A conceptual snow model with an analytic resolution of the heat and phase change equations

Snow models are often designed to simulate snowmelt and river discharge when coupled to a rainfall-runoff model, but few of them simulate correctly the snow water equivalent (SWE) at point scale. Tackling this flaw could have several advantages: improving the model reliability and performance for short- and long-term prediction, permitting spatial regionalization, and allowing data assimilation of observed snow measurements.