Improved snow albedo evolution in Noah-MP land surface model coupled with a physical snowpack radiative transfer scheme

Especially, NoahMP–SNICAR improves modeled snow albedo variability for fresh snow and aged snowpack (correlation increase from 0.42 to 0.67). The underestimated variability of snow albedo in NoahMP–BATS is a result of inadequate representation of physical linkages between snow albedo evolution and environmental/snowpack conditions (temperature, snow density, snow water equivalent, and light-absorbing particles), which is substantially improved by the NoahMP–SNICAR scheme.

This new development of NoahMP–SNICAR physics provides a means to improve snow albedo accuracy and reduce corresponding uncertainties while providing new modeling capabilities such as hyperspectral snow albedo and effects of snow grain size, snow grain shape, and light-absorbing particles in future studies.