Snow cover and snow mass intercomparisons of general circulation models and remotely sensed datasets

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Journal of Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1996)009<0409:SCASMI>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:379134

Foster, J; Liston, G; Koster, R ^[1]

---

1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); and others

Confirmation of the ability of general circulation models (GCMs) to accurately represent snow cover and snow mass distributions is vital for climate studies. There must be a high degree of confidence that what is being predicted by the models is reliable. In this study, snow output from seven GCMs and passive-microwave snow data derived from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) are intercompared. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite data are used as the standard of reference for snow extent observations and the U.S. Air Force snow depth climatology is used as the standard for snow mass. The reliability of the SMMR snow data needs to be verified, as well. Data for both North America and Eurasia are examined in an effort to assess the magnitude of spatial and temporal variations that exist between the standards of reference, the models, and the passive microwave data. Results indicate that both the models and SMMR represent seasonal and year-to-year snow distributions fairly well. The passive microwave data and several of the models, however, consistently underestimate snow mass, but other models overestimate the mass of snow on the ground. The models do a better job simulating winter and summer snow conditions than in the transition months. In general, the underestimation by SMR is caused by absorption of microwave energy by vegetation. For the GCMs, differences between observed snow conditions can be ascribed to inaccuracies in simulating surface air temperatures and precipitation fields, especially during the spring and fall. 34 refs., 18 figs.

• OSTI ID: 379134
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 9; ISSN JLCLEL; ISSN 0894-8755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
EVALUATION
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
MONTHLY VARIATIONS
REMOTE SENSING
SNOW