Estimating Snowmelt Infiltration into Frozen Soils
Litong Zhao1 and D.M. Gray2
In most northern regions, melting of the seasonal snowcover is one of the most important events
of the water year. Snowmelt water recharges soil moisture and groundwater storage, and supplies
reservoirs, lakes, and rivers. Reliable methods for partitioning the amount of meltwater released
during snow ablation to infiltration and runoff are requisite for efficient management of this natu-
ral resource for agricultural, domestic ecological and other purposes, and for estimating the mois-
ture and energy transfers occurring at the land surface/atmosphere interface in investigations con-
cerned with global climatic change.
This paper describes the derivation and testing of a general parametric correlation for estimating
snowmelt infiltration into frozen soils. The correlation is developed using the results from a nu-
merical model, HAWTS. This model includes a set of partial differential equations that describe
water and heat transport with phase changes in frozen soils. The model was run for soils with av-
erage textures ranging from sandy loam to clay.
The proposed relationship relates infiltration to the total soil moisture saturation (water + ice) and
temperature at the start of snow ablation, the soil surface saturation during melting, and the infiltra-
tion opportunity time--the time that meltwater is available at the soil surface for infiltration. The
expression is calibrated to predict snowmelt infiltration in boreal forest and prairie soils. Compari-
sons of estimates of infiltration calculated by the equations against corresponding measured
amounts for these environments agreed with a standard deviation among differences of 10 mm.
1 Alberta Research Council, 250 Karl Clark Road, Edmonton, Alberta T6N1E4, Canada
2 Division of Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A9,
Canada
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