BioSNICAR predicts the spectral albedo of snow and glacier ice between 200nm to 5000nm given information about the illumination conditions, ice structure and the type and concentration of light-absorbing particulates (LAPs) externally mixed with the snow/ice. A detailed description of the theory on which the model is based can be found in Flanner et al. 2021. Briefly, the spectral albedo is computed from the single scattering properties of snow/ice and the light absorbing particulates (LAPs), along with the concentrations of LAPs and the physical properties of snow/ice (density, grain/pore size). These can vary in each layer, allowing for representation of e.g. porous weathered crust above unweathered ice with an uppermost mm of liquid water containing algae, or deep layers of ancient dust. The jumping-off point for this model was legacy FORTRAN and Matlab code from SNICAR model - Flanner et al. (2007) - which solves the radiative transfer equations after Toon et al. 1989. Two solvers are available: the original SNICAR matrix solver typically representing ice and snow with grains (Toon et al. 1989) and the Adding-Doubling (AD) solver representing the ice as a solid medium with air bubbles and allowing the incorporation of Fresnel reflecting layers (Brieglib and Light, 2007, Dang et al. 2019, Wicker et al. 2022). biosnicar-py couples SNICAR to a bio-optical model that allows for calculation of optical properties of snow and glacier algae to load into the model as LAPs (Cook et al. 2017, 2020), which were later measured empirically and integrated in the model (Chevrollier et al. 2023). This functionality, along with the vectorized AD solver formulation, the possibility to add liquid water into snow and ice matrices, accessible user interface and applicability to a very wide range of surface conditions are the unique selling points of this implementation. This code is also very actively maintained and we welcome contributions from the community to help make BioSNICAR a useful tool for a diverse range of cryosphere scientists.
NOTE: This code utilizes the miepython solver (Scott Prahl, https://github.com/scottprahl/miepython/tree/main) by default instead of the Bohren and Huffman 1983 solver as per the original Matlab version, hence slight differences exist in the computed albedo. The rationale for using the miepython solver was mostly due to the time efficiency of the computations, so that users can compute new grain/bubble SSPs for a given effective radius if it is not already available in the model (ssps_spheres_generator.py in the classic branch). It is however possible to fall back to the BH83 solver by changing the ice and snow optical properties data path (eg, sphere_ice = "Data/OP_data/480band/ice_spherical_grains_BH83/" instead of sphere_ice = "Data/OP_data/480band/ice_spherical_grains/").
Detailed documentation is available at https://biosnicar.vercel.app. This README gives a brief overview of the key information required to run the model.
There are two ways to run the biosnicar model: 1) use the app; 2) run the code. The app is designed to be extremely user-friendly and requires no coding skills. The app simply runs in the browser and is operated with a simple graphical user interface. You can use the deployed version by visiting
Alternatively, you can run the app locally. Power users will prefer to run the code directly to give access to all of BioSNICAR's functions. Both running the code and the app (if running locally) require a Python development environment with specific packages installed. The following section describes how to set up that environment.
If you do not have Python installed, download Python >3.8. It is recommended to use a fresh environment using conda or venv. Once activated, install the project dependencies with:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Now install biosnicar:
pip install -e .
Finally, if you do not wish to install anything on your computer, but you use VSCode and Docker, then you can use the devcontainer config provided to run this code in a remote container. This requires the "remote containers" extension to be added to VSCode. Further instructions are available here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers
Instructions for using the app are provided below.
To run the deployed version of the app simply direct your browser to bit.ly/bio-snicar. Alternatively, run the app locally by following these instructions:
The code for the Streamlit app is in ~/app.py.
In a terminal, navigate to the top-level biosnicar directory and run:
./start_app.sh
This starts the Streamlit server running on http://localhost:8501.
Simply update the values and the spectral albedo plot and the broadband albedo value will update on the screen. You can download this data to a csv file by clicking download data.
