Parameterization of snow albedo

Abstract

Snow albedo was parameterized with the surface snow density in the top 5 cm of snow cover. In the model the effects of impurities and liquid water content in the snow cover is considered. Good agreement was found between the calculated albedo and the observed one within ±0.05. Combining this model with a snow density model (Kondo and Numata, 1988) the snow albedo can be expressed as functions of the number of days and the mean air temperature after the last snowfall.