MetOffice / MetOffice/jules

Add zenith angle dependence to sea ice albedo calculations

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Dominant language
Fortran
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36
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5d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

The method for adding zenith angles to sea ice albedo calculations varies depending on the surface type:

| Snow on sea ice | Bare sea ice | Melt ponds |
| ------ | ------ | ------ |
| Use the same scheme as snow on land which already has a zenith angle dependence as well as additional improvements such as how albedo varies with snow grain size.​ | Use the same scheme as bare soil except that the albedo is shifted to represent bare sea ice.​ | Add a new scheme based on Malinka et al which explicitly represents Fresnel reflection off the surface and absorption within the pond. |

These will be added via two switches:

* Zenith angle dependence for snow on sea ice and bare sea ice is turned on via the new switch l_zenith_albedo (under '''[namelist:jules_sea_seaice]''').
* The new Malinka et al melt pond albedo scheme is turned on via a replacement switch which is replacing l_sice_meltponds_cice with i_meltpond_alb_vn (under '''[namelist:jules_sea_seaice]''') where:
* i_meltpond_alb_vn = 0 : Do not use a melt pond albedo scheme at all (equivalent to l_sice_meltponds_cice=.false.).
* i_meltpond_alb_vn = 1 : Use the original CICE melt pond albedo scheme (equivalent to l_sice_meltponds_cice=.true.).
* i_meltpond_alb_vn = 2 : Use the new Malinka et al melt pond albedo scheme.

The snow albedo scheme takes snow grain size as in input. For snow on land this is a prognostic where snow grains gradually grow over time. For snow on sea ice I have implemented a simple linear dependence between snow grain size and temperature where the snow grain size goes from snow_grain_size_min (at -30oC, and colder temperatures) to snow_grain_size_max (at 0oC). snow_grain_size_min and snow_grain_size_max are supplied via '''[namelist:jules_sea_seaice]'''.

Linked UM issue = https://github.com/MetOffice/um/issues/62
Linked lfric_apps issue = https://github.com/MetOffice/lfric_apps/issues/400

JULES branch = https://github.com/DanCopsey/jules/tree/zenith_angle_seaice

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reviewing the JULES branch linked in the issue and the [namelist:jules_sea_seaice] settings described here. Read the linked UM and lfric_apps issues for integration context, then verify that the zenith-angle and melt-pond switches and snow-grain-size inputs support the three stated surface types and preserve the documented legacy modes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
fortran
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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