1. A Drifting and Blowing Snow Scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model.
- Author
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Saigger, Manuel, Sauter, Tobias, Schmid, Christina, Collier, Emily, Goger, Brigitta, Kaser, Georg, Prinz, Rainer, Voordendag, Annelies, and Mölg, Thomas
- Subjects
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METEOROLOGICAL research , *WEATHER forecasting , *ATMOSPHERIC models , *SNOW accumulation , *EROSION , *GLACIERS , *ALPINE glaciers - Abstract
Wind‐driven redistribution of surface snow is one of the key factors leading to heterogeneous accumulation of snow at small scales. Understanding the processes that lead to this heterogeneous accumulation is, therefore, of great importance to many glaciological and hydrological questions. High‐quality information on the wind field is necessary to realistically represent drifting snow. Here, we introduce a novel, intermediate‐complexity drifting and blowing snow module for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model that integrates seamlessly into the standard WRF infrastructure. The module also accounts for snow particle sublimation and considers the thermodynamic feedback on the atmospheric fields. In an idealized model environment the module was tested for physical consistency. Sensitivity experiments showed that drifting snow sublimation has on the one hand local effects on the erosion and deposition patterns and on the other hand non‐local effects on the larger‐scale atmosphere. The simple and computationally efficient implementation allows this module to be used for small‐scale and large‐scale simulations in polar and glaciated regions. Plain Language Summary: Transport of snow by the wind can have high impact on local glacier mass changes as it leads to non‐uniform amounts of snow on the ground. In order to simulate and better understand this process we introduce a new modeling framework that is included into a widely used atmospheric model. Test simulations and sensitivity experiments show the physical consistency of the model. Complex interactions between different processes like snow erosion, drifting snow sublimation and the wind field show the necessity of coupling the snow and atmospheric models. Key Points: We introduce a new module to simulate drifting snow within the framework of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modelThe module is tested in an idealized setting for physical consistencyWe show that local sublimational cooling has larger‐scale non‐local effects on the wind field [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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