is appropriate at this location. Snow transport rates scale approximately with the fourth power of wind speed (Pomeroy and Male, 1992;Essery et al, 1999). Fig.…”

Section: Fisera Ridge Parameterizationmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The large scale application of these models in mountain and polar environments precludes a finely distributed approach such as those employed for small basins (e.g. Liston and Sturm, 1998;Essery et al, 1999) and some form of landscape aggregation is necessary. Given suitable single column estimates of snow transport and sublimation, a particular difficulty lies in discretizing blowing snow erosion and deposition zones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the importance of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

MacDonald

Pomeroy

Pietroniro

2010

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

124

130

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Abstract.A modelling study was undertaken to evaluate the contribution of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Snow redistribution and sublimation by wind, snowpack sublimation and snowmelt were simulated for two winters over an alpine ridge transect located in the Canada Rocky Mountains. The resulting snowcover regimes were compared to those from manual snow surveys. Simulations were performed using physically based blowing snow (PBSM) and snowpack ablation (SNOBAL) models. A hydrological response unit (HRU)-based spatial discretization was used rather than a more computationally expensive fully-distributed one. The HRUs were set up to follow an aerodynamic sequence, whereby eroded snow was transported from windswept, upwind HRUs to drift accumulating, downwind HRUs. That snow redistribution by wind can be adequately simulated in computationally efficient HRUs over this ridge has important implications for representing snow transport in large-scale hydrology models and land surface schemes. Alpine snow sublimation losses, in particular blowing snow sublimation losses, were significant. Snow mass losses to sublimation as a percentage of cumulative snowfall were estimated to be 20-32% with the blowing snow sublimation loss amounting to 17-19% of cumulative snowfall. This estimate is considered to be a conservative estimate of the blowing snow sublimation loss in the Canadian Rocky Mountains because the study transect is located in the low alpine zone where the topography is Correspondence to: J. W. Pomeroy (john.pomeroy@usask.ca) more moderate than the high alpine zone and windflow separation was not observed. An examination of the suitability of PBSM's sublimation estimates in this environment and of the importance of estimating blowing snow sublimation on the simulated snow accumulation regime was conducted by omitting sublimation calculations. Snow accumulation in HRUs was overestimated by 30% when neglecting blowing snow sublimation calculations.

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“…The assumption causes the drift transport to be higher behind bare ground areas than observed in nature. Takeuchi (1980) estimates the distance needed to achieve an equilibrium snowdrift profile to be 200-400 m. The effect of the needed fetch was included in models by Pomeroy et al (1997), Liston and Sturm (1998) and Essery et al (1999) and has to be implemented in future versions of the model. 3.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution snow distribution data from complex Arctic terrain: a tool for model validation

Jaedicke¹,

Sandvik

2002

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Blowing snow and snow drifts are common features in the Arctic. Due to sparse vegetation, low temperatures and high wind speeds, the snow is constantly moving. This causes severe problems for transportation and infrastructure in the affected areas. To minimise the effect of drifting snow already in the designing phase of new structures, adequate models have to be developed and tested. In this study, snow distribution in Arctic topography is surveyed in two study areas during the spring of 1999 and 2000. Snow depth is measured by ground penetrating radar and manual methods. The study areas encompass four by four kilometres and are partly glaciated. The results of the surveys show a clear pattern of erosion, accumulation areas and the evolution of the snow cover over time. This high resolution data set is valuable for the validation of numerical models. A simple numerical snow drift model was used to simulate the measured snow distribution in one of the areas for the winter of 1998/1999. The model is a two-level drift model coupled to the wind field, generated by a mesoscale meteorological model. The simulations are based on five wind fields from the dominating wind directions. The model produces a satisfying snow distribution but fails to reproduce the details of the observed snow cover. The results clearly demonstrate the importance of quality field data to detect and analyse errors in numerical simulations.

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A distributed model of blowing snow over complex terrain

Cited by 195 publications

References 22 publications

A Process-Based Application of State-and-Transition Models: A Case Study of Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) Encroachment

A Process-Based Application of State-and-Transition Models: A Case Study of Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) Encroachment

On the importance of sublimation to an alpine snow mass balance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

High resolution snow distribution data from complex Arctic terrain: a tool for model validation

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