Articles | Volume 24, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4887-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4887-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Application of machine learning techniques for regional bias correction of snow water equivalent estimates in Ontario, Canada
Deptartment of Geography & Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Andre R. Erler
Aquanty, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Steven K. Frey
Aquanty, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Deptartment of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Christopher G. Fletcher
Deptartment of Geography & Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Related authors
Fraser King, George Duffy, Lisa Milani, Christopher G. Fletcher, Claire Pettersen, and Kerstin Ebell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6035–6050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6035-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6035-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Under warmer global temperatures, precipitation patterns are expected to shift substantially, with critical impact on the global water-energy budget. In this work, we develop a deep learning model for predicting snow and rain accumulation based on surface radar observations of the lower atmosphere. Our model demonstrates improved skill over traditional methods and provides new insights into the regions of the atmosphere that provide the most significant contributions to high model accuracy.
Stephanie Bringeland, Steven K. Frey, Georgia Fotopoulos, John Crowley, Bruce Xu, Omar Khader, Hyung Eum, Babak Farjad, Andre R. Erler, and Anil Gupta
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3522, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3522, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
Short summary
Short summary
A HydroGeoSphere model which represents surface and groundwater is used to assess trends from 2002–019 in water resources in Alberta, Canada and the driving factors behind these changes. Satellite-derived gravity data is compared to HydroGeoSphere model results; a strong correlation is identified. Components of water storage are assessed, namely groundwater, soil moisture, surface water, and snow. Fluctuations in water storage in Southern Alberta are linked to global climatic indices.
Tariq Aziz, Steven K. Frey, David R. Lapen, Susan Preston, Hazen A. J. Russell, Omar Khader, Andre R. Erler, and Edward A. Sudicky
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 1549–1568, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1549-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-1549-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study determines the value of subsurface water for ecosystem services' supply in an agricultural watershed in Ontario, Canada. Using a fully integrated water model and an economic valuation approach, the research highlights subsurface water's critical role in maintaining watershed ecosystem services. The study informs on the sustainable use of subsurface water and introduces a new method for managing watershed ecosystem services.
Samaneh Sabetghadam, Christopher G. Fletcher, and Andre Erler
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 887–902, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-887-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-887-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Snow water equivalent (SWE) is an environmental variable that represents the amount of liquid water if all the snow cover melted. This study evaluates the potential of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to estimate the daily values of SWE over the mountainous South Saskatchewan River Basin in Canada. Results show that high-resolution WRF simulations can provide reliable SWE values as an accurate input for hydrologic modeling over a sparsely monitored mountainous catchment.
Aruna Kumar Nayak, Xiaoyong Xu, Steven K. Frey, Omar Khader, Andre R. Erler, David R. Lapen, Hazen A. J. Russell, and Edward A. Sudicky
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 215–244, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-215-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-215-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite remote sensing only measures the near-surface soil water content. We demonstrate that satellite-based near-surface soil water variability is a strong reflection of deeper subsurface water fluctuation and quantifies the response time differences between dynamics of satellite near-surface soil water and water in the deeper subsurface. Result support the use of satellite near-surface soil water measurements as indicators and/or predictors of water resources in the deeper subsurface.
Tyler C. Herrington, Christopher G. Fletcher, and Heather Kropp
The Cryosphere, 18, 1835–1861, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1835-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1835-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Here we validate soil temperatures from eight reanalysis products across the pan-Arctic and compare their performance to a newly calculated ensemble mean soil temperature product. We find that most product soil temperatures have a relatively large RMSE of 2–9 K. It is found that the ensemble mean product outperforms individual reanalysis products. Therefore, we recommend the ensemble mean soil temperature product for the validation of climate models and for input to hydrological models.
Neha Kanda and Christopher G. Fletcher
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-639, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-639, 2024
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
For improved water management in snow-dominated regions like Northern Canada, accurate estimates of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), a metric that quantifies the water in a snowpack are crucial. Our study aims to improve the SWE estimates which were found to be underestimated, particularly in the mountains. We tested four correction techniques and found Random Forest (RF) to be the most effective technique that significantly reduced the errors.
