Evaluation of snow water equivalent in NARCCAP simulations, including measures of observational uncertainty

Examination of SWE in these runs allows for the identification of bias due to RCM configuration, separate from inherited GCM bias. SWE from the models is compared to SWE from a new ensemble observational product to evaluate the RCMs' ability to capture the magnitude, spatial distribution, duration, and timing of the snow season.

This new dataset includes data from 14 different sources in five different types. Consideration of the associated uncertainty in observed SWE strongly influences the appearance of bias in RCM-generated SWE. Of the sixNARCCAP RCMs, the version of MM5run by Iowa State University (MM5I) is found to best represent SWE despite its use of the Noah land surface model.