What Causes the Unobserved Early‐Spring Snowpack Ablation in Convection‐Permitting WRF Modeling Over Utah Mountains?

Abstract

In the western United States (U.S.), snowmelt contributes to more than 50% of total runoff (Li et al., 2017), which provides freshwater supply to large populations. Over the past decades, the western U.S.

Evaluation and Optimization of Snow Albedo Scheme in Noah‐MP Land Surface Model Using In Situ Spectral Observations in the Colorado Rockies

“…Noah‐MP simulations conducted in this analysis use model‐physics options from the WRF/Noah‐MP options used in the continental‐scale convection‐permitting regional climate simulations (He et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2017), except the BATS scheme is chosen to compute snow albedo instead of CLASS. Noah‐MP snow‐related parameters follow the values used in the recent release of WRF/Noah‐MP version 4.3 (https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF/tree/release-v4.3), where the snow cover parameter has been updated to improve simulated surface albedo and temperature (He et al., 2021). Leaf and stem area indices (LAI and SAI) are classified by vegetation type based on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) monthly climatology from 2000 to 2008 (Yang et al., 2011).…”

“…Broadband snow albedo frequently varies from 0.5 to 0.9, and thus modulates the rate of ablation. Simulated errors in snowpack evolution from the widely used Noah with Multi‐Parameterization (Noah‐MP) LSM (Niu et al., 2011) have been determined to heavily rely on the accuracy of simulated snow albedo (Abolafia‐Rosenzweig et al., 2021; Bryant et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2014; He et al., 2021; Jiang et al., 2019). Furthermore, snow albedo has a significant positive feedback in the climate system: warmer temperatures are expected to reduce snow cover extent, which in turn will decrease the overall land surface albedo favoring even higher land surface temperatures (Gao et al., 2017, 2018; Qu & Hall, 2014).…”

Modernizing the open-source community Noah-MP land surface model (version 5.0) with enhanced modularity, interoperability, and applicability

“…Since the release of the original Noah-MP in year 2011 (Niu et al, 2011) 3) tile drainage schemes (Valayamkunnath et al, 2022); (4) dynamic irrigation schemes (sprinkler, micro, and flooding irrigation) (Valayamkunnath et al, 2021); (5) a dynamic crop growth model for corn and soybean (Liu et al, 2016) with enhanced C3 and C4 crop parameters (Zhang et al, 2020); (6) coupling with urban canopy models (Xu et al, 2018;Salamanca et al, 2018) with local climate zone modeling capabilities (Zonato et al, 2021); (7) enhanced snow cover, snow compaction, and wind-canopy absorption parameters (He et al, 2021);…”

Evaluation of snow depth from multiple observation-based, reanalysis, and regional climate model datasets over a low-altitude Central European region

“…The con guration is based on our preliminary sensitivity studies and further test experiments (Varga and Breuer 2020). Surface snow processes in the RCM simulations are accounted for using the Noah-MP LSM, which consists of an advanced 3-layer snow model that describes the evolution and physical mechanisms of the snowpack and predicts snow depth values (Niu et al 2011;He et al 2021). Noah-MP offers numerous adjustable options to represent different land-surface processes, some of them directly affecting snow variables.…”

“…It has been indicated, however, that kilometer-scale regional climate models (RCMs) might be needed to resolve important local-scale processes affecting snow accumulation, evolution, and ablation, especially over areas with complex topography (Ikeda et al 2010). Accordingly, numerous studies evaluated the performance of convection-permitting RCMs over mountainous terrain (e.g., Wang et al 2018;He et al 2021;Minder et al 2016). RCMs with horizontal grid spacings of the order of 10 km have also been assessed for snow variables (e.g., Klehmet et al 2013;Terzago et al 2017;McCrary et al 2017;Matiu et al 2019).…”