Snow melting estimate in the Jozankei Dam basin based on snowpack simulation

Abstract

A physical snowpack model was forced by observed meteorological data to map the snow melting distribution over the Jozankei Dam basin, Sapporo, Japan. First, the snowpack model experiment forced by radar precipitation reasonably reproduced the snow environment in the basin, although it underestimated the snow depth in the northern area. Second, the map of the basin showed that the average difference in snowmelt was 22 days between upstream and downstream. On the other hand, the timing when melt forms become dominant in the snow layer was little affected by altitude and precipitation, and the dam inflow attained the peak 35 to 40 days after then.