We compared solid and liquid precipitation mass output from three categories of common model precipitation phase determination schemes (PPDS) to the recorded precipitation phase in a set of 45 years of 3-hour manual meteorological observations from 19 Swedish meteorological stations. In the first category of rain/snow thresholds, it was found that rain/snow air temperature threshold (ATT) is a better precipitation phase indicator than a rain/snow dew point temperature threshold. When a rain/snow ATT of 0.0 °C (a default value used in some recent models) was replaced by 1.0 °C, misclassified precipitation was reduced by almost one half. A second category of PPDS use two ATTs, one snow and one rain, with a linear decrease in snow fraction between. This category identified precipitation phase better than a rain/snow ATT at 17 stations. Using all observations from all the meteorological stations, a final category using an air-temperature-dependent snow probability curve resulted in slightly lower misclassified precipitation mass at 13 of the 19 stations. However, schemes from the linear decrease in snow fraction category had the lowest misclassified precipitation mass at four meteorological stations.
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Research Article|
July 31 2012
Surface-based precipitation phase determination methods in hydrological models
James Feiccabrino;
1Division of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
E-mail: James.Feiccabrino@googlemail.com
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David Gustafsson;
David Gustafsson
2Division of Biogeophysics, Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
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Angela Lundberg
Angela Lundberg
1Division of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
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Hydrology Research (2013) 44 (1): 44–57.
Article history
Received:
October 31 2011
Accepted:
May 22 2012
Citation
James Feiccabrino, David Gustafsson, Angela Lundberg; Surface-based precipitation phase determination methods in hydrological models. Hydrology Research 1 February 2013; 44 (1): 44–57. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2012.158
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