An Energy Budget Algorithm for a Snowpack-Snowmelt Calculation

Jeonghoon Lee, Kyung-Seok Ko

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Understanding snowmelt movement to the watershed is crucial for both climate change and hydrological studies because the snowmelt is a significant component of groundwater and surface runoff in temperature area. In this work, a new energy balance budget algorithm has been developed for melting snow from a snowpack at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory (CSSL) in California, US. Using two sets of experiments, artificial rain-on-snow experiments and observations of diel variations, carried out in the winter of 2002 and 2003, we investigate how to calculate the amount of snowmelt from the snowpack using radiation energy and air temperature. To address the effect of air temperature, we calculate the integrated daily solar radiation energy input, and the integrated discharge of snowmelt under the snowpack and the energy required to generate such an amount of meltwater. The difference between the two is the excess (or deficit) energy input and we compare this energy to the average daily temperature. The resulting empirical relationship is used to calculate the instantaneous snowmelt rate in the model used by Lee et al. (2008a; 2010), in addition to the net-short radiation. If for a given 10 minute interval, the energy obtained by the melt calculation is negative, then no melt is generated. The input energy from the sun is considered to be used to increase the temperature of the snowpack. Positive energy is used for melting snow for the 10-minute interval. Using this energy budget algorithm, we optimize the intrinsic permeability of the snowpack for the two sets of experiments using one-dimensional water percolation model, which are 52.5 × 10 −10 m 2 and 75 × 10 −10 m 2 for the artificial rain-on-snow experiments and observations of diel variation, respectively. 1. 서 언 최근 들어 한반도에서도 겨울철에 폭설에 의한 기상 이 변이 자주 발생하고 있으며, 이러한 기후변화와 관련하여 수문순환계(water cycle system)에서 눈의 역할은 그 중 요성이 점점 강조되고 있다(염종민 외, 2009; 박영윤 외, 2010; Lee et al., 2010). 산간지역 수계(mountain watershed hydrology)에 대한 기후변동의 영향은 산간지역 주변에만 미치는 것이 아니라 농업, 공업 및 생활용 물 수요를 산악지역 수계에 의존하는 인구밀도가 높은 대부 분의 도시에도 영향을 주게 된다. 강우와는 달리 눈은 겨 울철에 산악지역에 쌓여 있다가 봄이 되면 녹아서 생태계 나 수계로 많은 양의 물을 한꺼번에 배출하기 때문에 홍 수나 이온펄스(ionic pusle) 같은 많은 환경적인 문제를 일으키기도 한다(Bales et al., 1989). 전 지구적으로 물에 대한 수요는 지속적으로 증가하고 있으며, 특히 미국 서 부지역과 같이 물이 부족한 지역에서는 봄철의 눈이 녹은 물 즉 융설(snowmelt)의 유출은 매우 중요한 것으로 여겨
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)82-89
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
Volume16
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Oct 2011

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