Climate input requirements include global short-wave radiation, air temperatures, average wind speed, and precipitation. General site, canopy, and soil characteristics for individual horizons are also needed. Enhancements to the Residue model to produce FroST included algorithms for calculating surface runoff, transpiration, Penman demand, and a simple snow model. In FroST, surface residue from the Residue model is configured to reflect above ground characteristics of forested sites. Snow is simulated by changing the characteristics of the surface soil node from soil characteristics to snow characteristics.
Precipitation increases the node's thickness, and a simple melt factor is used to melt off the snow.
Once the snow has melted off, node characteristics are reset to that soil References Bidlake, W.R., G.S. Campbell, R.I. Papendick, and R.F. Cullum.