Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model

Snow state file

Required:

Always

Name:

The name is expected to be of the format Snow.State.<MM.DD.YYYY.hh.mm.ss>.<ext>, where <MM.DD.YYYY.hh.mm.ss> is the time for which the model state is valid, and <ext> is either bin (Format = BINARY or Format = BYTESWAP) or nc (Format= NETCDF).
The file is located in the Initial state directory.

Read by:

InitModelState()

Format:

A series of 2D matrices.

Purpose:

Contains the model state associated with snow variables. This allows a model restart with exactly the same initial conditions.

Comments:

The state files are not meant for analysis. They are difficult to read unless you write some dedicated program or script. However, if you use Format = NETCDF, the files are readable by any program that reads and displays NetCDF files.

Details:

The snow state file contains the following state variables, which MUST be in the order specified if you use the binary format. For the NetCDF files the order is arbitrary, as long as you provide the correct variable names.

If the format is BIN or BYTESWAP, the variables are:

1. Whether snow is present (1) or absent (0) (float)
2. Number of days since last snowfall (float)
3. Snow water equivalent in m (float)
4. Water content of the bottom snow pack layer in m (float)
5. Temperature of the bottom snow pack layer in °C (float)
6. Water content of the top snow pack layer in m (float)
7. Temperature of the top snow pack layer in °C (float)
8. Cold content of the entire snow pack in J(float)

If the format is NETCDF, the variables are:

1. Whether snow is present (1) or absent (0).
   The variable name is Snow.HasSnow.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
2. Number of days since last snowfall.
   The variable name is Snow.LastSnow.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
3. Snow water equivalent in m.
   The variable name is Snow.Swq.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
4. Water content of the bottom snow pack layer in m.
   The variable name is Snow.PackWater.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
5. Temperature of the bottom snow pack layer in °C.
   The variable name is Snow.TPack.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
6. Water content of the top snow pack layer in m.
   The variable name is Snow.SurfWater.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
7. Temperature of the top snow pack layer in °C.
   The variable name is Snow.TSurf.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.
8. Cold content of the entire snow pack in J.
   The variable name is Snow.ColdContent.
   The number type is NC_FLOAT.

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