The Cryosphere Discussions www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net 1994-0432 1994-0440 3 3 2009 10.5194/tcd-3-681-2009 http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/681/2009/ http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/681/2009/tcd-3-681-2009.html http://www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/3/681/2009/tcd-3-681-2009.pdf 681 728 2009-09-08 Simulation of the specific surface area of snow using a one-dimensional physical snowpack model: implementation and evaluation for subarctic snow in Alaska H. W. Jacobi jacobi@lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr F. Domine W. R. Simpson T. A. Douglas M. Sturm CNRS / Université Joseph Fourier – Grenoble 1, LGGE, St Martin d'Hères, France Geophysical Institute and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Fort Wainwright, Alaska The specific surface area (SSA) of the snow constitutes a powerful parameter to quantify the exchange of matter and energy between the snow and the atmosphere. However, currently no snow physics model can simulate the SSA. Therefore, two different types of empirical parameterizations of the specific surface area (SSA) of snow are implemented into the existing one-dimensional snow physics model CROCUS. The parameterizations are either based on diagnostic equations relating the SSA to parameters like snow type and density or on prognostic equations that describe the change of SSA depending on snow age, snowpack temperature, and the temperature gradient within the snowpack. Simulations with the upgraded CROCUS model were performed for a subarctic snowpack, for which an extensive data set including SSA measurements is available at Fairbanks, Alaska for the winter season 2003/2004. While a reasonable agreement between simulated and observed SSA values is obtained using both parameterizations, the model tends to overestimate the SSA. 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