A study of snow metamorphism: II Observation and simulation

Abstract

An inspection of the snow metamorphism model (Yamazaki et al. 1991) was performed. Calculated diurnal variation patterns of profiles of snow temperature, water content and other components were in agreement with observations at Zao Bodaira, Yamagata prefecture. Moreover, snow metamorphism was simulated for 90 days with the meteorological data and snow pit observations at the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido university, and the meteorological data at Sapporo District Meteorological Observatory. It was found that the model was able to simulate long period variations of albedo, snow depth, snow water-equivalent and snow density profile.