SnowSlide: A simple routine for calculating gravitational snow transport

Abstract

[1] Knowledge about lateral snow transport processes is essential for the description of the spatial distribution of snow and therefore for the distribution of water on the lands surface. While numerous snow hydrological models are accounting for wind induced snow transport, they are mostly neglecting gravitational snow transport processes. This leads to unrealistic calculations of snow cover distributions in high Alpine regions effecting the subsequent prediction of individual components of the water and energy cycles at the land surface. "SnowSlide" as presented here is a fast and parsimonious model component allowing for the calculation of gravitational snow transport processes in an integral way. The functionality and performance of SnowSlide is demonstrated a) for artificial land surfaces and b) for two winter periods at the Watzmann massif in south-east Germany. It is shown that the integration of SnowSlide into the snow-hydrological model "SnowModel" is significantly improving the prediction of spatially distributed snow patterns in high Alpine areas and therefore generating more realistic descriptions of Alpine water and energy balances.Citation: Bernhardt, M., and K. Schulz (2010), SnowSlide: A simple routine for calculating gravitational snow transport, Geophys.

Elevation correction of ERA-Interim temperature data in complex terrain

“…Method I made use of monthly values of S , which were calculated from the monthly mean maximum and minimum temperature data published by Kunkel (1989) and Liston and Elder (2006) (Table 2). These values have been widely applied in Earth surface modeling and their temporal resolution of one month can be seen as a standard with respect to generalized lapse rates (Bernhardt and Schulz, 2010;Mernild et al, 2009;Liston et al, 2008). Method II used measured data from two meteorological stations for calculating 3-hourly and daily lapse rates.…”

Statistical modelling of the snow depth distribution in open alpine terrain

“…This mapping respects the fact that all data sets are from the alpine zone at or above tree line but that this corresponds to different absolute elevation in the different areas. The slope (SL) represents gravitational processes such as sloughing and avalanching, which can have a significant effect on the snow distribution (Blöschl and Kirnbauer, 1992;Gruber, 2007;Sovilla et al, 2010;Bernhardt and Schulz, 2010). In combination with northing (NO), the slope also describes the amount of solar energy which is available for the ablation and settling of snow.…”

“…McKay and Gray, 1981;Pomeroy and Gray, 1995;Essery et al, 1999;Trujillo et al, 2007;Lehning et al, 2008). Moreover, snow can be relocated by avalanches and sloughing (Blöschl and Kirnbauer, 1992;Gruber, 2007;Bernhardt and Schulz, 2010), and the local radiation and energy balance influence the spatially varying ablation processes (Cline et al, 1998;Pomeroy et al, 1998Pomeroy et al, , 2004Pohl et al, 2006;Mott et al, 2011).…”

Hydrologic vulnerability to climate change of the Mandrone glacier (Adamello-Presanella group, Italian Alps)

“…The winter balance was estimated by interpolating snow water equivalent measurements at the beginning of April with geostatistical methods. To consider the effect of avalanches and gravitational snow transport [11] a 5% increase of the interpolated snow water equivalent was adopted, as estimated on the basis of the area of the steepest mountain slopes surrounding the glacier. The influence of snow transport by wind [22,50,65] was neglected, instead.…”