Long-term energy-balance modeling of interannual snow and ice in Wyoming using the dynamic equilibrium concept

• Main Author: Johnson, Ryan J
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: atmospheric sciences; civil engineering
• ISBN: 9781339054858; 133905485X

Many snow models in the field of hydrologic engineering do not incorporate the long-term effects of the interannual snow storage such as glaciers because glacier dynamics have a much longer timescale than river flow and seasonal snowmelt. This study proposes an appropriate treatment for inland glaciers as systems in dynamic equilibrium that remain constant under a static climate condition. This new method considers the vertical movement of snow/ice from high elevation areas to valleys as the equilibrating factor of the glacier system. The vertical movement of snow/ice occurs by means of wind re-distribution, avalanches, and glaciation. This paper introduces and discusses the physically-based modeling of such a dynamic equilibrium snow system for long-term snow simulation at a regional scale. We apply the regional snow model (RegSnow) to a domain containing the entire state of Wyoming and couple the model to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to compute the snow surface energy-balance. RegSnow predicted that 82.2% of interannual snow and ice storage in Wyoming may disappear by 2100 using temperature increases projected by CMIP5 GCMs, under the RCP4.5 emission scenario.