Impact of Rain Snow Threshold Temperature on Snow Depth Simulation in Land Surface and Regional Atmospheric Models

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 1449 - 1460
• Main Author: 文莉娟 Nidhi NAGABHATLA 吕世华 Shih-Yu WANG
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2013; Springer Nature B.V; Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions,Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000; Laboratory of Arid Climatic Changing and Reducing Disaster of Gansu Province,Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000%Institut für Umweltplanung, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universit(a)t, Hannover, 30419, Germany%Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions,Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000%Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA
• Subjects: Atmospheric models; Atmospheric Sciences; Computer simulation; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; Land; Mathematical models; Meteorology; Pipes; Rain; RST; Simulation; Snow; Snow depth; Temperature; Terrain; Thresholds; 地表面; 大气模式; 模拟; 积雪深度; 阈值温度; 雨雪; 预报模型; RST temperature; WRF_CLM; snow simulation; CLM
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-012-2192-7

This study investigates the impact of rain snow threshold （RST） temperatures on snow depth simulation using the Community Land Model （CLM） and the Weather Research and Forecasting model （WRF--coupled with the CLM and hereafter referred to as WRF_CLM）, and the difference in impacts. Simulations were performed from 17 December 1994 to 30 May 1995 in the French Alps. Results showed that both the CLM and the WRF_CLM were able to represent a fair simulation of snow depth with actual terrain height and 2.5~C RST temperature. When six RST methods were applied to the simulation using WRF_CLM, the simulated snow depth was the closest to observations using 2.5~C RST temperature, followed by that with Pipes＇, USACE, Kienzle＇s, Dai＇s, and 0~C RST temperature methods. In the case of using CLM, simulated snow depth was the closest to the observation with Dai＇s method, followed by with USACE, Pipes＇, 2.5~C RST temperature, Kienzle＇s, and 0~C RST temperature method. The snow depth simulation using the WRF_CLM was comparatively sensitive to changes in RST temperatures, because the RST temperature was not only the factor to partition snow and rainfall. In addition, the simulated snow related to RST temperature could induce a significant feedback by influencing the meteorological variables forcing the land surface model in WRF_CLM. In comparison, the above variables did not change with changes in RST in CLM. Impacts of RST temperatures on snow depth simulation could also be influenced by the patterns of temperature and precipitation, spatial resolution, and input terrain heights.