scholarly journals Global root zone storage capacity from satellite-based evaporation

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Wang-Erlandsson ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
H. Gao ◽  
J. Jägermeyr ◽  
G. B. Senay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Return Period ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Evergreen Forests ◽  
Direct Measurements ◽  
Land Surface Modelling

Abstract. This study presents an "earth observation-based" method for estimating root zone storage capacity – a critical, yet uncertain parameter in hydrological and land surface modelling. By assuming that vegetation optimises its root zone storage capacity to bridge critical dry periods, we were able to use state-of-the-art satellite-based evaporation data computed with independent energy balance equations to derive gridded root zone storage capacity at global scale. This approach does not require soil or vegetation information, is model-independent, and is in principle scale-independent. In contrast to traditional look-up table approaches, our method captures the variability in root zone storage capacity within land cover types, including in rainforests where direct measurements of root depths otherwise are scarce. Implementing the estimated root zone storage capacity in the global hydrological model STEAM improved evaporation simulation overall, and in particular during the least evaporating months in sub-humid to humid regions with moderate to high seasonality. We find that evergreen forests are able to create a large storage to buffer for severe droughts (with a return period of 10–20 years), in contrast to short vegetation and crops (which seem to adapt to a drought return period of about 2 years). The presented method to estimate root zone storage capacity reduces the dependency on soil and rooting depth data of poor resolution that form a limitation for achieving progress in the global land surface modelling community.

scholarly journals Global root zone storage capacity from satellite-based evaporation

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1459-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Wang-Erlandsson ◽  
Wim G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
Hongkai Gao ◽  
Jonas Jägermeyr ◽  
Gabriel B. Senay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Return Period ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Rooting Depth ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Direct Measurements ◽  
Land Surface Modelling ◽  
Model Independent

Abstract. This study presents an "Earth observation-based" method for estimating root zone storage capacity – a critical, yet uncertain parameter in hydrological and land surface modelling. By assuming that vegetation optimises its root zone storage capacity to bridge critical dry periods, we were able to use state-of-the-art satellite-based evaporation data computed with independent energy balance equations to derive gridded root zone storage capacity at global scale. This approach does not require soil or vegetation information, is model independent, and is in principle scale independent. In contrast to a traditional look-up table approach, our method captures the variability in root zone storage capacity within land cover types, including in rainforests where direct measurements of root depths otherwise are scarce. Implementing the estimated root zone storage capacity in the global hydrological model STEAM (Simple Terrestrial Evaporation to Atmosphere Model) improved evaporation simulation overall, and in particular during the least evaporating months in sub-humid to humid regions with moderate to high seasonality. Our results suggest that several forest types are able to create a large storage to buffer for severe droughts (with a very long return period), in contrast to, for example, savannahs and woody savannahs (medium length return period), as well as grasslands, shrublands, and croplands (very short return period). The presented method to estimate root zone storage capacity eliminates the need for poor resolution soil and rooting depth data that form a limitation for achieving progress in the global land surface modelling community.

scholarly journals A simple topography-driven and calibration-free runoff generation module

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 787-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongkai Gao ◽  
Christian Birkel ◽  
Markus Hrachowitz ◽  
Doerthe Tetzlaff ◽  
Chris Soulsby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Runoff Generation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Calibration Free ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model

Abstract. Reading landscapes and developing calibration-free runoff generation models that adequately reflect land surface heterogeneities remains the focus of much hydrological research. In this study, we report a novel and simple topography-driven runoff generation parameterization – the HAND-based Storage Capacity curve (HSC), which uses a topographic index (HAND, Height Above the Nearest Drainage) to identify hydrological similarity and the extent of saturated areas in catchments. The HSC can be used as a module in any conceptual rainfall–runoff model. Further, coupling the HSC parameterization with the mass curve technique (MCT) to estimate root zone storage capacity (SuMax), we developed a calibration-free runoff generation module, HSC-MCT. The runoff generation modules of HBV and TOPMODEL were used for comparison purposes. The performance of these two modules (HSC and HSC-MCT) was first checked against the data-rich Bruntland Burn (BB) catchment in Scotland, which has a long time series of field-mapped saturation area extent. We found that HSC, HBV and TOPMODEL all perform well to reproduce the hydrograph, but the HSC module performs better in reproducing saturated area variation, in terms of correlation coefficient and spatial pattern. The HSC and HSC-MCT modules were subsequently tested for 323 MOPEX catchments in the US, with diverse climate, soil, vegetation and geological characteristics. In comparison with HBV and TOPMODEL, the HSC performs better in both calibration and validation, particularly in the catchments with gentle topography, less forest cover, and arid climate. Despite having no calibrated parameters, the HSC-MCT module performed comparably well with calibrated modules, highlighting the robustness of the HSC parameterization to describe the spatial distribution of the root zone storage capacity and the efficiency of the MCT method to estimate SuMax. This novel and calibration-free runoff generation module helps to improve the prediction in ungauged basins and has great potential to be generalized at the global scale.

