A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates
Snow observations are important in many mountain areas to quantify the water stored in snowpacks and to predicting runoff during the melting period. In this study we compare the performance of five different regional-scale gridded snow products to reproduce snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Upper...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de La Rioja
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/5275 |
| _version_ | 1797629469375070208 |
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| author | Esteban Alonso-González Juan Ignacio López-Moreno M. Cansaran Ertaş Aynur Şensoy Ali Arda Şorman |
| author_facet | Esteban Alonso-González Juan Ignacio López-Moreno M. Cansaran Ertaş Aynur Şensoy Ali Arda Şorman |
| author_sort | Esteban Alonso-González |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Snow observations are important in many mountain areas to quantify the water stored in snowpacks and to predicting runoff during the melting period. In this study we compare the performance of five different regional-scale gridded snow products to reproduce snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Upper Euphrates region (Karasu Basin, 10,275 km2), with observations from automatic weather stations in the catchment through Taylor diagrams. The products compared are the ERA5, ERA5-Land, MERRA-2, snow data from a dynamical downscaling of ERA-5 (period 2000-2018) and SWE generated from microwave satellite data (SWE-E(H13) period 2013-2015 product of the EUMETSAT H SAF project). The H13 product presented deficiencies in terms of not being able to reproduce the spatial and temporal variability of the snowpack. ERA-5 and, in particular, ERA-Land products, at 30 and 9 km grid size, respectively, showed good performance in reproducing snow evolution compared to four available observation sites. MERRA2 at 50 km resolution showed lower skills compared to the above-mentioned products. Resulting snow data from WRF at 10 km resolution did not show any improvement with respect to the global datasets. The impossibility of testing different configurations due to the lack of observations to compare and the computational constraints to test different parametrizations may be the reasons to explain the low performance although they remain speculative. All the gridded datasets showed good performance in reproducing snow duration over the basin, compared to remotely sensed data. Results highlight ERA-Land dataset as a very promising tool for regional snow studies in mountainous regions with limited observations, in a cost-effective way.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T10:54:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0aa498d59ef442e697c971ca27a3b665 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0211-6820 1697-9540 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T10:54:53Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de La Rioja |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica |
| spelling | doaj.art-0aa498d59ef442e697c971ca27a3b6652023-11-13T10:42:39ZengUniversidad de La RiojaCuadernos de Investigación Geográfica0211-68201697-95402022-11-0149110.18172/cig.5275A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper EuphratesEsteban Alonso-González0Juan Ignacio López-Moreno1M. Cansaran Ertaş2Aynur Şensoy3Ali Arda Şorman4Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère, CESBIO, Univ. Toulouse, CNES/CNRS/INRAE/IRD/UPS, Toulouse, FranceInstituto Pirenaico de Ecología, CSIC, Zaragoza, SpainErzurum Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Erzurum, TurkeyEskisehir Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Eskisehir, TurkeyEskisehir Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Eskisehir, Turkey Snow observations are important in many mountain areas to quantify the water stored in snowpacks and to predicting runoff during the melting period. In this study we compare the performance of five different regional-scale gridded snow products to reproduce snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Upper Euphrates region (Karasu Basin, 10,275 km2), with observations from automatic weather stations in the catchment through Taylor diagrams. The products compared are the ERA5, ERA5-Land, MERRA-2, snow data from a dynamical downscaling of ERA-5 (period 2000-2018) and SWE generated from microwave satellite data (SWE-E(H13) period 2013-2015 product of the EUMETSAT H SAF project). The H13 product presented deficiencies in terms of not being able to reproduce the spatial and temporal variability of the snowpack. ERA-5 and, in particular, ERA-Land products, at 30 and 9 km grid size, respectively, showed good performance in reproducing snow evolution compared to four available observation sites. MERRA2 at 50 km resolution showed lower skills compared to the above-mentioned products. Resulting snow data from WRF at 10 km resolution did not show any improvement with respect to the global datasets. The impossibility of testing different configurations due to the lack of observations to compare and the computational constraints to test different parametrizations may be the reasons to explain the low performance although they remain speculative. All the gridded datasets showed good performance in reproducing snow duration over the basin, compared to remotely sensed data. Results highlight ERA-Land dataset as a very promising tool for regional snow studies in mountainous regions with limited observations, in a cost-effective way. https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/5275Snow water equivalentsnow gridded datasetsreanalysis productsmicrowave remote sensingEuphrates Basin |
| spellingShingle | Esteban Alonso-González Juan Ignacio López-Moreno M. Cansaran Ertaş Aynur Şensoy Ali Arda Şorman A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica Snow water equivalent snow gridded datasets reanalysis products microwave remote sensing Euphrates Basin |
| title | A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates |
| title_full | A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates |
| title_fullStr | A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates |
| title_full_unstemmed | A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates |
| title_short | A performance assessment of gridded snow products in the Upper Euphrates |
| title_sort | performance assessment of gridded snow products in the upper euphrates |
| topic | Snow water equivalent snow gridded datasets reanalysis products microwave remote sensing Euphrates Basin |
| url | https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/5275 |
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