Improving the CLASSIC (v1.8) snow model  to better simulate Arctic snowpacks

Lalande, Mickaël; Roy, Alexandre; Wang, Libo; Verseghy, Diana; Vionnet, Vincent; Dominé, Florent; Kinnard, Christophe

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-9581-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9581-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9581-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 19

Development and technical paper

|

12 Oct 2026

Development and technical paper |

| 12 Oct 2026

Improving the CLASSIC (v1.8) snow model to better simulate Arctic snowpacks

Mickaël Lalande, Alexandre Roy, Libo Wang, Diana Verseghy, Vincent Vionnet, Florent Dominé, and Christophe Kinnard

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-9581-2026-supplement

Data sets

SnowC2-CLASSIC-1D: Model Configuration, Forcing Data, and Simulation Outputs Mickaël Lalande https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18175771

ESM-SnowMIP Meteorological and Evaluation Datasets at Ten Reference Sites (in Situ and Bias Corrected Reanalysis Data) Cecile Menard and Richard Essery https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.897575

Meteorological, Snow and Soil Data from Bylot Island, Canadian High Arctic, for Driving and Testing Snow and Land Surface Models, v. 1.100000 (2013-2019) Florent Domine et al. https://doi.org/10.5885/45693CE-02685A5200DD4C38

Hydrometeorological, Snow and Soil Data from a Low-Arctic Valley in the Forest-Tundra Ecotone in Northern Quebec Florent Domine et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.964743

V-Dutch/TVCSnowCLM (v1) V-Dutch https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7137729

Model code and software

SnowC2-CLASSIC-1D-analysis: Analysis and Figure-Generation Code Mickaël Lalande https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18154778

Short summary

This study enhances a snow model for Arctic environments by improving the heat exchanges within the snowpack and at its interfaces, revising the compaction scheme, and adding consideration of blowing snow sublimation losses. Simulations at ten Arctic, mid-latitude, and Alpine sites show significant reductions in simulated soil and snow temperature biases and improved simulated snow depth and density, which are key features to improve simulated energy, water, and carbon budgets in the Arctic.