Evaluation of simulated snow inside forests using measured ground temperature

Forests influence the inside-canopy snow dynamics in various ways depending on topography and the prevailing climate. Understanding how forest effects on snow change with climate variability and climate change is essential for predicting the future role of forests for seasonal snow dynamics. Thereby location-specific studies, such as the one presented here, provide valuable insights into forest-snow interactions within particular regions. In this study, the physically-based and fully distributed snow model openAMUNDSEN, was used to simulate the seasonal snow cover evolution in the Berchtesgaden National Park, Bavaria, Germany. This area is characterized by significant elevation differences (ranging up to 2000 meters within a 3.5 km distance) and offers an ideal setting to examine how forest-snow interactions vary across complex mountain terrain. The model is forced with meteorological data collected from 20 automatic weather stations located in open areas and distributed across different elevations. Simulations were conducted at a spatial resolution of 50 x 50 meters. The temperature at 10 cm ground was measured by 150 temperature-moisture sensors positioned within the forest. These sensors are deployed across various elevations and forest densities. Using these measurements, snow cover duration and snow disappearance date were derived for forested plots and used to evaluate the simulated snow cover. The results indicate that observed and simulated snow metrics generally show consistent patterns within the forested regions of the study area, though some deviations were observed at specific locations. The presented investigations contribute to a more detailed understanding of forest-snow interactions in mountainous environments.