Dynamic snow surface aerodynamic roughness lengths (z0) characterized by snow depths using LIDAR
Data files
Oct 23, 2025 version files 20.05 GB
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README.md
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Sanow_1920_004-006_-_AOI.dat
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Sanow_1920_007-009_-_AOI.dat
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Sanow_1920_98-100_-_AOI.dat
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SITE_VISIT_DATA.xlsx
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Abstract
A shallow, seasonal snowpack is rarely homogeneous in depth, layer characteristics, or surface structure throughout an entire winter. Aerodynamic roughness length (z0) is typically considered a static parameter within hydrologic and atmospheric models. However, observations have shown that z0 is a dynamic variable, necessitating accurate spatial and temporal measurements of z0. Terrestrial LiDAR data were collected at nine different study sites in northwest Colorado from the 2019-2020 winter season to observe variability of the snowpack surface. Geometric z0 and snow depth (ds) observation over 112 site visits illustrated a change in z0 as a function of ds. Values of z0 decrease during initial snow accumulation, as the snow conforms to the underlying terrain. Once the snowpack is sufficiently deep, which depends on the height of the ground surface roughness features, the surface becomes more uniform. As melt begins, z0 increases, when the snow surface becomes more irregular. The correlation varied spatially and temporally though; it was obscured by snowpack surface modifications, such as the presence of vegetation, anthropogenic or ecologic influence. The rate of change in the z0 versus ds correlation was almost constant, regardless of the initial roughness conditions that only affected the initial z0.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.80gb5mm35
Description of the data and file structure
Data are point clouds of the Area of Interest (AOI) throughout the 2019-2020 winter season of 9 field sites. The accompanied excel sheet describes the site visit information and the associated label to each point cloud.
Code/software
Point clouds were built and modified in Cloud Compare (CloudCompare - Open Source project) . However, any software that allows the use of point clouds should work with the data. Data are in .dat, but will need to be converted to .txt to run with Cloud Compare. The .dat files are used in the interpolation software (https://www.goldensoftware.com/products/surfer/), which were then converted to the attached .dat files for use in the MATLAB code described in Neville et al., 2025 (https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/12/1984).
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- None
Data was derived from the following sources:
- FARO Focus3D x130 model
