Reflectance Modeling for Real Snow Structures Using a Beam Tracing Model

Area of Science:

• Snow physics
• Optical properties of materials
• Remote sensing

Background:

• Accurate modeling of snow's reflective properties is crucial for remote sensing and energy balance studies.
• Existing radiative transfer models often rely on simplified, idealized snow grain shapes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel method for comparing measured and calculated snow reflectance using realistic snow structures.
• To investigate how snow structure influences biconical reflectance (BR).

Main Methods:

• Snow samples were tomographed to obtain 3D structural images.
• Radiative transfer was modeled using a beam tracing model to calculate biconical reflectance (BR).
• The method was applied to fresh, metamorphosed, depth hoar, and wet snow samples.

Main Results:

• Calculated and measured reflectances showed good agreement across different snow types.
• The model successfully differentiated biconical reflectance distributions for various snow structures.
• Specific surface area influenced radiance but not BR distribution.

Conclusions:

• The developed method accurately models snow reflectance using tomographic data, overcoming limitations of idealized grain shapes.
• This approach enhances understanding of how snow structure and specific surface area affect biconical reflectance distributions.
• The findings are valuable for improving remote sensing applications and snow energy balance models.