Improving the degree-day method for sub-daily melt simulations with physically-based diurnal variations

Tobin, Cara; Schaefli, Bettina; Nicótina, Ludovico; Simoni, Silvia; Barrenetxea, Guillermo; Smith, Russell S.; Parlange, Marc B.; Rinaldo, Andrea

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.08.008

Cited by 39 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…with factors for radiation melt a r (mm W −1 h −1 ), temperature melt a t and freezing a f (mm • C −1 h −1 ) which are typically linearly related with a f ≤ a t (Tobin et al, 2013). M i cannot be larger than the amount of solid snow in the pack and the amount of freezing water cannot exceed the amount of water in the snow.…”

Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the site-specific degree-day parameters need to be assessed (Bentsson, 1984). In SUEWS, the second approach is used via a radiationtemperature index for each surface type i (Kustas et al, 1994;Semadeni-Davies et al, 2001;Tobin et al, 2013). Snowmelt induced runoff is delayed by the re-freezing of melted water (Bengtsson, 1982), particularly in spring, when the diurnal variations in air and snow surface temperatures are large.…”

Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Modelling studies of cold cities are focused on a few sites mainly in North America (e.g. Valeo and Ho, 2004;Lemonsu et al, 2010;Leroyer et al, 2010) and Scandinavia (e.g. Semádeni-Davies et al, 1998).…”

Section: Järvi Et Al: Development Of Suews For Cold Climate Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Martinec, 1989;Tobin et al, 2013): (1) the energy balance method, where M is calculated as a residual from the other energy balance components and (2) the degree-day method where M is calculated using daily or hourly air temperatures and possibly solar radiation. Although the first is more physically based it requires more input variables, whereas the latter uses more readily available variables.…”

Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) for cold climate cities

et al. 2014

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Abstract. The Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is developed to include snow. The processes addressed include accumulation of snow on the different urban surface types: snow albedo and density aging, snow melting and re-freezing of meltwater. Individual model parameters are assessed and independently evaluated using long-term observations in the two cold climate cities of Helsinki and Montreal. Eddy covariance sensible and latent heat fluxes and snow depth observations are available for two sites in Montreal and one in Helsinki. Surface runoff from two catchments (24 and 45 ha) in Helsinki and snow properties (albedo and density) from two sites in Montreal are also analysed. As multiple observation sites with different land-cover characteristics are available in both cities, model development is conducted independent of evaluation.The developed model simulates snowmelt related runoff well (within 19 % and 3 % for the two catchments in Helsinki when there is snow on the ground), with the springtime peak estimated correctly. However, the observed runoff peaks tend to be smoother than the simulated ones, likely due to the water holding capacity of the catchments and the missing time lag between the catchment and the observation point in the model. For all three sites the model simulates the timing of the snow accumulation and melt events well, but underestimates the total snow depth by 18-20 % in Helsinki and 29-33 % in Montreal. The model is able to reproduce the diurnal pattern of net radiation and turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat during cold snow, melting snow and snowfree periods. The largest model uncertainties are related to the timing of the melting period and the parameterization of the snowmelt. The results show that the enhanced model can simulate correctly the exchange of energy and water in cold climate cities at sites with varying surface cover.

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Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Järvi Et Al: Development Of Suews For Cold Climate Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Energy For Melting and Freezingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) for cold climate cities

et al. 2014

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“…The energy balance approach explicitly models all components of the surface energy balance, and temperatureindexed-modelling considers temperature as the main variable controlling melt (Hock, 2003;Tobin et al, 2013). Numerous studies have attempted to model the melt water discharge using a positive degree day approach (Kayastha et al, 2000a(Kayastha et al, , 2005.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modified temperature index model for estimating the melt water discharge from debris-covered Lirung Glacier, Nepal

Parajuli¹,

Chand²,

Kayastha³

et al. 2015

Proc. IAHS

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In the Nepalese Himalayas, the complex topography, occurrence of debris covered glaciers, and limited data availability creates substantial difficulties for modelling glacier melt. The proper recognition of melt processes governs the accurate estimation of melt water from glacier dominated systems, even in the presence of debris-covered glaciers. This paper presents a glacier melt model developed for the Lirung subbasin of Langtang valley, which has both a clean glacier area, 5.86 km 2 , and a debris-covered glacier area, 1.13 km 2 . We use a temperature index approach to estimate sub-daily melt water discharge for a two week period at the end of monsoon, and the melt factor is varied according to the aspect and distributed to each grid processed from the digital elevation model. The model uses easily available data and simple extrapolation techniques capable of generating melt with limited data. The result obtained from this method provides accurate estimate with an R 2 value of 0.89, bias of 0.9% and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.86, and suitable in Himalaya where data availability is major issue.

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Assimilation of point SWE data into a distributed snow cover model comparing two contrasting methods

Magnusson¹,

Gustafsson

Hüsler

et al. 2014

Water Resources Research

105

132

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In alpine and high-latitude regions, water resource decision making often requires large-scale estimates of snow amounts and melt rates. Such estimates are available through distributed snow models which in some situations can be improved by assimilation of remote sensing observations. However, in regions with frequent cloud cover, complex topography, or large snow amounts satellite observations may feature information of limited quality. In this study, we examine whether assimilation of snow water equivalent (SWE) data from ground observations can improve model simulations in a region largely lacking reliable remote sensing observations. We combine the model output with the point data using three-dimensional sequential data assimilation methods, the ensemble Kalman filter, and statistical interpolation. The filter performance was assessed by comparing the simulation results against observed SWE and snow-covered fraction. We find that a method which assimilates fluxes (snowfall and melt rates computed from SWE) showed higher model performance than a control simulation not utilizing the filter algorithms. However, an alternative approach for updating the model results using the SWE data directly did not show a significantly higher performance than the control simulation. The results show that three-dimensional data assimilation methods can be useful for transferring information from point snow observations to the distributed snow model.

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Improving the degree-day method for sub-daily melt simulations with physically-based diurnal variations

Cited by 39 publications

References 70 publications

Development of the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) for cold climate cities

Development of the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) for cold climate cities

Modified temperature index model for estimating the melt water discharge from debris-covered Lirung Glacier, Nepal

Assimilation of point SWE data into a distributed snow cover model comparing two contrasting methods

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