Upscaling runoff and evapotranspiration fluxes in the Little Washita watershed using physically-based hillslope models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Picourlat ◽  
Emmanuel Mouche ◽  
Claude Mugler
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Drainage Density ◽  
Equivalent Model ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Good Prediction ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Physically Based ◽  
Physically Based Models

<p>Several authors in the literature, such as Khan (2014) and Loritz (2017), have previously suggested that 3D catchment hydrology can be predicted from 2D hillslope simulations. Following this idea, we propose an upscaling methodology for runoff and evapotranspiration fluxes. The first step consists of a geomorphic analysis of the studied watershed. The average mean slope and hillslope length are then used to build a 2D equivalent-hillslope model. The validity of the methodology is tested by comparing the resulting water balance with a 3D physically-based distributed model. 2D fluxes of the equivalent hillslope are converted into 3D by using the drainage density. This upscaling methodology is applied to the Little Washita (LW) watershed (Oklahoma, USA). Both the 3D reference model and the 2D equivalent model are built with the physically-based distributed code HydroGeoSphere, which is forced by LW reanalysis climatic data. Two decades are simulated. Regarding the evapotranspiration, the upscaling methodology with only one equivalent hillslope gives a good prediction of 3D fluxes. However, a combination of several hillslopes is needed for simulating the 3D flow rate at the basin’s outlet. This work on the decrease of model dimensionality is a first step in the upscaling process from 3D physically-based models to 1D column models used in global Land Surface Models.</p>

Toward a Robust Canopy Hydrology Scheme with Precipitation Subgrid Variability

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagang Wang ◽  
Guiling Wang
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Canopy Interception ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Covered Area ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Physically Based ◽  
Interception Loss ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Representation of the canopy hydrological processes has been challenging in land surface modeling due to the subgrid heterogeneity in both precipitation and surface characteristics. The Shuttleworth dynamic–statistical method is widely used to represent the impact of the precipitation subgrid variability on canopy hydrological processes but shows unwanted sensitivity to temporal resolution when implemented into land surface models. This paper presents a canopy hydrology scheme that is robust at different temporal resolutions. This scheme is devised by applying two physically based treatments to the Shuttleworth scheme: 1) the canopy hydrological processes within the rain-covered area are treated separately from those within the nonrain area, and the scheme tracks the relative rain location between adjacent time steps; and 2) within the rain-covered area, the canopy interception is so determined as to sustain the potential evaporation from the wetted canopy or is equal to precipitation, whichever is less, to maintain somewhat wet canopy during any rainy time step. When applied to the Amazon region, the new scheme establishes interception loss ratios of 0.3 at a 10-min time step and 0.23 at a 2-h time step. Compared to interception loss ratios of 0.45 and 0.09 at the corresponding time steps established by the original Shuttleworth scheme, the new scheme is much more stable under different temporal resolutions.

scholarly journals The Plumbing of Land Surface Models: Benchmarking Model Performance

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 1425-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Best ◽  
G. Abramowitz ◽  
H. R. Johnson ◽  
A. J. Pitman ◽  
G. Balsamo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Land Surface Models ◽  
Downward Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Physically Based

Abstract The Protocol for the Analysis of Land Surface Models (PALS) Land Surface Model Benchmarking Evaluation Project (PLUMBER) was designed to be a land surface model (LSM) benchmarking intercomparison. Unlike the traditional methods of LSM evaluation or comparison, benchmarking uses a fundamentally different approach in that it sets expectations of performance in a range of metrics a priori—before model simulations are performed. This can lead to very different conclusions about LSM performance. For this study, both simple physically based models and empirical relationships were used as the benchmarks. Simulations were performed with 13 LSMs using atmospheric forcing for 20 sites, and then model performance relative to these benchmarks was examined. Results show that even for commonly used statistical metrics, the LSMs’ performance varies considerably when compared to the different benchmarks. All models outperform the simple physically based benchmarks, but for sensible heat flux the LSMs are themselves outperformed by an out-of-sample linear regression against downward shortwave radiation. While moisture information is clearly central to latent heat flux prediction, the LSMs are still outperformed by a three-variable nonlinear regression that uses instantaneous atmospheric humidity and temperature in addition to downward shortwave radiation. These results highlight the limitations of the prevailing paradigm of LSM evaluation that simply compares an LSM to observations and to other LSMs without a mechanism to objectively quantify the expectations of performance. The authors conclude that their results challenge the conceptual view of energy partitioning at the land surface.

