Name
Snowdrift-permitting simulations of seasonal snowpack processes over large extents
Date & Time
Wednesday, May 29, 2024, 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Description

The melt of seasonal snowpack in mountain regions provides downstream river basins with a critical supply of freshwater. Snowdrift-permitting models (1 m – 250 m resolution) have been proposed to simulate snowpack heterogeneity that stems from differences in energy inputs, over-winter redistribution, sublimation, melt, and variations in precipitation. However, these spatial scales can be computationally intractable for large extents. In this work, the multiscale Canadian Hydrological Model (CHM) was applied to simulate snowpacks at snowdrift-permitting scales (≈ 50 m) across the Canadian Cordillera and adjacent regions (1.37 million km^2) forced by downscaled atmospheric data. Model outputs were compared to a set of multiscale observations including snow-covered area (SCA) from Sentinel and Landsat imagery, snow depth from uncrewed aerial system lidar, and point surface observations of depth and density. The multiscale approach reduced computational elements by 98%. Including snow redistribution processes improved the summer SCA r^2 from 0.7 to 0.9. At larger scales, inclusion of snow redistribution processes delayed full snowpack ablation by an average of 33 days. These simulations show how multiscale modelling can improve snowpack predictions to support prediction of water supply.

Location Name
Conference Room - 2224
Full Address
Carleton University - Richcraft Hall
1125 Colonel By Dr
Ottawa ON K1S 5B6
Canada
Session Type
Breakout Session