A Simple Temperature-Based Method to Estimate Heterogeneous
Frozen Ground within a Distributed Watershed Model

Follum, Michael L.; Niemann, Jeffrey D.; Parno, Julie; Downer, Charles Downer

doi:10.5194/hess-2017-345

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“… K v for evergreen forest K v ,evergreen is set to 1 in this study following Follum et al (). At Sleepers River Experimental Watershed in Vermont (a predominantly deciduous forest), Follum et al () set K v for deciduous forest K v ,deciduous equal to 0.969. The deciduous forest is sparse at SBB and has limited canopy in the winter, therefore K v ,deciduous is set to 1 in this study.…”

Section: Model Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proxy temperature is derived from a simple radiation balance that is calculated using readily available elevation, land cover, temperature, and cloud cover data. The RTI method has been shown to produce better estimates of snow‐covered area (SCA) than the TI method for the Senator Beck Basin (SBB) in Colorado (Follum et al, ) and had similar accuracy as the TI model in snow water equivalent (SWE) estimation at two observation points for the Sleepers River experimental watershed in Vermont (Follum, Niemann, Parno, & Downer, ). However, neither study considered whether the snowmelt hydrograph differed between the TI or RTI approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A comparison of snowmelt‐derived streamflow from temperature‐index and modified‐temperature‐index snow models

Follum

Niemann

Fassnacht

2019

Hydrological Processes

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Reliable estimation of the volume and timing of snowmelt runoff is vital for water supply and flood forecasting in snow‐dominated regions. Snowmelt is often simulated using temperature‐index (TI) models due to their applicability in data‐sparse environments. Previous research has shown that a modified‐TI model, which uses a radiation‐derived proxy temperature instead of air temperature as its surrogate for available energy, can produce more accurate snow‐covered area (SCA) maps than a traditional TI model. However, it is unclear whether the improved SCA maps are associated with improved snow water equivalent (SWE) estimation across the watershed or improved snowmelt‐derived streamflow simulation. This paper evaluates whether a modified‐TI model produces better streamflow estimates than a TI model when they are used within a fully distributed hydrologic model. It further evaluates the performance of the two models when they are calibrated using either point SWE measurements or SCA maps. The Senator Beck Basin in Colorado is used as the study site because its surface is largely bedrock, which reduces the role of infiltration and emphasizes the role of the SWE pattern on streamflow generation. Streamflow is simulated using both models for 6 years. The modified‐TI model produces more accurate streamflow estimates (including flow volume and peak flow rate) than the TI model, likely because the modified‐TI model better reproduces the SWE pattern across the watershed. Both models also produce better performance when calibrated with SCA maps instead of point SWE data, likely because the SCA maps better constrain the space‐time pattern of SWE.

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