Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-5743-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-5743-2026
Model evaluation paper
 | 
01 Jul 2026
Model evaluation paper |  | 01 Jul 2026

Optimization of snow cover fraction parameterization in the Community Land Model: implementation and preliminary validation over the Tibetan Plateau

Kai Yang, Chenghai Wang, Yang Cui, Lingyun Ai, Feimin Zhang, and Pinghan Zhaoye

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Cited articles

Cui, T., Li, C., and Tian, F.: Evaluation of temperature and precipitation simulations in CMIP6 models over the Tibetan Plateau, Earth Space Sci., 8, e2020EA001620, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001620, 2021. 
Domine, F., Fourteau, K., Picard, G., Lackner, G., Sarrazin, D., and Poirier, M.: Permafrost cooled in winter by thermal bridging through snow-covered shrub branches, Nat. Geosci., 15, 554–560, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00979-2, 2022. 
Douville, H., Royer, J. F., and Mahfouf, J. F.: A new snow parameterization for the Meteo-France climate model. Part II: Validation in a 3-D GCM experiment, Clim. Dynam., 12, 37–52, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208761, 1995. 
Ehlers, T. A., Chen, D., Appel, E., Bolch, T., Chen, F., Diekmann, B., Dippold, M. A., Giese, M., Guggenberger, G., Lai, H.-W., Li, X., Liu, J., Liu, Y., Ma, Y., Miehe, G., Mosbrugger, V., Mulch, A., Piao, S., Schwalb, A., Thompson, L. G., Su, Z., Sun, H., Yao, T., Yang, X., Yang, K., and Zhu, L.: Past, present, and future geo-biosphere interactions on the Tibetan Plateau and implications for permafrost, Earth-Sci. Rev., 234, 104197, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104197, 2022. 
He, J., Yang, K., Tang, W., Lu, H., Qin, J., Chen, Y. Y., and Li, X.: The first high-resolution meteorological forcing dataset for land process studies over China, Sci. Data, 7, 25, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0369-y, 2020. 
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Short summary
Climate models still exhibit substantial cold biases over the Tibetan Plateau, with snow cover biases recognized as one of the major contributing factors. By incorporating the effects of standing dead grass stems and topographic relief on snow distribution and snow depletion processes, the snow cover fraction (SCF) parameterization was optimized, reducing positive SCF biases by 63 % and alleviating surface cold biases by approximately 1–2 °C in snow-affected regions.
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