Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Precipitation phase separation schemes in the Naqu River basin, eastern Tibetan plateau

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Climatology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Precipitation phase has a profound influence on the hydrological processes in the Naqu River basin, eastern Tibetan plateau. However, there are only six meteorological stations with precipitation phase (rainfall/snowfall/sleet) before 1979 within and around the basin. In order to separate snowfall from precipitation, a new separation scheme with S-shaped curve of snowfall proportion as an exponential function of daily mean temperature was developed. The determinations of critical temperatures in the single/two temperature threshold (STT/TTT2) methods were explored accordingly, and the temperature corresponding to the 50 % snowfall proportion (SP50 temperature) is an efficiently critical temperature for the STT, and two critical temperatures in TTT2 can be determined based on the exponential function and SP50 temperature. Then, different separation schemes were evaluated in separating snowfall from precipitation in the Naqu River basin. The results show that the S-shaped curve methods outperform other separation schemes. Although the STT and TTT2 slightly underestimate and overestimate the snowfall when the temperature is higher and colder than SP50 temperature respectively, the monthly and annual separation snowfalls are generally consistent with the observed snowfalls. On the whole, S-shaped curve methods, STT, and TTT2 perform well in separating snowfall from precipitation with the Pearson correlation coefficient of annual separation snowfall above 0.8 and provide possible approaches to separate the snowfall from precipitation for hydrological modelling.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Auer AH Jr (1974) The rain versus snow threshold temperatures. Weatherwise 27:67–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Box J, Fettweis X, Stroeve J, Tedesco M, Hall D, Steffen K (2012) Greenland ice sheet albedo feedback: thermodynamics and atmospheric drivers. Cryosphere 6:821–839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen R-s, Lu S-h, Kang E-s, Ji X-b, Zhang Z, Yang Y, Qing W (2008) A distributed water-heat coupled model for mountainous watershed of an inland river basin of Northwest China (I) model structure and equations. Environ Geol 53:1299–1309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark MP, Slater AG, Barrett AP, Hay LE, McCabe GJ, Rajagopalan B, Leavesley GH (2006) Assimilation of snow covered area information into hydrologic and land-surface models. Adv Water Resour 29:1209–1221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai A (2008) Temperature and pressure dependence of the rain-snow phase transition over land and ocean. Geophys Res Lett 35:62–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly S, Davis R, Ochs E, Pangburn T (2000) An approach to spatially distributed snow modelling of the Sacramento and San Joaquin basins, California. Hydrol Process 14:3257–3271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding B, Yang K, Qin J, Wang L, Chen Y, He X (2014) The dependence of precipitation types on surface elevation and meteorological conditions and its parameterization. J Hydrol 513:154–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fassnacht S, Soulis E (2002) Implications during transitional periods of improvements to the snow processes in the land surface scheme-hydrological model WATCLASS. Atmosphere-Ocean 40:389–403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feiccabrino J, Gustafsson D, Lundberg A (2013) Surface-based precipitation phase determination methods in hydrological models. Hydrol Res 44:44–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Froidurot S, Zin I, Hingray B, Gautheron A (2014) Sensitivity of precipitation phase over the Swiss Alps to different meteorological variables. J Hydrometeorol 15:685–696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs T, Rapp J, Rubel F, Rudolf B (2001) Correction of synoptic precipitation observations due to systematic measuring errors with special regard to precipitation phases. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part B: Hydrology, Oceans and Atmosphere 26(9):689–693

  • Gustafsson D, Stähli M, Jansson P-E (2001) The surface energy balance of a snow cover: comparing measurements to two different simulation models. Theor Appl Climatol 70:81–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han C-T, Chen R-S, Liu J-F, Yang Y, Qing W-W (2010) A discuss of the separating solid and liquid precipitations. J Glaciol Geocryol 32:249–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay LE, McCabe GJ (2010) Hydrologic effects of climate change in the Yukon River basin. Clim Chang 100:509–523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heppner PO (1992) Snow versus rain: looking beyond the “magic” numbers. Weather Forecast 7:683–691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kienzle SW (2008) A new temperature based method to separate rain and snow. Hydrol Process 22:5067–5085

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leavesley GH, Lichty R, Thoutman B, Saindon L (1983) Precipitation-runoff modeling system: User’s manual. Washington DC, USGS

  • L’hôte Y, Chevallier P, Coudrain A, Lejeune Y, Etchevers P (2005) Relationship between precipitation phase and air temperature: comparison between the Bolivian Andes and the Swiss Alps/Relation entre phase de précipitation et température de l'air: comparaison entre les Andes Boliviennes et les Alpes Suisses. Hydrolog Sci J 50:989–997

  • Lindström G, Johansson B, Persson M, Gardelin M, Bergström S (1997) Development and test of the distributed HBV-96 hydrological model. J Hydrol 201:272–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loth B, Graf HF, Oberhuber JM (1993) Snow cover model for global climate simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 98:10451–10464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motoyama H (1990) Simulation of seasonal snowcover based on air temperature and precipitation. J Appl Meteorol 29:1104–1110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pomeroy J, Gray D, Brown T, Hedstrom N, Quinton W, Granger R, Carey S (2007) The cold regions hydrological model: a platform for basing process representation and model structure on physical evidence. Hydrol Process 21:2650–2667

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rohrer M (1989) Determination of the transition air temperature from snow to rain and intensity of precipitation. In: WMO IASH ETH International Workshop on Precipitation Measurement, pp 475–582

  • Slater AG et al (2001) The representation of snow in land surface schemes: results from PILPS 2 (d). J Hydrometeorol 2:7–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor KE (2001) Summarizing multiple aspects of model performance in a single diagram. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 106:7183–7192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wigmosta MS, Vail LW, Lettenmaier DP (1994) A distributed hydrology-vegetation model for complex terrain. Water Resour Res 30:1665–1679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Z-L, Dickinson RE, Robock A, Vinnikov KY (1997) Validation of the snow submodel of the biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme with Russian snow cover and meteorological observational data. J Clim 10:353–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Q, Li J, Singh VP, Xu C-Y, Bai Y (2012) Changing structure of the precipitation process during 1960–2005 in Xinjiang, China. Theor Appl Climatol 110:229–244. doi:10.1007/s00704-012-0611-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Major Research plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91547209), the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41571037), and the Open Research Foundation from State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin (Grant No. 2015ZY02).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Shaohua Liu, Denghua Yan, Tianling Qin, Baisha Weng, Yajing Lu, Guoqiang Dong & Boya Gong

  2. Water Resources Department, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    Shaohua Liu, Denghua Yan, Tianling Qin, Baisha Weng, Yajing Lu, Guoqiang Dong & Boya Gong

Authors
  1. Shaohua Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Denghua Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tianling Qin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Baisha Weng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yajing Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Guoqiang Dong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Boya Gong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Denghua Yan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, S., Yan, D., Qin, T. et al. Precipitation phase separation schemes in the Naqu River basin, eastern Tibetan plateau. Theor Appl Climatol 131, 399–411 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1967-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1967-7

Search

Navigation