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

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on tc-2021-310', Quentin Libois, 19 Nov 2021
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Theodore W. Letcher, 18 Jan 2022
  • RC2: 'Comment on tc-2021-310', Anonymous Referee #2, 09 Dec 2021
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Theodore W. Letcher, 18 Jan 2022

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (30 Jan 2022) by Marie Dumont
AR by Theodore W. Letcher on behalf of the Authors (11 Mar 2022)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 Mar 2022) by Marie Dumont
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (14 Apr 2022)
RR by Quentin Libois (23 Apr 2022)
ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (26 Apr 2022) by Marie Dumont
AR by Theodore W. Letcher on behalf of the Authors (03 Aug 2022)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (05 Aug 2022) by Marie Dumont
RR by Quentin Libois (31 Aug 2022)
ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (08 Sep 2022) by Marie Dumont
AR by Theodore W. Letcher on behalf of the Authors (19 Sep 2022)  Author's response   Manuscript 
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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.