scholarly journals Scale issues in soil moisture modelling: problems and prospects

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rezaul Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Characterization ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Soil Moisture Storage ◽  
Surface Atmosphere ◽  
Physically Based ◽  
Physically Based Models ◽  
Moisture Storage

Soil moisture storage is an important component of the hydrological cycle and plays a key role in land-surface-atmosphere interaction. The soil-moisture storage equation in this study considers precipitation as an input and soil moisture as a residual term for runoff and evapotranspiration. A number of models have been developed to estimate soil moisture storage and the components of the soil-moisture storage equation. A detailed discussion of the impli cation of the scale of application of these models reports that it is not possible to extrapolate processes and their estimates from the small to the large scale. It is also noted that physically based models for small-scale applications are sufficiently detailed to reproduce land-surface- atmosphere interactions. On the other hand, models for large-scale applications oversimplify the processes. Recently developed physically based models for large-scale applications can only be applied to limited uses because of data restrictions and the problems associated with land surface characterization. It is reported that remote sensing can play an important role in over coming the problems related to the unavailability of data and the land surface characterization of large-scale applications of these physically based models when estimating soil moisture storage.

scholarly journals Diel streamflow cycles suggest more sensitive snowmelt-driven streamflow to climate change than land surface modeling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian A. Krogh ◽  
Lucia Scaff ◽  
Gary Sterle ◽  
James Kirchner ◽  
Beatrice Gordon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Land Surface Modeling ◽  
Western Us ◽  
Observational Technique ◽  
Physically Based ◽  
Late 21St Century ◽  
Physically Based Models ◽  
Time Substitution

Abstract. Climate warming may cause mountain snowpacks to melt earlier, reducing summer streamflow and threatening water supplies and ecosystems. Few observations allow separating rain and snowmelt contributions to streamflow, so physically based models are needed for hydrological predictions and analyses. We develop an observational technique for detecting streamflow responses to snowmelt using incoming solar radiation and diel (daily) cycles of streamflow. We measure the 20th percentile of snowmelt days (DOS20), across 31 watersheds in the western US, as a proxy for the beginning of snowmelt-initiated streamflow. Historic DOS20 varies from mid-January to late May, with warmer sites having earlier and more intermittent snowmelt-mediated streamflow. Mean annual DOS20 strongly correlates with the dates of 25 % and 50 % annual streamflow volume (DOQ25 and DOQ50, both R2 = 0.85), suggesting that a one-day earlier DOS20 corresponds with a one-day earlier DOQ25 and 0.7-day earlier DOQ50. Empirical projections of future DOS20 (RCP8.5, late 21st century), using space-for-time substitution, show that DOS20 will occur 11 ± 4 days earlier per 1 °C of warming, and that colder places (mean November–February air temperature, TNDJF <−8 °C) are 70 % more sensitive to climate change on average than warmer places (TNDJF > 0 °C). Moreover, empirical space-for-time based projections of DOQ25 and DOQ50 are about four and two times more sensitive to earlier streamflow than those from NoahMP-WRF. Given the importance of changing streamflow timing for headwater resources, snowmelt detection methods such as DOS20 based on diel streamflow cycles may constrain hydrological models and improve hydrological predictions.