Application of an optimality-based model to operate at half-hourly timestep to implement plant acclimation within a land-surface modelling framework

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Mengoli ◽  
Anna Agustí-Panareda ◽  
Souhail Boussetta ◽  
Sandy P. Harrison ◽  
Carlo Trotta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Multiple Time Scales ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Extended Model ◽  
Test Model ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Plant Acclimation ◽  
Land Surface Modelling

<p>Vegetation and atmosphere are linked through the perpetual exchange of water, carbon and energy. An accurate representation of the processes involved in these exchanges is crucial in forecasting Earth system states. Although vegetation has become an undisputed key component in land-surface modelling (LSMs), the current generation of models differ in terms of how key processes are formulated. Plant processes react to environmental changes on multiple time scales. Here we differentiate a fast (minutes) and a slower (acclimated – weeks to months) response. Some current LSMs include plant acclimation, even though they require additional parameters to represent this response, but the majority of them represent only the fast response and assume that this also applies at longer time scales. Ignoring acclimation in this way could be the cause of inconsistent future projections. Our proposition is to include plant acclimation in a LSM schema, without having to include new plant-functional-type-dependent parameters. This is possible by using an alternative model development strategy based on eco-evolutionary theory, which explicitly predicts the acclimation of photosynthetic capacities and stomatal behaviour to environmental variations. So far, this theory has been tested only at weekly to monthly timescales. Here we develop and test an approach to apply an existing optimality-based model of gross primary production (GPP), the P model, at the sub-daily timestep necessary for use in an LSM, making an explicit differentiation between the fast and slow responses of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. We test model performance in reproducing the diurnal cycle of GPP as recorded by flux tower measurements across different biomes, including boreal and tropical forests. The extended model requires only a few meteorological inputs, and a satellite-derived product for leaf area index or green vegetation cover. It is able to manage both timescales of acclimation without PFT-dependent photosynthetic parameters and has shown to operate with very good performance at all sites so far investigated. The model structure avoids the need to store past climate and vegetation states. These findings therefore suggest a simple way to include both instantaneous and acclimated responses within a LSM framework, and to do so in a robust way that does not require the specification of multiple parameters for different plant functional types.</p>

ECLand: an ECMWF land surface modelling platform

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Balsamo ◽  
Souhail Boussetta
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Land Surface Modelling ◽  
New Research

<p>The ECMWF operational land surface model, based on the Carbon-Hydrology Tiled ECMWF Scheme for Surface Exchanges over Land (CHTESSEL) is the baseline for global weather, climate and environmental applications at ECMWF. In order to expedite its progress and benefit from international collaboration, an ECLand platform has been designed to host advanced and modular schemes. ECLand is paving the way toward a land model that could support a wider range of modelling applications, facilitating global kilometer scales testing as envisaged in the Copernicus and Destination Earth programmes. This presentation introduces the CHTESSEL and its recent new developments that aims at hosting new research applications.</p><p>These new improvements touch upon different components of the model: (i) vegetation, (ii) snow, (iii) soil hydrology, (iv) open water/lakes (v) rivers and (vi) urban areas. The developments are evaluated separately with either offline simulations or coupled experiments, depending on their level of operational readiness, illustrating the benchmarking criteria for assessing process fidelity with regards to land surface fluxes and reservoirs involved in water-energy-carbon exchange, and within the Earth system prediction framework, as foreseen to enter upcoming ECMWF operational cycles.</p><p>Reference: Souhail Boussetta, Gianpaolo Balsamo*, Anna Agustì-Panareda, Gabriele Arduini, Anton Beljaars, Emanuel Dutra, Glenn Carver, Margarita Choulga, Ioan Hadade, Cinzia Mazzetti, Joaquìn Munõz-Sabater, Joe McNorton, Christel Prudhomme, Patricia De Rosnay, Irina Sandu, Nils Wedi, Dai Yamazaki, Ervin Zsoter, 2021: ECLand: an ECMWF land surface modelling platform, MDPI Atmosphere, (in prep).</p>

