title	author	location	email	date
Readme	Anna Simson	RWTH Aachen Germany	[email protected]	21/10/2021

Readme Vers 1.1

Code corresponds to the model introduced in the paper: Elements of future snowpack modeling - part 2: A modular and extendable Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical scheme for coupling transport, phase changes and mechanics

This readme is directed to the readers of the paper mentioned above. It is is meant to be used to reproduce the results.

The project

We developed a Eulerian-Lagrangian computational scheme to model the snowpack's coupled transport, phase change and mechanics. Our approach is modular, so that single processes can be activated and deactivated. This is useful to evaluate the potential superposition and interdependence of all processes. The modularity is realized by splitting the process equations into diffusion (heat and water vapor transport) and advection (mechanical settling) dominated processes.

Requirements

A requirements.txt file can be found in the repository. This file can be used to create a virtual environment e.g. via conda.

Run the code

There are two options to run the code. Either via the main_snow_model.py file or the snowmodel.ipynb jupyter notebook.

Details on the code

If you want to adjust the computation, so e.g. change the flow law, the routine for velocity computation or deactivate specific modules two locations in the code are relevant:

1. the input of main(...) in 'main_snow_model.py'
2. the modules that solve for temperature (heat transport, diffusion - Module I - 'T_solver.py'), deposition rate (water vapor transport, diffusion - Module II - 'c_solver.py') and ice volume fraction combined with mesh coordinates (mechanical settling, advection - Module III - 'coupled_update_phi_coord'), which can all be deactived/activated.

1. Input options for main()

• geom defines the initial geometry of the snowpack model. Three options ('FieldScale0.5m', 'LabScale0.02m', 'layer_based0.5m_2Layer') are available. 'FieldScale0.5m' is the default.
• RHO_ini defines the initial snow density. Eight options are available, which are mentioned and explained in the set_initial_conditions function in 'initial_conditions.py'. 'RHO_2Layer_Continuous_smooth' is the default. 'RHO_2Layer_layer_based' is used to mimick layer based schemes.
• T_ini defines the initial snow temperature. Four options are available, which are mentioned and explained in the set_initial_conditions function in 'initial_conditions.py'. 'T_const_263' is the default.
• SWVD defines the equations used for saturation water vapor density, which are further explained in the sat_vap_dens function in 'model_parameters.py'
• SetVel activate or deactivate mechanical settling. 'Y' active and 'N' inactive
• v_opt defines the option for velocity computation. Five options are available. They are listed and explained in the settling_vel() function in 'velocity.py'. 'continuous' is default and 'layer_based' is used to mimick layer based schemes.
• viscosity defines the option for viscosity formulation. Five options are available, which are mentioned and explained in the choose_viscosity function in 'velocity.py'. 'eta_constant_n1' is the default. 'eta_phiT' reflects viscosity formulations from Vionnet et al. (2012). All viscosity options imply a linear formulation of Glen's flow law except for 'eta_constant_n3', which implies its non-linear version with n=3. The velocity function in 'velocity.py' automatically selects the linear or non-linear form.
• Eterms if True error terms ET and Ec that account for the deforming grid are accounted for, if False ET and Ec are excluded.
• it maximum iteration number after which the computation stops.

2. Deactivate or activate modules

• mechanical settling can be easily deactived via the input of main() by setting SetVel='N'.
• heat transport (Module I) can be deactivated by commenting (T, a, b) = solve_for_T(T,...)
• vapor transport (Module II) can be deactivated by commenting c = solve_for_c(T,...) Note that if Module II and Module I are deactivated no diffusion is simulated. Therefore, the dynamic time step adaption via CFL- condition is not required and can be replaced by e.g. a constant time step of 100 s. This is accounted for in lines 60 to 63

Run the code

• open 'main_snow_model.py'

default combination with all processes (Module I, II and III) activated:

• paste the following options in the function input of main(): geom = 'FieldScale0.5m', RHO_ini = 'RHO_2Layer_Continuous_smooth', T_ini = 'T_const_263', SWVD = 'Libbrecht', SetVel = 'Y', v_opt = 'continuous' , viscosity = 'eta_constant_n1', Eterms = True, it = 17406
• run 'main_snow_model.py' in Python

only heat transport active:

• paste the following options in the function input of main(): geom = 'FieldScale0.5m', RHO_ini = 'RHO_2Layer_Continuous_smooth', T_ini = 'T_const_263', SWVD = 'Libbrecht', SetVel = 'N', v_opt = 'continuous' , viscosity = 'eta_constant_n1',Eterms = True, it = 7265
• deactivate (comment) Module II to solve for deposition rate
• run 'main_snow_model.py' in Python

Heat transport and vapor transport active, settling inactive:

• paste the following options in the function inputof main(): geom = 'FieldScale0.5m', RHO_ini = 'RHO_2Layer_Continuous_smooth', T_ini = 'T_const_263', SWVD = 'Libbrecht', SetVel = 'N', v_opt = 'continuous' , viscosity = 'eta_constant_n1',Eterms = True, it = 7278
• activate (uncomment) Module I and II to solve for temperature and deposition rate
• The ice crust simulation from Hansen and Foslien (2015) case is reflected by choosing 'RHO_ini=' RHO_Hansen
• run 'main_snow_model.py' in Python

mimick layer-based schemes only settling active:

• deactivate (comment) Module I and Module II and paste the following options in the function input of main():[dt, CFL] = comp_dt(t_passed, dz, a, b) in line 64, activate dt = 100 in line 62.
• paste the following options in the main() input : geom ='layer_based0.5m_2Layer', RHO_ini = 'RHO_2Layer_layer_based', T_ini = 'T_const_263', SWVD = 'Libbrecht', SetVel = 'Y', v_opt = 'layer_based' , viscosity = 'eta_constant_n1',Eterms = True, it = 1732
• run 'main_snow_model.py' in Python

Output

After running the code several plots have been generated. The profile plots for temperature, velocity, water vapor density, ice volume fraction, and node distance show the respective values at the start, after one third, and at the end of the simulation time. Additionally, the heat map for ice volume shows its temporal evolution, including the settlement (if active). If you want to save the results of the computation, the functions to save the data to txt files can be activated in main().

Table

Variable	Physical definion	Unit
v	velocity	ms-1
v_dz	vertical derivative of settling velocity equivalent to deformation rate	s-1
coord	mesh coordinates	m
sigma	vertical stress from the overburdened snowmass	Nm-2
eta	snow viscosity	Pas
dz	node distance	m
nz	number of computational nodes	-
n	Glen exponent /coefficient for deformation rate	n=1 : linear stress strain rate, relation n=3 non-linear stress strain rate relation
phi	ice volume fraction	-
T	Temperature	K
phi	Ice volume fration	K
k_eff	effective thermal conductivity	Wm-1K-1
rhoC_eff	specific heat capacity	JK-1m-3
D_eff	effective diffusion coefficient	m2s-1
rho_v	saturation water vapor density	kgm-3
rho_v_dT	derivative of rho_v w.r.t T	kgm-3T-1
v	settling velocity	ms-1
v_dz	derivative of v w.r.t z	s-1
nz	number of computational nodes	-
dt	time step	s

Flag	Decription	Options
v_opt	method for velocity computation	-
viscosity	option how to determine viscosity	'eta_constant_n1', 'eta_constant_n3 'eta_phi', 'eta_T', 'eta_phiT'
SetVel	settling velocity active or not	'Y' or 'N'
Eterms	mesh error terms included or excluded	True or False