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Snowdrift scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting model
  • +6
  • Manuel Saigger,
  • Tobias Sauter,
  • Christina Schmid,
  • Emily Collier,
  • Brigitta Goger,
  • Georg Kaser,
  • Rainer Prinz,
  • Annelies Voordendag,
  • Thomas Mölg
Manuel Saigger
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Tobias Sauter
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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Christina Schmid
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
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Emily Collier
University of Innsbruck
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Brigitta Goger
Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM), ETH Zurich
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Georg Kaser
University of Innsbruck
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Rainer Prinz
University of Graz
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Annelies Voordendag
Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, Universität Innsbruck
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Thomas Mölg
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
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Abstract

Wind-driven redistribution of snow is one of the key factors leading to heterogeneous accumulation of snow at small scales. Understanding these processes 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. The module was tested in an idealized model environment. The simple and computationally efficient implementation allows this module to be used for small-scale and large-scale simulations in polar and glaciated regions.
19 Sep 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
17 Oct 2023Published in ESS Open Archive