scholarly journals Eco‐evolutionary optimality as a means to improve vegetation and land‐surface models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy P. Harrison ◽  
Wolfgang Cramer ◽  
Oskar Franklin ◽  
Iain Colin Prentice ◽  
Han Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Land Surface Models ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Evolutionary Optimality

scholarly journals The CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy

2006 ◽  
Vol 87 (10) ◽  
pp. 1367-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Dolman ◽  
J. Noilhan ◽  
P. Durand ◽  
C. Sarrat ◽  
A. Brut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Major Product ◽  
State Variables ◽  
Land Surface Models ◽  
Quality Metric ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Global Soil ◽  
Standard Deviations ◽  
Model Agreement

The Second Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP-2) is an initiative to compare and evaluate 10-year simulations by a broad range of land surface models under controlled conditions. A major product of GSWP-2 is the first global gridded multimodel analysis of land surface state variables and fluxes for use by meteorologists, hydrologists, engineers, biogeochemists, agronomists, botanists, ecologists, geographers, climatologists, and educators. Simulations by 13 land models from five nations have gone into production of the analysis. The models are driven by forcing data derived from a combination of gridded atmospheric reanalyses and observations. The resulting analysis consists of multimodel means and standard deviations on the monthly time scale, including profiles of soil moisture and temperature at six levels, as well as daily and climatological (mean annual cycle) fields for over 50 land surface variables. The monthly standard deviations provide a measure of model agreement that may be used as a quality metric. An overview of key characteristics of the analysis is presented here, along with information on obtaining the data.

scholarly journals Permafrost temperature and active-layer thickness of Yakutia with 0.5-degree spatial resolution for model evaluation

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Beer ◽  
A. N. Fedorov ◽  
Y. Torgovkin
Keyword(s):  
Layer Thickness ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Active Layer ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Grid Cell ◽  
Active Layer Thickness ◽  
East Siberia ◽  
Permafrost Temperature ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
The Mean

Abstract. Based on the map of landscapes and permafrost conditions in Yakutia (Merzlotno-landshaftnaya karta Yakutskoi0 ASSR, Gosgeodeziya SSSR, 1991), rasterized maps of permafrost temperature and active-layer thickness of Yakutia, East Siberia were derived. The mean and standard deviation at 0.5-degree grid cell size are estimated by assigning a probability density function at 0.001-degree spatial resolution. The gridded datasets can be accessed at the PANGAEA repository (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.808240). Spatial pattern of both variables are dominated by a climatic gradient from north to south, and by mountains and the soil type distribution. Uncertainties are highest in mountains and in the sporadic permafrost zone in the south. The maps are best suited as a benchmark for land surface models which include a permafrost module.

scholarly journals Discontinuous Daily Temperatures in the WATCH Forcing Datasets

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 465-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning W. Rust ◽  
Tim Kruschke ◽  
Andreas Dobler ◽  
Madlen Fischer ◽  
Uwe Ulbrich
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Climatic Research Unit ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Monthly Means ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
The Tropics

Abstract The Water and Global Change (WATCH) forcing datasets have been created to support the use of hydrological and land surface models for the assessment of the water cycle within climate change studies. They are based on 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) or ECMWF interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim) with temperatures (among other variables) adjusted such that their monthly means match the monthly temperature dataset from the Climatic Research Unit. To this end, daily minimum, maximum, and mean temperatures within one calendar month have been subjected to a correction involving monthly means of the respective month. As these corrections can be largely different for adjacent months, this procedure potentially leads to implausible differences in daily temperatures across the boundaries of calendar months. We analyze day-to-day temperature fluctuations within and across months and find that across-months differences are significantly larger, mostly in the tropics and frigid zones. Average across-months differences in daily mean temperature are typically between 10% and 40% larger than their corresponding within-months average temperature differences. However, regions with differences up to 200% can be found in tropical Africa. Particularly in regions where snowmelt is a relevant player for hydrology, a few degrees Celsius difference can be decisive for triggering this process. Daily maximum and minimum temperatures are affected in the same regions, but in a less severe way.

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