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Getting Started

There are three main sets of input files needed to run snodis. This wiki documents my attempts to create these input files:

1. fractional snow covered area (fsca)
2. meteorological forcings
3. static variables

All the code is in a single root directory. You run the model with main*.pro. I used a different main file for each year so that I could run each year simultaneously on a cluster. Alongside the .pro files, you will need four directories for your input files. In each of the input folders you'll need a folder with the domain name and then folders for the years. for example, if the domain name is UpperColoradoRiver:

• input_fsca

  • UpperColoradoRiver

    • 2000
      • 2000.dat
      • dateselect.txt

    do this for all years

• input_fscamask

  This can actually just be a symlink to input_fsca. This exists in case you want to use a different cloud mask (originally modscag had no cloudmask)

• input_meto

  • UpperColoradoRiver

    • 2000
      • dlwrf.dat
      • goes.dat
      • ps.dat
      • sat.dat
      • spehum.dat
      • windspeed.dat

    do this for all years

• input_static

  • UpperColoradoRiver
    • dem.dat
    • dem4nldas.dat
    • forden*.dat (you can cahnge this name in the main*.pro files)

All input files for snodis are formatted for reading with GrADS, a climate software that only runs on the commandline. you'll need to convert the data for each input variable into a '.dat' file that adheres to the format described here: http://cola.gmu.edu/grads/gadoc/aboutgriddeddata.html (the Grads homepage seems to have been moved so many of the links you'll find online are dead). Details for each of the input variables are below.

Copies of all the input files for the Upper Colorado River domain for 2000-2012 can found on snowserver at hydroProjects/SWE/Rockies/SWE_SNODIS/model_code

NB1 All the work was run at CU as part of Noah Molotch's Mountain Hydrology Group with snowserver mounted to my filesystem. If you have access to snowserver then you can probably use most of these files relatively easily.

NB2 There are a variety of scripts involved in setting up the forcing files. All of them were conceived on unix systems, either Linux of MacOS. I recommend you at least have a working GDAL on your system.

NB3 I'm sure these notes will be outdated at some point so please edit as needed!

fractional snow covered area (fsca)

see the fsca preparation wiki

meteorological forcings

see the meteorological data preparation wiki

static variables

see the static input wiki