Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019)

Baba, Mohamed Wassim; Boudhar, Abdelghani; Gascoin, Simon; Hanich, Lahoucine; Marchane, Ahmed; Chehbouni, Abdelghani

doi:10.3390/w13070890

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019)

by

Mohamed Wassim Baba

^1,*,

Abdelghani Boudhar

^1,2

,

Simon Gascoin

³

,

Lahoucine Hanich

^1,4,

Ahmed Marchane

¹ and

Abdelghani Chehbouni

^1,3

¹

Center for Remote Sensing Application (CRSA), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Ben Guerir 43150, Morocco

²

Water Resources Management and Valorization and Remote Sensing Team (GEVARET), Faculty of Sciences and Technics, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal 23000, Morocco

³

CESBIO, Université de Toulouse, CNES/CNRS/IRD/INRA/UPS, 31400 Toulouse, France

⁴

Laboratoire de Géosciences, Géoenvironnement et Génie Civil, Département des Sciences de la Terre, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques Guéliz /Université Cadi Ayyad, Av. A. Khattabi, BP 549, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Water 2021, 13(7), 890; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070890

Submission received: 18 February 2021 / Revised: 21 March 2021 / Accepted: 22 March 2021 / Published: 24 March 2021

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Abstract

Melt water runoff from seasonal snow in the High Atlas range is an essential water resource in Morocco. However, there are only few meteorological stations in the high elevation areas and therefore it is challenging to estimate the distribution of snow water equivalent (SWE) based only on in situ measurements. In this work we assessed the performance of ERA5 and MERRA-2 climate reanalysis to compute the spatial distribution of SWE in the High Atlas. We forced a distributed snowpack evolution model (SnowModel) with downscaled ERA5 and MERRA-2 data at 200 m spatial resolution. The model was run over the period 1981 to 2019 (37 water years). Model outputs were assessed using observations of river discharge, snow height and MODIS snow-covered area. The results show a good performance for both MERRA-2 and ERA5 in terms of reproducing the snowpack state for the majority of water years, with a lower bias using ERA5 forcing.

Keywords: snow cover; snow water equivalent; Morocco; MERRA-2; ERA5

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MDPI and ACS Style

Baba, M.W.; Boudhar, A.; Gascoin, S.; Hanich, L.; Marchane, A.; Chehbouni, A. Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019). Water 2021, 13, 890. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070890

AMA Style

Baba MW, Boudhar A, Gascoin S, Hanich L, Marchane A, Chehbouni A. Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019). Water. 2021; 13(7):890. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070890

Chicago/Turabian Style

Baba, Mohamed Wassim, Abdelghani Boudhar, Simon Gascoin, Lahoucine Hanich, Ahmed Marchane, and Abdelghani Chehbouni. 2021. "Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019)" Water 13, no. 7: 890. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070890

APA Style

Baba, M. W., Boudhar, A., Gascoin, S., Hanich, L., Marchane, A., & Chehbouni, A. (2021). Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019). Water, 13(7), 890. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070890

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Assessment of MERRA-2 and ERA5 to Model the Snow Water Equivalent in the High Atlas (1981–2019)

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