On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions
Arctic and subarctic regions are amongst the most susceptible regions on Earth to global warming and climate change. Understanding and predicting the impact of climate change in these regions require a proper process representation of the interactions between climate, carbon cycle, and hydrology in...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:hess62589 2023-05-15T15:17:13+02:00 On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo Gamazo, Pablo Razavi, Saman Wheater, Howard S. 2019-01-10 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/22/3295/2018/ eng eng doi:10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/22/3295/2018/ eISSN: 1607-7938 Text 2019 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 2019-12-24T09:50:09Z Arctic and subarctic regions are amongst the most susceptible regions on Earth to global warming and climate change. Understanding and predicting the impact of climate change in these regions require a proper process representation of the interactions between climate, carbon cycle, and hydrology in Earth system models. This study focuses on land surface models (LSMs) that represent the lower boundary condition of general circulation models (GCMs) and regional climate models (RCMs), which simulate climate change evolution at the global and regional scales, respectively. LSMs typically utilize a standard soil configuration with a depth of no more than 4 m, whereas for cold, permafrost regions, field experiments show that attention to deep soil profiles is needed to understand and close the water and energy balances, which are tightly coupled through the phase change. To address this gap, we design and run a series of model experiments with a one-dimensional LSM, called CLASS (Canadian Land Surface Scheme), as embedded in the MESH (Modélisation Environmentale Communautaire – Surface and Hydrology) modelling system, to (1) characterize the effect of soil profile depth under different climate conditions and in the presence of parameter uncertainty; (2) assess the effect of including or excluding the geothermal flux in the LSM at the bottom of the soil column; and (3) develop a methodology for temperature profile initialization in permafrost regions, where the system has an extended memory, by the use of paleo-records and bootstrapping. Our study area is in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories of Canada, where measurements of soil temperature profiles and historical reconstructed climate data are available. Our results demonstrate a dominant role for parameter uncertainty, that is often neglected in LSMs. Considering such high sensitivity to parameter values and dependency on the climate condition, we show that a minimum depth of 20 m is essential to adequately represent the temperature dynamics. We further show that our proposed initialization procedure is effective and robust to uncertainty in paleo-climate reconstructions and that more than 300 years of reconstructed climate time series are needed for proper model initialization. Text Arctic Climate change Global warming Northwest Territories permafrost Subarctic Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Canada Norman Wells ENVELOPE(-126.833,-126.833,65.282,65.282) Northwest Territories Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 22 6 3295 3309 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Arctic and subarctic regions are amongst the most susceptible regions on Earth to global warming and climate change. Understanding and predicting the impact of climate change in these regions require a proper process representation of the interactions between climate, carbon cycle, and hydrology in Earth system models. This study focuses on land surface models (LSMs) that represent the lower boundary condition of general circulation models (GCMs) and regional climate models (RCMs), which simulate climate change evolution at the global and regional scales, respectively. LSMs typically utilize a standard soil configuration with a depth of no more than 4 m, whereas for cold, permafrost regions, field experiments show that attention to deep soil profiles is needed to understand and close the water and energy balances, which are tightly coupled through the phase change. To address this gap, we design and run a series of model experiments with a one-dimensional LSM, called CLASS (Canadian Land Surface Scheme), as embedded in the MESH (Modélisation Environmentale Communautaire – Surface and Hydrology) modelling system, to (1) characterize the effect of soil profile depth under different climate conditions and in the presence of parameter uncertainty; (2) assess the effect of including or excluding the geothermal flux in the LSM at the bottom of the soil column; and (3) develop a methodology for temperature profile initialization in permafrost regions, where the system has an extended memory, by the use of paleo-records and bootstrapping. Our study area is in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories of Canada, where measurements of soil temperature profiles and historical reconstructed climate data are available. Our results demonstrate a dominant role for parameter uncertainty, that is often neglected in LSMs. Considering such high sensitivity to parameter values and dependency on the climate condition, we show that a minimum depth of 20 m is essential to adequately represent the temperature dynamics. We further show that our proposed initialization procedure is effective and robust to uncertainty in paleo-climate reconstructions and that more than 300 years of reconstructed climate time series are needed for proper model initialization. |
format |
Text |
author |
Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo Gamazo, Pablo Razavi, Saman Wheater, Howard S. |
spellingShingle |
Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo Gamazo, Pablo Razavi, Saman Wheater, Howard S. On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
author_facet |
Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo Gamazo, Pablo Razavi, Saman Wheater, Howard S. |
author_sort |
Sapriza-Azuri, Gonzalo |
title |
On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
title_short |
On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
title_full |
On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
title_fullStr |
On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
title_full_unstemmed |
On the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
title_sort |
on the appropriate definition of soil profile configuration and initial conditions for land surface–hydrology models in cold regions |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/22/3295/2018/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-126.833,-126.833,65.282,65.282) |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Norman Wells Northwest Territories |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Norman Wells Northwest Territories |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Northwest Territories permafrost Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming Northwest Territories permafrost Subarctic |
op_source |
eISSN: 1607-7938 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/22/3295/2018/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3295-2018 |
container_title |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
container_volume |
22 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
3295 |
op_container_end_page |
3309 |
_version_ |
1766347481180798976 |