Mohsen Soltani, Bert Hamelers, Abbas Mofidi, Christopher G. Fletcher, Arie Staal, Stefan C. Dekker, Patrick Laux, Joel Arnault, Harald Kunstmann, Ties van der Hoeven, and Maarten Lanters
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 931–953, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-931-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-931-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The temporal changes and spatial patterns in precipitation events do not show a homogeneous tendency across the Sinai Peninsula. Mediterranean cyclones accompanied by the Red Sea and Persian troughs are responsible for the majority of Sinai's extreme rainfall events. Cyclone tracking captures 156 cyclones (rainfall ≥10 mm d-1) either formed within or transferred to the Mediterranean basin precipitating over Sinai.
Fraser King, George Duffy, Lisa Milani, Christopher G. Fletcher, Claire Pettersen, and Kerstin Ebell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6035–6050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6035-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6035-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Under warmer global temperatures, precipitation patterns are expected to shift substantially, with critical impact on the global water-energy budget. In this work, we develop a deep learning model for predicting snow and rain accumulation based on surface radar observations of the lower atmosphere. Our model demonstrates improved skill over traditional methods and provides new insights into the regions of the atmosphere that provide the most significant contributions to high model accuracy.
Chih-Chun Chou, Paul J. Kushner, Stéphane Laroche, Zen Mariani, Peter Rodriguez, Stella Melo, and Christopher G. Fletcher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4443–4461, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4443-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Aeolus is the first satellite that provides global wind profile measurements. The mission aims to improve the weather forecasts in the tropics, but also, potentially, in the polar regions. We evaluate the performance of the instrument over the Canadian North and the Arctic by comparing its measured winds in both cloudy and non-cloudy layers to wind data from forecasts, reanalysis, and ground-based instruments. Overall, good agreement was seen, but Aeolus winds have greater dispersion.
John G. Virgin, Christopher G. Fletcher, Jason N. S. Cole, Knut von Salzen, and Toni Mitovski
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5355–5372, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5355-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5355-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Equilibrium climate sensitivity, or the amount of warming the Earth would exhibit a result of a doubling of atmospheric CO2, is a common metric used in assessments of climate models. Here, we compare climate sensitivity between two versions of the Canadian Earth System Model. We find the newest iteration of the model (version 5) to have higher climate sensitivity due to reductions in low-level clouds, which reflect radiation and cool the planet, as the surface warms.
Cited articles
Anderson, E.: A point energy and mass balance model of a snow cover, Technical Report 19, NOAA, available at:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/6392 (last access: 28 October 2019), 1976. a
Azar, A. E., Ghedira, H., Romanov, P., Mahani, S., Tedesco, M., and
Khanbilvardi, R.: Application of Satellite Microwave Images in Estimating Snow Water Equivalent1, J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 44, 1347–1362,
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2008.00227.x, 2008. a, b
Barnett, T. P., Dümenil, L., Schlese, U., Roeckner, E., and Latif, M.: The Effect of Eurasian Snow Cover on Regional and Global Climate Variations, J. Atmos. Sci., 46, 661–686, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1989)046<0661:TEOESC>2.0.CO;2, 1988. a
Benjamin, S. G., Weygandt, S. S., Brown, J. M., Hu, M., Alexander, C. R.,
Smirnova, T. G., Olson, J. B., James, E. P., Dowell, D. C., Grell, G. A.,
Lin, H., Peckham, S. E., Smith, T. L., Moninger, W. R., Kenyon, J. S., and Manikin, G. S.: A North American hourly assimilation and model forecast cycle: The Rapid Refresh, Mon. Weather Rev., 144, 1669–1694, 2016. a
Berghuijs, W. R., Woods, R. A., Hutton, C. J., and Sivapalan, M.: Dominant
flood generating mechanisms across the United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 4382–4390, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068070, 2016. a
Berghuijs, W. R., Harrigan, S., Molnar, P., Slater, L. J., and Kirchner, J. W.: The Relative Importance of Different Flood-Generating Mechanisms Across Europe, Water Resour. Res., 55, 4582–4593, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR024841, 2019. a
