Articles | Volume 10, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2731-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2731-2016
Research article
 | 
16 Nov 2016
Research article |  | 16 Nov 2016

Simulating ice layer formation under the presence of preferential flow in layered snowpacks

Nander Wever, Sebastian Würzer, Charles Fierz, and Michael Lehning

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Cited articles

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Short summary
The study presents a dual domain approach to simulate liquid water flow in snow using the 1-D physics based snow cover model SNOWPACK. In this approach, the pore space is separated into a part for matrix flow and a part that represents preferential flow. Using this approach, water can percolate sub-freezing snow and form dense (ice) layers. A comparison with snow pits shows that some of the observed ice layers were reproduced by the model while others remain challenging to simulate.