Simulating snow properties and Ku-band backscatter  across the forest-tundra ecotone

Woolley, Georgina J.; Rutter, Nick; Wake, Leanne; Vionnet, Vincent; Derksen, Chris; Meloche, Julien; Montpetit, Benoit; Leroux, Nicolas R.; Essery, Richard; Hould Gosselin, Gabriel; Marsh, Philip

doi:10.5194/tc-20-1315-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1315-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1315-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 2

Research article

|

23 Feb 2026

Research article |

| 23 Feb 2026

Simulating snow properties and Ku-band backscatter across the forest-tundra ecotone

Georgina J. Woolley, Nick Rutter, Leanne Wake, Vincent Vionnet, Chris Derksen, Julien Meloche, Benoit Montpetit, Nicolas R. Leroux, Richard Essery, Gabriel Hould Gosselin, and Philip Marsh

Data sets

Meteorological forcing data, SVS2-Crocus and SMRT simulated output and measurements of snowpack properties (2022-2023) Georgina Woolley https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15091024

Model code and software

SVS2-Crocus Model Code Georgina Woolley et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15091095

Short summary

The impact of uncertainties in the simulation of density and specific surface area (SSA) by the snow model Crocus (embedded in the Soil, Vegetation and Snow v2 land surface model) on the simulation of snow backscatter (13.5 GHz) using the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer model were quantified. The simulation of SSA was found to be a key model uncertainty. Underestimated SSA values lead to high errors in the simulation of backscatter, reduced by implementing a minimum SSA value (8.7 m² kg⁻¹).