Effects of Shading and Aspect

GSSHA currently employs methods to account for both longwave and shortwave radiation in each cell. Longwave radiation is mainly a function of temperature, clouds, and atmospheric emissivity, while the shortwave radiation calculations take into consideration albedo, topographic shading, aspect of the terrain in relation to the sun, albedo of snow as it ages, atmospheric absorption and reflection, clouds, and vegetation. The calculated longwave and shortwave radiation values are then used within the EB and HY models to simulate the melting of snow. For the TI method of snow melt an effective temperature (Teff) is calculated, which incorporates the differences in net radiation affecting each cell.