Treatment of frozen soil and snow cover in the land surface model SEWAB

The land surface model SEWAB (Surface Energy and Water Balance) is designed to be coupled to both, atmospheric and hydrological models. Its application in mid and high latitudes requires the inclusion of freezing and thawing processes within the soil and the accumulation and ablation of a snow cover. These winter processes are parameterised with a minimum number of empirical formulations in order to assure reasonable computation times for an application in climate and sensitivity studies yet accounting for all important processes. Meteorological forcing data and measurements of snow depth, soil temperature and liquid soil water content at two locations in the mid-west of North America are used to test the model. Generally the simulated snow depth matches the measurements, remaining differences in snow depth can be explained by uncertainties in snow density, blowing snow and errors in precipitation measurements. The simulated soil temperature and liquid soil water content compare well with the measurements, showing the isolating effect of the snow cover.