Site-scale Snow Simulations in Boreal Black Spruce, Jack Pine and Aspen Forests - Multi-model Results for ESM-SnowMIP
Abstract
The interaction between vegetation and snow has a strong influence on snowpack accumulation and ablation. While forest cover can act as a shelter for the seasonal snowpack, forest canopies can also intercept more than half of snowfall, and sublimation losses of intercepted snow in excess of 25% of annual snowfall have been observed. Both forests and snow drastically alter the surface radiation balance. Forest canopies mask the high albedo of a snow-covered ground surface with efficient trapping of solar radiation. Multiple studies have shown that the simulation of the snow masking effect of the boreal forest remains a challenge for many CMIP5 climate models.
Previous SnowMIP (Snow Model Intercomparison Project) efforts examined the ability of land surface models and dedicated snow models to simulate snowpack properties at a small number of open (SnowMIP) and forested (SnowMIP2) sites over limited time scales. The availability of multiannual high quality datasets combined with the development of increasingly complex land surface and snow models affords the opportunity to conduct a more comprehensive assessment of the ability of current models, some of which are employed as land surface components in CMIP6 climate and Earth system models. Here we present a comparison of the performance of more than twenty such land surface and snow models over thirteen annual cycles at three boreal forest sites in Saskatchewan, Canada. We examine simulations of snowpack properties, including snow water equivalent, snowpack density and depth and we present a preliminary comparison of the representation of snow masking by the forest canopy.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.C33B1567B
- Keywords:
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- 0736 Snow;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0740 Snowmelt;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0798 Modeling;
- CRYOSPHERE