scholarly journals Land-surface modelling in hydrological perspective

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 1815-1848 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Overgaard ◽  
D. Rosbjerg ◽  
M. B. Butts
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Potential Evapotranspiration ◽  
Distributed Data ◽  
Atmospheric Models ◽  
Dynamic Coupling ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Evaluation Procedures ◽  
Surface Models ◽  
Land Surface Modelling

Abstract. A comprehensive review of energy-based land-surface modelling, as seen from a hydrological perspective, is provided. We choose to focus on energy-based approaches, because in comparison to the traditional potential evapotranspiration models, these approaches allow for a stronger link to remote sensing and atmospheric modelling. New opportunities for evaluation of distributed land-surface models through application of remote sensing are discussed in detail, and the difficulties inherent in various evaluation procedures are presented. Remote sensing is the only source of distributed data at scales that correspond to hydrological modelling scales. Finally, the dynamic coupling of hydrological and atmospheric models is explored, and the future perspectives of such efforts are discussed.

scholarly journals Comparing Assimilation of Synthetic Soil Moisture versus C‐band Backscatter for Hyper‐resolution Land Surface Modelling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leqiang Sun ◽  
Stephane Belair ◽  
Marco L. Carrera ◽  
Bernard Bilodeau ◽  
Mohammed Dabboor
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Land Surface Modelling

scholarly journals Towards a simple representation of chalk hydrology in land surface modelling

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 459-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostaquimur Rahman ◽  
Rafael Rosolem
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Unsaturated Zone ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Preferential Flow ◽  
Water Movement ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Land Surface Modelling

Abstract. Modelling and monitoring of hydrological processes in the unsaturated zone of chalk, a porous medium with fractures, is important to optimize water resource assessment and management practices in the United Kingdom (UK). However, incorporating the processes governing water movement through a chalk unsaturated zone in a numerical model is complicated mainly due to the fractured nature of chalk that creates high-velocity preferential flow paths in the subsurface. In general, flow through a chalk unsaturated zone is simulated using the dual-porosity concept, which often involves calibration of a relatively large number of model parameters, potentially undermining applications to large regions. In this study, a simplified parameterization, namely the Bulk Conductivity (BC) model, is proposed for simulating hydrology in a chalk unsaturated zone. This new parameterization introduces only two additional parameters (namely the macroporosity factor and the soil wetness threshold parameter for fracture flow activation) and uses the saturated hydraulic conductivity from the chalk matrix. The BC model is implemented in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) and applied to a study area encompassing the Kennet catchment in the southern UK. This parameterization is further calibrated at the point scale using soil moisture profile observations. The performance of the calibrated BC model in JULES is assessed and compared against the performance of both the default JULES parameterization and the uncalibrated version of the BC model implemented in JULES. Finally, the model performance at the catchment scale is evaluated against independent data sets (e.g. runoff and latent heat flux). The results demonstrate that the inclusion of the BC model in JULES improves simulated land surface mass and energy fluxes over the chalk-dominated Kennet catchment. Therefore, the simple approach described in this study may be used to incorporate the flow processes through a chalk unsaturated zone in large-scale land surface modelling applications.

scholarly journals A two-directional freeze and thaw algorithm for hydrologic and land surface modelling

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
M.-k. Woo ◽  
M. A. Arain ◽  
M. Mollinga ◽  
S. Yi
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Modelling ◽  
Freeze And Thaw ◽  
Land Surface Modelling
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