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- Title
The Role of Parameterizations and Model Coupling on Simulations of Energy and Water Balances – Investigations With the Atmospheric Model WRF and the Hydrologic Model WRF‐Hydro.
- Authors
Sofokleous, I.; Bruggeman, A.; Camera, C.
- Abstract
The distributed hydrologic model WRF‐Hydro can operate in a fully‐coupled mode with the atmospheric Weather, Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. WRF‐Hydro enhances the modeling of terrestrial hydrologic processes in coupled WRF/WRF‐Hydro by simulating lateral surface and subsurface water flows. The objectives of this study are (a) to examine the effect of WRF‐Hydro on the surface energy and water balance in fully‐coupled WRF/WRF‐Hydro simulations and (b) to examine the impact of five WRF physics parameterizations on WRF‐Hydro streamflow. The study area is the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and 31 mountainous watersheds. The domain‐average soil moisture was 20% higher in the coupled WRF/WRF‐Hydro, relative to the standalone WRF model, during a 1‐year simulation. The higher soil moisture could explain the increase in latent heat (36%) and evapotranspiration (33%). The increase in these fluxes was less with a modification in the model transpiration parameterization to represent nocturnal transpiration and the use of remote sensing leaf area index data. The simulated precipitation of the coupled model increased up to 3%, relative to WRF. Two‐year long WRF‐Hydro simulations gave a median Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiency for daily streamflow of the 31 watersheds of 0.5 for observed precipitation forcing and between −1.9 and 0.2 for the forcing of the five WRF parameterizations. This study showed that the enhancement of the standalone WRF model with lateral water flow processes in the coupled mode with WRF‐Hydro modifies the terrestrial energy and water balance. The improved terrestrial process representation should be considered for future hydrological cycle studies with WRF. Plain Language Summary: We tested the widely used Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model against the coupled atmospheric ‐ hydrologic WRF/WRF‐Hydro model, which adds the simulation of the processes of horizontal surface and subsurface flow of water. We conducted 1‐year long simulations for the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and 31 small mountainous river basins. We found higher soil moisture (20%), higher evapotranspiration (33%) and a small increase in rainfall (3%) for the coupled WRF/WRF‐Hydro model, compared to the WRF model without horizontal flows. We also examined the streamflow modeled with WRF‐Hydro using observed rainfall and five different set‐ups of the WRF model. We found that WRF‐Hydro with observed rain underestimated the average streamflow by 6%, during a 2‐year simulation. The best of the five WRF set‐ups showed a 19% underestimation of the average streamflow. Our study suggests that the coupling of WRF with the WRF‐Hydro model can improve land‐atmosphere simulations. However, an optimized ensemble of WRF set‐ups is needed to model the streamflow. Key Points: Fully‐coupled simulations of the Weather Research and Forecasting model with WRF‐Hydro and the effect of WRF ensemble forcings were testedThe process of lateral routing of water in coupled simulations increases soil moisture, latent heat, evapotranspiration and precipitationDifferent WRF atmospheric physics parameterizations used as forcing significantly affect WRF‐Hydro streamflow (bias between −37% and 119%)
- Subjects
CYPRUS; ATMOSPHERIC models; HYDROLOGIC models; ATMOSPHERIC physics; METEOROLOGICAL research; HYDROLOGIC cycle; WATERSHEDS; RAINFALL
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, 2024, Vol 129, Issue 8, p1
- ISSN
2169-897X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023JD040335