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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Boise, Idaho » Northwest Watershed Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #199582
Title: Modeling variabilty in radiative fluxes on snow surfaces beneath coniferous canopies

Author
item ESSERY, RICHARD - UNIV OF WALES
item HARDY, JANET - USACE/CRREL
item LINK, TIMOTHY - UNIV OF IDAHO
item Marks, Daniel
item POMEROY, JOHN - UNIV OF SASKATCHEWAN
item ROWLANDS, ALED - UNIV OF WALES
item RUTTER, NICK - UNIV OF WALES

Submitted to: Trans American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/7/2005
Publication Date: 12/15/2005
Citation: Essery, R., Hardy, J. Link, T., Marks, D., Pomeroy, J., Rowlands, A., and Rutter, N. 2005. Modelling variability in radiative fluxes on snow surfaces beneath coniferous canopies. abstract C21A-1075, Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 86(52):F432

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Absorption, scattering and emission of solar and thermal radiation by coniferous canopies can have a large influence on the surface energy balance of snow in forests. The high variability of radiative fluxes in sparse or discontinuous forests cannot be captured by simple two-stream canopy radiation models, and sophisticated ray-tracing models are too computationally and data intensive for practical applications. An efficient spatial model representing individual trees as simple geometric primitives with a stochastic component for smaller scales is presented and model results are compared with measurements from radiometer arrays. Forest structure information for the model can be obtained from manual mapping, hemispherical photography, aerial photography or airborne laser scanning. The model is used to investigate spatial and temporal scaling of radiative fluxes at the snow surface.