Assessment of the micro structure-based snow-cover model SNOWPACK: thermal and mechanical properties

It is well known that snow texture affects many properties of the snowpack. For example, new snow, layers of either small rounded grains or larger faceted and cup-shaped crystals, as well as wet snow, all show different viscous behaviors. The most direct approach to include such effects in snow-cover models is to formulate processes and properties in terms of microstructure parameters such as grain and bond size, coordination number, bond neck length, etc. Such an approach was taken for the Swiss snow-cover model SNOWPACK. Because the interdependence of properties and processes is inherent to a microstructure-based formalism, great care must be taken to properly adjust the parameters involved. Using both laboratory and field experiments, it is shown how a consistent set of parameters may be found to account for growth processes, as well as for conductivity and viscosity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.