JP4.24a
Snowpack advances in the Noah land-surface model
Michael Ek, NOAA/NWS/NCEP, Suitland, MD; and K. Mitchell, D. Lohmann, and H. Wei
Excessive snow ablation in the early spring has been noted in offline tests of the Noah land-surface model. To address this rapid snow melt and sublimation, new snowpack formulations are being tested. A diurnal albedo correction yields less available energy to melt/sublimate the snowpack during early morning and late afternoon. Under shallow snow conditions, patchy snow cover allows for separate snow sublimation and non-snow-covered evaporation, and thus reduced snow sublimation and less snowpack depletion. These and other updates to Noah LSM snowpack physics will first be evaluated in offline tests, then in coupled tests with the NCEP mesoscale Eta model during the late winter/early spring when snowpack is diminishing. These snowpack updates will also be tested in the Noah LSM coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.
Joint Poster Session 4, Land-Atmosphere Interactions Posters (Joint with the 15th Symp. on Global Change and Climate Variations and 18th Conf. on Hydrology; Hall 4AB)
Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 9:45 AM-9:45 AM, Hall 4AB
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