Bokhorst, S., Pedersen, S. H., Brucker, L., Anisimov, O., Bjerke, J. W., Brown, R. D., Ehrich, D., Essery, R. L. H., Heilig, A., Ingvander, S., Johansson, C., Johansson, M., Jónsdóttir, I. S., Inga, N., Luojus, K., Macelloni, G., Mariash, H., McLennan, D., Rosqvist, G. N., Sato, A., Savela, H., Schneebeli, M., Sokolov, A., Sokratov, S. A., Terzago, S., Vikhamar-Schuler, D., Williamson, S., Qiu, Y., and Callaghan, T. V.: Changing Arctic snow cover: A review of recent developments and assessment of future needs for observations, modelling, and impacts, Ambio, 45, 516–537,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0770-0, 2016. a
Boniface, K., Braun, J. J., McCreight, J. L., and Nievinski, F. G.: Comparison of Snow Data Assimilation System with GPS reflectometry snow depth
in the Western United States, Hydrol. Process., 29, 2425–2437,
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10346, 2015. a
Breiman, L.: Random Forests, Mach. Learn., 45, 5–32, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010933404324, 2001. a
Brown, R. and Brasnett, B.: Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) Daily Snow Depth Analysis Data, National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, Boulder, CO, https://doi.org/10.5067/W9FOYWH0EQZ3, 2010. a
Buttle, J. M., Allen, D. M., Caissie, D., Davison, B., Hayashi, M., Peters,
D. L., Pomeroy, J. W., Simonovic, S., St-Hilaire, A., and Whitfield, P. H.:
Flood processes in Canada: Regional and special aspects, Can. Water Resour. J./ Revue canadienne des ressources hydriques, 41, 7–30,
https://doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2015.1131629, 2016. a, b, c
Byun, K., Chiu, C.-M., and Hamlet, A. F.: Effects of 21st century climate
change on seasonal flow regimes and hydrologic extremes over the Midwest and Great Lakes region of the US, Sci. Total Environ., 650, 1261–1277, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.063, 2019. a
Cannon, A. J., Sobie, S. R., and Murdock, T. Q.: Bias Correction of GCM
Precipitation by Quantile Mapping: How Well Do Methods Preserve Changes in Quantiles and Extremes?, J. Climate, 28, 6938–6959, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00754.1, 2015. a
Clow, D. and Nanus, L.: Evaluation of SNODAS snow depth and snow water equivalent estimates for the Colorado Rocky Mountains, in: AGU Fall Meeting
Abstracts, 5–12 December 2011, San Francisco, USA, p. 0675, 2011. a
Davies, R.: Canada – Over 4,400 Homes Flooded in Quebec – FloodList,
available at: http://floodlist.com/america/canada-flood-quebec-may-2017 (last access: 27 October 2019), 2017. a
Dawson, N., Broxton, P., Zeng, X., Leuthold, M., Barlage, M., and Holbrook, P.: An Evaluation of Snow Initializations in NCEP Global and Regional
Forecasting Models, J. Hydrometeorol., 17, 1885–1901, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-15-0227.1, 2016. a
Dingman, S. L.: Physical Hydrology: Third Edition, google-Books-ID: rUUaBgAAQBAJ, Waveland Press, Long Grove, IL, USA, 2015. a
Dixon, K. W., Lanzante, J. R., Nath, M. J., Hayhoe, K., Stoner, A.,
Radhakrishnan, A., Balaji, V., and Gaitán, C. F.: Evaluating the
stationarity assumption in statistically downscaled climate projections: is
past performance an indicator of future results?, Climatic Change, 135, 395–408, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1598-0, 2016. a
Ehret, U., Zehe, E., Wulfmeyer, V., Warrach-Sagi, K., and Liebert, J.: HESS
Opinions “Should we apply bias correction to global and regional climate
model data?”, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 3391–3404,
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-3391-2012, 2012. a
Erler, A. R., Frey, S. K., Khader, O., d'Orgeville, M., Park, Y.-J., Hwang,
H.-T., Lapen, D. R., Peltier, W. R., and Sudicky, E. A.: Simulating Climate
Change Impacts on Surface Water Resources Within a Lake-Affected Region Using Regional Climate Projections, Water Resour. Res., 55, 130–155, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024381, 2019. a, b
Floodlist: Canada – Floods Damage Over 2,000 Homes in Québec –
FloodList, available at: http://floodlist.com/america/canada-floods-quebec-april-2019, last access: 30 August 2019. a
Frankenstein, S., Sawyer, A., and Koeberle, J.: Comparison of FASST and
SNTHERM in Three Snow Accumulation Regimes, J. Hydrometeorol., 9, 1443–1463, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JHM865.1, 2008. a
Grömping, U.: Variable Importance Assessment in Regression: Linear Regression versus Random Forest, Am. Stat., 63, 308–319, https://doi.org/10.1198/tast.2009.08199, 2009. a
Grossi, G., Lendvai, A., Peretti, G., and Ranzi, R.: Snow Precipitation