The model driver and all the core source code can be found in ./biosnicar. From the top-level directory (~/biosnicar-py), run:
python main.py
This will run the model with all the default settings. The user will see a list of output values printed to the console and a spectral albedo plot appears in a separate window. The code can also be run in an interactive session (Jupyter/iPython) in which case the relevant data and figure will appear in the interactive console.
Most users will want to experiment with changing input parameters. This is achieved by adjusting the values in the config file inputs.yaml. The nature of each parameter is described in in-line annotations to guide the user. Invalid combinations of values will be rejected by our error-checking code. Most users should have no reason to modify any other file in this repository except for those in inputs.yaml.
More complex applications of the model code, for example, model inversions, field/model comparisons etc are included under /experiments, with details provided in that module's own README.
We have also maintained a separate version of the biosnicar codebase that uses a "functional" programming style rather than the object-oriented approach taken here. We refer to this as biosnicar Classic and it is available in the classic branch of this repository. it might be useful for people already familiar with FORTRAN or Matlab implementations from previous literature. The two branches are entirely equivalent in their simulations but very different in their programming style. The object-oriented approach is preferred because it is more Pythonic, more flexible and easier to debug.
It is straightforward to adjust the model configuration by updating the values in inputs.yaml. However there is a lot of nuance to setting up the model to provide realistic simulations, and the meaning of the various parameters is not always obvious. For this reason, we have put together a guide. Please refer to the documentation at https://biosnicar.vercel.app.
New issues and pull requests are welcomed. Pull requests trigger our Github Actions workflow to test for any breaking changes. PRs that pass these automated tests will be reviewed.
This code is provided under an MIT license with the caveat that it is in active development. Collaboration ideas and pull requests generally welcomed. Please use the citations below to credit the builders of this repository and its predecessors.
If you use this code in a publication, please cite:
Cook, J. et al. (2020): Glacier algae accelerate melt rates on the western Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, doi:10.5194/tc-14-309-2020
Flanner, M. et al. (2007): Present-day climate forcing and response from black carbon in snow, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D11202, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD008003
And if using the adding-doubling method please also cite Dang et al (2019) and Whicker et al (2022) as their code was translated to form the adding_doubling_solver.py script here. The aspherical grain correction equations come from He et al. (2016).
Balkanski, Y., Schulz, M., Claquin, T., & Guibert, S. (2007). Reevaluation of Mineral aerosol radiative forcings suggests a better agreement with satellite and AERONET data. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 7(1), 81-95.
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Cook, J. M. et al. (2020): Glacier algae accelerate melt rates on the western Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2019-58, in review, 2019.
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He, C., Takano, Y., Liou, K. N., Yang, P., Li, Q., & Chen, F. (2017). Impact of snow grain shape and black carbon–snow internal mixing on snow optical properties: Parameterizations for climate models. Journal of Climate, 30(24), 10019-10036.
He, C., Liou, K. N., Takano, Y., Yang, P., Qi, L., & Chen, F. (2018). Impact of grain shape and multiple black carbon internal mixing on snow albedo: Parameterization and radiative effect analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123(2), 1253-1268.
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Skiles, S. M., Painter, T., & Okin, G. S. (2017). A method to retrieve the spectral complex refractive index and single scattering optical properties of dust deposited in mountain snow. Journal of Glaciology, 63(237), 133-147.
Toon, O. B., McKay, C. P., Ackerman, T. P., and Santhanam, K. (1989), Rapid calculation of radiative heating rates and photodissociation rates in inhomogeneous multiple scattering atmospheres, J. Geophys. Res., 94( D13), 16287– 16301, doi:10.1029/JD094iD13p16287.
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Whicker, C. A., et al. "SNICAR-ADv4: a physically based radiative transfer model to represent the spectral albedo of glacier ice." The Cryosphere 16.4 (2022): 1197-1220.
Halbach, L., et al. "Pigment signatures of algal communities and their implications for glacier surface darkening." Scientific Reports 12.1 (2022): 17643.
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