Roberta Pirazzini

SVALI post doc: 2014-2015

Subject: relationships between snow microstructure and surface albedo at Summit, Greenland

Theme 3: Understanding present changes and predicting the future

Work package 2.3: Interaction of atmospheric, cryospheric and hydrological processes at glacier surfaces 

Host institute: Finnish Meteorological Institute

My main objective is to utilize the measurements of snow microstructure (vertical profiles of snow temperature, density, and grains two-dimensional projections) collected at Summit, Greenland, during a three-week campaign in summer 2010, to model the snow surface albedo. Model calculations will be performed with the DISORT model and with the Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiative (SNICAR) model, and will be validated against the measured broadband and spectral surface albedo. The results of this study will be used (in collaboration with colleagues in Task 2.3) to improve the snow albedo schemes utilized in numerical weather prediction and climate models (for instance, WRF and HIRHAM5).

I am also contributing to the analysis of factors controlling inter-annual variability and trends in surface melt over Greenland. In particular, I focus on the role of albedo utilizing remote sensing albedo observations.

Contact info:

tl: +358 503802653