Quantifying radiative effects of light-absorbing particle deposition on snow at the SnowMIP sites

Abstract. The deposition of light-absorbing particles (LAPs) leads to a decrease in surface albedo over snow-covered surfaces. This effect, by increasing the energy absorbed by the snowpack, enhances snowmelt and accelerates snow aging, process that in turn are responsible for further decreasing the snow albedo. Capturing this combined process is important in land surface modeling, as the change in surface reflectivity connected with the deposition of LAPs can modulate the time and magnitude of snowmelt and runoff. These processes impact regional water resources and can also lead to relevant feedbacks to the global climate system. We have recently developed a new numerical snowpack model for the Geophysical Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (GFDL) land model (a Global Land Snow Scheme, or GLASS). GLASS provides a detailed description of snow mass and energy balance, as well as the evolution of snow microphysical properties (grain shape and size). We now extend this model to account for the presence of light-absorbing impurities, modeling their dry and wet deposition in the snowpack, the evolution of their vertical distribution in the snow due to precipitation and snowmelt, and the effect of their concentration on snow optical properties. To test the effects of the resulting snow scheme, we force the GFDL land model with deposition of black carbon, mineral dust, and organic carbon obtained from a general circulation model (GFDL AM4.0). We evaluate the new model configuration at a set of instrumented sites, including an alpine site (Col de Porte, France) where in situ observations of snow (including spectral measurements of snow reflectivity and concentration of LAPs) allow for a comprehensive model evaluation. For the Col de Porte site, we show that GLASS reproduces the observed magnitudes of impurity concentrations in the snowpack throughout a winter season. The seasonal evolution of the snow optical diameter is also qualitatively reproduced by the model, although the increase in snow grain diameter during the melt season appears to be underestimated. For a set of instrumented sites spanning a range of climates and LAP deposition rates (the SnowMIP sites), we then evaluate the number of snow days lost due to the deposition of dust and carbonaceous aerosols. We find that this loss ranges between 5 and 24 d depending on the site. The resulting snow model with LAP-aware snow reflectivity shows good agreement with measurements of broadband albedo and seasonal snow water equivalent (SWE) over the study sites.