Enhancing simulations of snowpack properties in land surface models with the Soil, Vegetation and Snow scheme v2.0 (SVS2)

Vionnet, Vincent; Leroux, Nicolas R.; Fortin, Vincent; Abrahamowicz, Maria; Woolley, Georgina; Mazzotti, Giulia; Gaillard, Manon; Lafaysse, Matthieu; Royer, Alain; Domine, Florent; Gauthier, Nathalie; Rutter, Nick; Derksen, Chris; Bélair, Stéphane

doi:10.5194/gmd-18-9119-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9119-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9119-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 22

Model description paper

|

27 Nov 2025

Model description paper |

| 27 Nov 2025

Enhancing simulations of snowpack properties in land surface models with the Soil, Vegetation and Snow scheme v2.0 (SVS2)

Vincent Vionnet, Nicolas R. Leroux, Vincent Fortin, Maria Abrahamowicz, Georgina Woolley, Giulia Mazzotti, Manon Gaillard, Matthieu Lafaysse, Alain Royer, Florent Domine, Nathalie Gauthier, Nick Rutter, Chris Derksen, and Stéphane Bélair

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9119-2025-supplement

Data sets

Scripts and data to produce figures for the SVS2 paper submitted to GMD Vincent Vionnet et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16760830

Complete ERA5 global atmospheric reanalysis Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.143582cf

ERA5-Land hourly data from 1950 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.e2161bac

Crocus-ERA5 daily snow product over the Northern Hemisphere at 0.25° resolution B. Decharme and A. Barbu https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10943718

Improved snow darkening coefficient for large-scale albedo modelling with Crocus M. Gaillard et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14194990

A meteorology and snow dataset from adjacent forested and meadow sites at Crested Butte, CO, USA H. M. Bonner et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6618553

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Model code and software

Code of the land surface scheme Soil Vegetation and Snow version 2 integrated in the ECCC Surface Prediction System Vincent Vionnet et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16740463

Code of the land surface scheme Soil Vegetation and Snow version 2 integrated in the MESH platform Vincent Vionnet et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14859640

Short summary

Snow microstructure controls snowpack properties, but most land surface models overlook this factor. To support future satellite missions, we created a new land surface model based on the Crocus scheme that simulates snow microstructure. Key improvements include better snow albedo representation, enhanced Arctic snow modeling, and improved forest module to capture Canada's diverse snow conditions. Results demonstrate improved simulations of snow density and melt across large regions of Canada.