Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model
<p>The Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) model computes the spectral albedo and the profiles of spectral absorption, irradiance, and actinic fluxes for a multi-layer plane-parallel snowpack. Each snow layer is characterized by its specific surface area, density, and impurity conte...
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Copernicus Publications
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/17/8927/2024/gmd-17-8927-2024.pdf |
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| author | G. Picard Q. Libois |
| author_facet | G. Picard Q. Libois |
| author_sort | G. Picard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>The Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) model computes the spectral albedo and the profiles of spectral absorption, irradiance, and actinic fluxes for a multi-layer plane-parallel snowpack. Each snow layer is characterized by its specific surface area, density, and impurity content, in addition to shape parameters. In the landscape of snow optical numerical models, TARTES distinguishes itself by taking into account different shapes of the particles through two shape parameters, namely the absorption enhancement parameter <span class="inline-formula"><i>B</i></span> and the asymmetry factor <span class="inline-formula"><i>g</i></span>. This is of primary importance as recent studies working at the microstructure level have demonstrated that snow does not behave as a collection of equivalent ice spheres, a representation widely used in other models. Instead, <span class="inline-formula"><i>B</i></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>g</i></span> take specific values that do not correspond to any simple geometrical shape, which leads to the concept of the “optical shape of snow”. Apart from this specificity, TARTES combines well-established radiative transfer principles to compute the scattering and absorption coefficients of pure or polluted snow, as well as the <span class="inline-formula"><i>δ</i></span>-Eddington two-stream approximation to solve the multi-layer radiative transfer equation. The model is implemented in Python, but conducting TARTES simulations is also possible without any programming through the SnowTARTES web application, making it very accessible to non-experts and for teaching purposes. Here, after describing the theoretical and technical details of the model, we illustrate its main capabilities and present some comparisons with other common snow radiative transfer models (AART, DISORT-Mie, SNICAR-ADv3) as a validation procedure. Overall the agreement on the spectral albedo, when in compatible conditions (i.e., with spheres), is usually within 0.02 and is better in the visible and near-infrared range compared to longer wavelengths.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e10e67d8d3ff4aa9a8e40903b374889b |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geoscientific Model Development |
| spelling | doaj-art-e10e67d8d3ff4aa9a8e40903b374889b2025-08-20T02:52:20ZengCopernicus PublicationsGeoscientific Model Development1991-959X1991-96032024-12-01178927895310.5194/gmd-17-8927-2024Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 modelG. Picard0Q. Libois1Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IGE, 38000 Grenoble, FranceCNRM, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, Toulouse, France<p>The Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) model computes the spectral albedo and the profiles of spectral absorption, irradiance, and actinic fluxes for a multi-layer plane-parallel snowpack. Each snow layer is characterized by its specific surface area, density, and impurity content, in addition to shape parameters. In the landscape of snow optical numerical models, TARTES distinguishes itself by taking into account different shapes of the particles through two shape parameters, namely the absorption enhancement parameter <span class="inline-formula"><i>B</i></span> and the asymmetry factor <span class="inline-formula"><i>g</i></span>. This is of primary importance as recent studies working at the microstructure level have demonstrated that snow does not behave as a collection of equivalent ice spheres, a representation widely used in other models. Instead, <span class="inline-formula"><i>B</i></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>g</i></span> take specific values that do not correspond to any simple geometrical shape, which leads to the concept of the “optical shape of snow”. Apart from this specificity, TARTES combines well-established radiative transfer principles to compute the scattering and absorption coefficients of pure or polluted snow, as well as the <span class="inline-formula"><i>δ</i></span>-Eddington two-stream approximation to solve the multi-layer radiative transfer equation. The model is implemented in Python, but conducting TARTES simulations is also possible without any programming through the SnowTARTES web application, making it very accessible to non-experts and for teaching purposes. Here, after describing the theoretical and technical details of the model, we illustrate its main capabilities and present some comparisons with other common snow radiative transfer models (AART, DISORT-Mie, SNICAR-ADv3) as a validation procedure. Overall the agreement on the spectral albedo, when in compatible conditions (i.e., with spheres), is usually within 0.02 and is better in the visible and near-infrared range compared to longer wavelengths.</p>https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/17/8927/2024/gmd-17-8927-2024.pdf |
| spellingShingle | G. Picard Q. Libois Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model Geoscientific Model Development |
| title | Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model |
| title_full | Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model |
| title_fullStr | Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model |
| title_full_unstemmed | Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model |
| title_short | Simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the Two-streAm Radiative TransfEr in Snow (TARTES) v2.0 model |
| title_sort | simulation of snow albedo and solar irradiance profile with the two stream radiative transfer in snow tartes v2 0 model |
| url | https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/17/8927/2024/gmd-17-8927-2024.pdf |
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