Applicability evaluation and improvement of different snow evaporation calculation methods in the Great Xing’an mountains

This study highlights the importance of environmental factors and resultant snow evaporation rate change in the hydrologic balance of the seasonal snow-cover forest, and suggests that modeling studies must account for seasonally dissimilar characters of the environmental factors in order to accurately predict snow evaporation. Meanwhile, the relationship between the snow evaporation rate and environmental factors in spring snowmelt was analysed from 2016 to 2018. Temperature, net radiation, vapour pressure and wind speed played important roles in snow evaporation during the snowmelt season. The Penman combination equation was improved by using multiple linear regression and variance function analysis. The Root mean square errors (RMSE) of the Improved Penman combination equation from 2016 to 2018 were 0.052, 0.057, and 0.059 mm/day, and the R² values were 0.781, 0.749, and 0.751. The methods and data sets presented in this study can be used to develop and improve snow evaporation models to reflect the relationship between environmental factors and the snow evaporation rate, as well as the spatial and temporal variability of snow evaporation.