Measured by Gauges: Systematic Error Estimation and Data Series Correction in the Central Italian Alps, Water, 9, 461, https://doi.org/10.3390/w9070461, 2017. a
Hay, L. E., Leavesley, G. H., Clark, M. P., Markstrom, S. L., Viger, R. J., and Umemoto, M.: Step Wise, Multiple Objective Calibration of a Hydrologic Model for a Snowmelt Dominated Basin, J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 42, 877–890, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2006.tb04501.x, 2006. a
Hutchinson, M. F., McKenney, D. W., Lawrence, K., Pedlar, J. H., Hopkinson,
R. F., Milewska, E., and Papadopol, P.: The application of thin plate
smoothing splines to continent-wide data assimilation, in: Data assimilation
systems: Papers presented at the Second BMRC Modelling Workshop, edited by: Jasper, J. D., Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, 104–113, available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284058675_The_application_of_thin_plate_splines_to_continent_wide_data_assimilation_Data_Assimilation_Systems (last access: 23 August 2019), 1991. a
Irvine, K. N. and Drake, J. J.: Spatial Analysis of Snow- and Rain-Generated Highflows In Southern Ontario, Can. Geogr./Le Géographe canadien, 31, 140–149, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1987.tb01634.x, 1987. a
Isabelle, P.-E., Nadeau, D. F., Anctil, F., Rousseau, A. N., Jutras, S., and
Music, B.: Impacts of high precipitation on the energy and water budgets of a
humid boreal forest, Agr. Forest Meteorol., 280, 107813,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107813, 2020. a
Islam, S. U. and Déry, S. J.: Evaluating uncertainties in modelling the snow hydrology of the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1827–1847, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1827-2017, 2017. a
James, G., Witten, D., Hastie, T., and Tibshirani, R.: An introduction to
statistical learning, in: vol. 112, Springer, New York, USA, 2013. a
Lary, D. J., Remer, L. A., MacNeill, D., Roscoe, B., and Paradise, S.: Machine Learning and Bias Correction of MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth, IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett., 6, 694–698, https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2009.2023605, 2009. a, b
Leach, J. M., Kornelsen, K. C., and Coulibaly, P.: Assimilation of near-real
time data products into models of an urban basin, J. Hydrol., 563, 51–64, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.05.064, 2018. a
Li, H., Sheffield, J., and Wood, E. F.: Bias correction of monthly
precipitation and temperature fields from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 models using equidistant quantile matching, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 115, D10101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012882, 2010. a, b, c
Li, L. and Simonovic, S. P.: System dynamics model for predicting floods from
snowmelt in North American prairie watersheds, Hydrol. Process., 16, 2645–2666, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.1064, 2002. a
López-Moreno, J., Fassnacht, S., Heath, J., Musselman, K., Revuelto, J.,
Latron, J., Morán-Tejeda, E., and Jonas, T.: Small scale spatial variability of snow density and depth over complex alpine terrain: Implications for estimating snow water equivalent, Adv. Water Resour., 55, 40–52, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2012.08.010, 2013. a, b
Lv, Z., Pomeroy, J. W., and Fang, X.: Evaluation of SNODAS Snow Water
Equivalent in Western Canada and Assimilation Into a Cold Region Hydrological Model, Water Resour. Res., 55, 11166–11187, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR025333, 2019. a
McKenney, D. W., Hutchinson, M. F., Papadopol, P., Lawrence, K., Pedlar, J.,
Campbell, K., Milewska, E., Hopkinson, R. F., Price, D., and Owen, T.:
Customized Spatial Climate Models for North America, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 92, 1611–1622, https://doi.org/10.1175/2011BAMS3132.1, 2011. a, b
McKenney, D., Yemshanov, D., Pedlar, J., Lawrence, K., and Papadopol, P. Regional, national and international climate modeling, available at: https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/projects/3, last access: 1 July 2019. a
MNRF: Provincial Digital elevation Model (PDEM), PDEM Dataset Documentation, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (Ontario), available at:
https://www.sse.gov.on.ca/sites/MNR-PublicDocs/EN/CMID/PDEM_UserGuide.pdf,
last access: 9 August 2019. a
Molotch, N. P. and Bales, R. C.: Scaling snow observations from the point to
the grid element: Implications for observation network design, Water Resour. Res., 41, W11421, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005WR004229, 2005. a
