Measurement and simulation of the snow properties at an alpine valley site

Snow plays an important role in meteorological and hydrological studies, so it makes sense to accurately predict the process of snow and the amount of snow. Exactly modeling snow properties is an important process for the combined snow process model and microwave model to simulate the amount of snow. In this paper, a mass and energy balance computer model-snow thermal model (SNTHERM.89) is used to simulate the snow properties combined with experimental data measured in Binggou basin, an alpine catchment in Gansu province, china during March 11th and April 7th in 2008. SNTHERM can simulate the snow properties well. In an attempt to make sure that the data for the input is with highest degree of confidence when some measurements are missing, sensitivity analysis of snow properties to forcing data was conducted. Through evaluating the sensitivity of SNTHERM to forcing data, a better understanding of the model and prediction can be obtained.