A land surface model combined with a crop growth model for paddy rice (MATCRO-Rice Ver. 1) – Part II: Model validation
Abstract. We conducted a comprehensive validation of the simulations by MATCRO-Rice developed by Masutomi et al. (2016). In the validation, we compared simulations with observations for latent heat flux (LHF), sensible heat flux (SHF), net carbon flux, and paddy rice yield from 2003 to 2006. The observation site used for the comparison is located in Tsukuba, Japan, where inputs for running the model and outputs for the validation were fully observed. The 4-year average root mean square errors (RMSEs) between simulations and observations for LHF and SHF were 18.57 and 12.66 W m−2, respectively. These values for errors are comparable to those reported in earlier studies. The comparison of biomass growth during growing periods from 2003 to 2006 shows that the simulations were in agreement with the observations, indicating that the model can reproduce the net carbon flux well. The 4-year average RMSE for crop yield in the same period was 402.4 kg ha−1, which accounted for 7.9 % of the mean observed yields. These results indicate that MATCRO-Rice has high ability to accurately and consistently simulate LHF, SHF, net carbon flux, and crop yield.