Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4343-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4343-2022
Research article
 | 
18 Oct 2022
Research article |  | 18 Oct 2022

A generalized photon-tracking approach to simulate spectral snow albedo and transmittance using X-ray microtomography and geometric optics

Theodore Letcher, Julie Parno, Zoe Courville, Lauren Farnsworth, and Jason Olivier

Data sets

Supporting Data and Scripts Theodore Letcher and Julie Parno https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7083432

Model code and software

CRREL-GOSRT Theodore Letcher and Julie Parno https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7086881

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Short summary
We present a radiative transfer model that uses ray tracing to determine optical properties from computer-generated 3D renderings of snow resolved at the microscale and to simulate snow spectral reflection and transmission for visible and near-infrared light. We expand ray-tracing techniques applied to sub-1 cm3 snow samples to model an entire snowpack column. The model is able to reproduce known snow surface optical properties, and simulations compare well against field observations.