Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 14 6 2010 10.5194/hess-14-925-2010 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/14/925/2010/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/14/925/2010/hess-14-925-2010.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/14/925/2010/hess-14-925-2010.pdf 925 940 2010-06-14 Simulation of snow accumulation and melt in needleleaf forest environments C. R. Ellis cre152@mail.usask.ca J. W. Pomeroy T. Brown J. MacDonald Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5C8, Canada Drawing upon numerous field studies and modelling exercises of snow processes, the Cold Regions Hydrological Model (CRHM) was developed to simulate the four season hydrological cycle in cold regions. CRHM includes modules describing radiative, turbulent and conductive energy exchanges to snow in open and forest environments, as well as account for losses from canopy snow sublimation and rain evaporation. Due to the physical-basis and rigorous testing of each module, there is a minimal need for model calibration. To evaluate CRHM, simulations of snow accumulation and melt were compared to observations collected at paired forest and clearing sites of varying latitude, elevation, forest cover density, and climate. Overall, results show that CRHM is capable of characterising the variation in snow accumulation between forest and clearing sites, achieving a model efficiency of 0.51 for simulations at individual sites. Simulations of canopy sublimation losses slightly overestimated observed losses from a weighed cut tree, having a model efficiency of 0.41 for daily losses. Good model performance was demonstrated in simulating energy fluxes to snow at the clearings, but results were degraded from this under forest cover due to errors in simulating sub-canopy net longwave radiation. 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