National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center: Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data Products at NSIDC, Version 1, SWE Data Subset, NSIDC – National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, https://doi.org/10.7265/N5TB14TC, 2004. a
Pedregosa, F., Varoquaux, G., Gramfort, A., Michel, V., Thirion, B., Grisel,
O., Blondel, M., Prettenhofer, P., Weiss, R., Dubourg, V., Vanderplas, J.,
Passos, A., Cournapeau, D., Brucher, M., Perrot, M., and Duchesnay, E.:
Scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python, J. Mach. Learn. Res., 12, 2825–2830, 2011. a
Reichstein, M., Camps-Valls, G., Stevens, B., Jung, M., Denzler, J.,
Carvalhais, N., and the National Energy Research Supercomputing Center in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA: Deep learning and process understanding for data-driven Earth system science, Nature, 566, 195–204, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0912-1, 2019. a, b
Rutter, N., Cline, D., and Li, L.: Evaluation of the NOHRSC Snow Model (NSM) in a One-Dimensional Mode, J. Hydrometeorol., 9, 695–711, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JHM861.1, 2008. a
Shen, C.: A Transdisciplinary Review of Deep Learning Research and Its Relevance for Water Resources Scientists, Water Resour. Res., 54, 8558–8593, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022643, 2018. a, b
Shen, X. and Anagnostou, E. N.: A framework to improve hyper-resolution
hydrological simulation in snow-affected regions, J. Hydrol., 552, 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.05.048, 2017. a
Sinha, P., Gaughan, A. E., Stevens, F. R., Nieves, J. J., Sorichetta, A., and
Tatem, A. J.: Assessing the spatial sensitivity of a random forest model:
Application in gridded population modeling, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst., 75, 132–145, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2019.01.006, 2019. a
Snauffer, A. M., Hsieh, W. W., Cannon, A. J., and Schnorbus, M. A.: Improving
gridded snow water equivalent products in British Columbia, Canada: multi-source data fusion by neural network models, The Cryosphere, 12,
891–905, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-891-2018, 2018. a
Sturm, M., Taras, B., Liston, G. E., Derksen, C., Jonas, T., and Lea, J.:
Estimating Snow Water Equivalent Using Snow Depth Data and Climate Classes, J. Hydrometeorol., 11, 1380–1394, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JHM1202.1, 2010. a, b
Teutschbein, C. and Seibert, J.: Bias correction of regional climate model
simulations for hydrological climate-change impact studies: Review and
evaluation of different methods, J. Hydrol., 456-457, 12–29,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.05.052, 2012. a, b
Themeßl, M. J., Gobiet, A., and Leuprecht, A.: Empirical-statistical
downscaling and error correction of daily precipitation from regional climate
models, Int. J. Climatol., 31, 1530–1544, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2168, 2011. a
Vuyovich, C. M., Jacobs, J. M., and Daly, S. F.: Comparison of passive
microwave and modeled estimates of total watershed SWE in the continental
United States, Water Resour. Res., 50, 9088–9102, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014734, 2014. a
Wrzesien, M. L., Durand, M. T., Pavelsky, T. M., Howat, I. M., Margulis, S. A., and Huning, L. S.: Comparison of Methods to Estimate Snow Water Equivalent at the Mountain Range Scale: A Case Study of the California Sierra Nevada, J. Hydrometeorol., 18, 1101–1119, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-16-0246.1, 2017. a
Xue, Y., Forman, B. A., and Reichle, R. H.: Estimating Snow Mass in North
America Through Assimilation of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Brightness Temperature Observations Using the Catchment Land Surface Model and Support Vector Machines, Water Resour. Res., 54, 6488–6509, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022219, 2018.
a, b
Zahmatkesh, Z., Tapsoba, D., Leach, J., and Coulibaly, P.: Evaluation and bias correction of SNODAS snow water equivalent (SWE) for streamflow
simulation in eastern Canadian basins, Hydrolog. Sci. J., 64, 1541–1555, https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2019.1660780, 2019. a
Short summary
Snow is a critical contributor to our water and energy budget, with impacts on flooding and water resource management. Measuring the amount of snow on the ground each year is an expensive and time-consuming task. Snow models and gridded products help to fill these gaps, yet there exist considerable uncertainties associated with their estimates. We demonstrate that machine learning techniques are able to reduce biases in these products to provide more realistic snow estimates across Ontario.
Snow is a critical contributor to our water and energy budget, with impacts on flooding and...