A meteorological estimation of relevant parameters for snow models

Relevant meteorological parameters have been analyzed to provide boundary conditions in real time for an energy, mass and stratigraphical model of snow cover at locations surrounded by meteorological observation points. From the available observation data, this analysis provides hourly meteorological information on every Alpine massif for six different aspects at 300 m elevation intervals. A numerical snow model has been run with these estimated meteorological data for numerous locations in the French Alps during the last ten years. Comparisons with observed snow characteristics (e.g., depth and stratigraphy) have proved the potential of the method.