Page History

...

There is no representation of snow on top of sea ice or ice on lakes.  Snow cover on ice acts to increase its persistence by increasing the albedo and reducing the heat flux into the modelled ice.  Thin sea ice or lake ice covered by thin snow grows or melts much faster than does thick ice with deep snow.  

...

Snow is not intercepted by a tree canopy and will accumulate on the ground.  Snow does not accumulate on sea ice or lake ice. 

The albedo of snow in forested areas is given by a look-up table depending on (high) vegetation type (Table 2.1.4.4-2).  The albedo of exposed snow decays with time between 0.85 for fresh white snow to 0.5 for older snow.  It is reset to 0.85 after large snowfall events.

...

(Note: In older material there may be references to issues that have subsequently been addressed)

A description of the structure and evaluation of multi-layer snow models and associated consequences can be found at:

• Impact of a Multi-Layer Snow Scheme on Near-Surface Weather Forecasts 
• IFS DOCUMENTATION – Cy47r3 Cy48r3 Operational implementation 12 Oct 2021 PART IV: PHYSICAL PROCESSES. (link when issued)
• Improving ERA5-Land soil temperature in permafrost regions using an optimized multi-layer snow scheme
• Hydrological Impact of the New ECMWF Multi-Layer Snow Scheme
• Read more on the model snow depth and sea ice with example chart and model sea-surface temperature with example chart.
• Read more on snow data assimilation or land surface monitoring by satellite (LDAS).

...