A Model Study on Hydro-meteorological Effect of Intercepted Snow

Abstract

Hydro-meteorological effect of intercepted snow has been studied using a one-dimensional model through modeling snow-interception. The interception model has been newly developed to consider snowfall based on an existing rainfall interception model. The model can simulate intercepted snow mass and snow depth on forest floor observed previously at Morioka and Sapporo. When snow-interception is considered, we can find large differences on energy and water budgets compared with the cases of no interception or same treatment with rain. For example, the forest works as a heat source for no interception, however, latent heat is dominant and sensible heat is almost transferred from the atmosphere to vegetation when the intercepted snow is considered. Moreover, the snow cover on the forest floor strongly depends on the treatment of interception. On the other hand, the effect of albedo increasing is transient; it does not produce obvious differences of energy and water budgets in winter average. As a result, we find that it is important to heat and water budgets that snow interception is more in quantity and cooler than rain interception, and it is essential to need much energy for melting and evaporating the intercepted snow.