Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau
<p>Snow albedo is important to the land surface energy balance and to the water cycle. During snowfall and subsequent snowmelt, snow albedo is usually parameterized as functions of snow-related variables in land surface models. However, the default snow albedo scheme in the widely used Noah la...
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Copernicus Publications
2021-09-01
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Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
Online Access: | https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/4967/2021/hess-25-4967-2021.pdf |
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DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
L. Liu L. Liu Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma M. Menenti M. Menenti R. Su R. Su R. Su N. Yao N. Yao N. Yao W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma |
spellingShingle |
L. Liu L. Liu Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma M. Menenti M. Menenti R. Su R. Su R. Su N. Yao N. Yao N. Yao W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
author_facet |
L. Liu L. Liu Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma Y. Ma M. Menenti M. Menenti R. Su R. Su R. Su N. Yao N. Yao N. Yao W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma W. Ma |
author_sort |
L. Liu |
title |
Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau |
title_short |
Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau |
title_full |
Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau |
title_fullStr |
Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan Plateau |
title_sort |
improved parameterization of snow albedo in noah coupled with weather research and forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the tibetan plateau |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
series |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
issn |
1027-5606 1607-7938 |
publishDate |
2021-09-01 |
description |
<p>Snow albedo is important to the land surface energy balance and to the water
cycle. During snowfall and subsequent snowmelt, snow albedo is usually
parameterized as functions of snow-related variables in land surface models. However, the default snow albedo scheme in the widely used Noah land surface model shows evident shortcomings in land–atmosphere interaction estimates during snow events on the Tibetan Plateau. Here, we demonstrate that our
improved snow albedo scheme performs well after including snow depth as an additional factor. By coupling the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Noah models, this study comprehensively evaluates the performance of the improved snow albedo scheme in simulating eight snow events on the Tibetan Plateau. The modeling results
are compared with WRF run with the default Noah scheme and in situ
observations. The improved snow albedo scheme significantly outperforms the default Noah scheme in relation to air temperature, albedo and sensible heat flux estimates by alleviating cold bias estimates, albedo overestimates and sensible heat flux underestimates, respectively. This in turn contributes to
more accurate reproductions of snow event evolution. The averaged root mean square error (RMSE) relative reductions (and relative increase in correlation coefficients) for
air temperature, albedo, sensible heat flux and snow depth reach 27 % (5 %), 32 % (69 %), 13 % (17 %) and 21 % (108 %), respectively. These results demonstrate the strong potential of our improved
snow albedo parameterization scheme for snow event simulations on the Tibetan Plateau. Our study provides a theoretical reference for researchers committed to further improving the snow albedo parameterization scheme.</p> |
url |
https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/4967/2021/hess-25-4967-2021.pdf |
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doaj-d6e615e4a352477bbe3826fa2618c9bf2021-09-10T05:52:07ZengCopernicus PublicationsHydrology and Earth System Sciences1027-56061607-79382021-09-01254967498110.5194/hess-25-4967-2021Improved parameterization of snow albedo in Noah coupled with Weather Research and Forecasting: applicability to snow estimates for the Tibetan PlateauL. Liu0L. Liu1Y. Ma2Y. Ma3Y. Ma4Y. Ma5M. Menenti6M. Menenti7R. Su8R. Su9R. Su10N. Yao11N. Yao12N. Yao13W. Ma14W. Ma15W. Ma16W. Ma17Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaLand–Atmosphere Interaction and its Climatic Effects Group, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaKey Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaLand–Atmosphere Interaction and its Climatic Effects Group, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCollege of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaDepartment of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the NetherlandsKey Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaLand–Atmosphere Interaction and its Climatic Effects Group, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCollege of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, ChinaKey Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaLand–Atmosphere Interaction and its Climatic Effects Group, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCollege of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, ChinaKey Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaLand–Atmosphere Interaction and its Climatic Effects Group, State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, ChinaCollege of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China<p>Snow albedo is important to the land surface energy balance and to the water cycle. During snowfall and subsequent snowmelt, snow albedo is usually parameterized as functions of snow-related variables in land surface models. However, the default snow albedo scheme in the widely used Noah land surface model shows evident shortcomings in land–atmosphere interaction estimates during snow events on the Tibetan Plateau. Here, we demonstrate that our improved snow albedo scheme performs well after including snow depth as an additional factor. By coupling the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Noah models, this study comprehensively evaluates the performance of the improved snow albedo scheme in simulating eight snow events on the Tibetan Plateau. The modeling results are compared with WRF run with the default Noah scheme and in situ observations. The improved snow albedo scheme significantly outperforms the default Noah scheme in relation to air temperature, albedo and sensible heat flux estimates by alleviating cold bias estimates, albedo overestimates and sensible heat flux underestimates, respectively. This in turn contributes to more accurate reproductions of snow event evolution. The averaged root mean square error (RMSE) relative reductions (and relative increase in correlation coefficients) for air temperature, albedo, sensible heat flux and snow depth reach 27 % (5 %), 32 % (69 %), 13 % (17 %) and 21 % (108 %), respectively. These results demonstrate the strong potential of our improved snow albedo parameterization scheme for snow event simulations on the Tibetan Plateau. Our study provides a theoretical reference for researchers committed to further improving the snow albedo parameterization scheme.</p>https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/4967/2021/hess-25-4967-2021.pdf |