The overall goal of this project is to evaluate simulations of snow covered area and snow mass in General Circulation Models (GCM) submitted under the auspices of the second phase of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP-II). AMIP is an international effort to determine the systematic errors in atmospheric climate models. Three main objectives are identified to evaluate AMIP-II snow simulations. These are: (1) evaluation of snow covered area (SCA) climatology and kinematics; (2) evaluation of snow mass climatologies; and (3) evaluation of atmospheric circulation patterns associated with snow. Snow is an important modulator of surface energy fluxes, and one of the largest seasonally varying surface parameters over the Northern Hemisphere. These investigations will help modelers evaluate their treatment of snow, from the perspectives of both atmospheric dynamics as well as surface parameterizations. By identifying regions, models, and model characteristics with biased snow simulations, this research will aid modelers in their diagnoses of surface fluxes, an important physical process relevant to climate prediction.
