Atmosphere-Cryosphere Coupled Model for Regional Climate Applications

Table 1

Comparison of PRCM land-surface scheme (LSS) with the snow land-surface model (SLM).

	PRCM-LSS (current)	SLM (new)	Remarks
Surface parameterization	3-layer soil and one-layer vegetation combined with snow	Multilayer soil and snow, one-layer vegetation	Limited by I.C. availability of soil
Snow albedo	Function of snow depth + background albedo	Snow albedo depends on zenith angle, snow depth, and grain size	Snow fraction of vegetation and bare ground
Soil temperature	Heat equation explicitly solves for	Enthalpy equation	Heat transfer due to water passing through medium considered
Soil moisture	No frozen soil physics	Soil freeze/thaw considered	Liquid water and soil ice can coexist
Canopy	Single sunlit vegetation	Both sunlit and shaded fractions of vegetation