The atmospheric snow-transport model: SnowDrift3D

Abstract

SnowDrift3D, a high-resolution, atmospheric snow-transport model, is presented for the first time. In contrast to most state-of-the-art snowdrift models, atmospheric particle transport, i.e. saltation and suspension, is accounted for by one passive transport equation. The model uses unsteady wind fields (spatial resolution of up to 2m) computed with an atmospheric computational fluid dynamics model that is directly connected to the numerical weather prediction model ALADIN. Sensitivity runs show that (1) the saltation mass flux is a function of cubic shear velocity, u3*, (2) the model is marginally sensitive to the grid spacing at high resolutions (up to 2m), (3) the model computes the redistribution of snow at high resolution in real time on dual core personal computers and (4) the changing topography of the snow cover should be included in cases of local erosion or deposition of a large amount of snow. Finally, we present a comparison of modeled and measured snow distributions obtained by terrestrial laser scanning showing area-wide linear correlation up to R =0.33.