The multi‐institution North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): Utilizing multiple GCIP products and partners in a continental distributed hydrological modeling system

[1] Results are presented from the multi-institution partnership to develop a real-time and retrospective North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). NLDAS consists of (1) four land models executing in parallel in uncoupled mode, (2) common hourly surface forcing, and (3) common streamflow routing: all using a 1/8° grid over the continental United States. The initiative is largely sponsored by the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP). As the overview for nine NLDAS papers, this paper describes and evaluates the 3-year NLDAS execution of 1 October 1996 to 30 September 1999, a period rich in observations for validation. The validation emphasizes (1) the land states, fluxes, and input forcing of four land models, (2) the application of new GCIP-sponsored products, and (3) a multiscale approach. The validation includes (1) mesoscale observing networks of land surface forcing, fluxes, and states, (2) regional snowpack measurements, (3) daily streamflow measurements, and (4) satellite-based retrievals of snow cover, land surface skin temperature (LST), and surface insolation. The results show substantial intermodel differences in surface evaporation and runoff (especially over nonsparse vegetation), soil moisture storage, snowpack, and LST. Owing to surprisingly large intermodel differences in aerodynamic conductance, intermodel differences in midday summer LST were unlike those expected from the intermodel differences in Bowen ratio. Last, anticipating future assimilation of LST, an NLDAS effort unique to this overview paper assesses geostationary-satellite-derived LST, determines the latter to be of good quality, and applies the latter to validate modeled LST.

[1]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  Streamflow and water balance intercomparisons of four land surface models in the North American Land Data Assimilation System Project , 2004 .

[2]  Jeffrey P. Walker,et al.  THE GLOBAL LAND DATA ASSIMILATION SYSTEM , 2004 .

[3]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  Snow process modeling in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): 1. Evaluation of model‐simulated snow cover extent , 2003 .

[4]  Kenneth E. Mitchell,et al.  Eta model estimated land surface processes and the hydrologic cycle of the Mississippi basin , 2003 .

[5]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Validation of the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) retrospective forcing over the southern Great Plains : GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project, Part 3 (GCIP3) , 2003 .

[6]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Surface radiation budgets in support of the GEWEX Continental‐Scale International Project (GCIP) and the GEWEX Americas Prediction Project (GAPP), including the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project , 2003 .

[7]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Land surface model spin‐up behavior in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) , 2003 .

[8]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Implementation of Noah land surface model advances in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction operational mesoscale Eta model , 2003 .

[9]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Real‐time and retrospective forcing in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project , 2003 .

[10]  D. Mocko,et al.  Simulation of high-latitude hydrological processes in the Torne-Kalix basin: PILPS phase 2(e) - 1: Experiment description and summary intercomparisons , 2003 .

[11]  D. Mocko,et al.  Simulation of high latitude hydrological processes in the Torne-Kalix basin : PILPS phase 2(e) - 2: Comparison of model results with observations , 2003 .

[12]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  An intercomparison of soil moisture fields in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) , 2003 .

[13]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Evaluation of the North American Land Data Assimilation System over the southern Great Plains during the warm season , 2003 .

[14]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  Snow process modeling in the north american Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): 2. Evaluation of model simulated snow water equivalent : GEWEX Continental-Scale International Project, Part 3 (GCIP3) , 2003 .

[15]  Douglas A. Miller,et al.  GCIP water and energy budget synthesis (WEBS) , 2002 .

[16]  Eric A. Rosenberg,et al.  A Long-Term Hydrologically Based Dataset of Land Surface Fluxes and States for the Conterminous United States: Update and Extensions* , 2002 .

[17]  M. Kanamitsu,et al.  NCEP–DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis (R-2) , 2002 .

[18]  R. Koster,et al.  The Rhône-Aggregation Land Surface Scheme Intercomparison Project: An Overview , 2002 .

[19]  Bart Nijssen,et al.  Global Retrospective Estimation of Soil Moisture Using the Variable Infiltration Capacity Land Surface Model, 1980–93 , 2001 .

[20]  R. Dickinson,et al.  The Representation of Snow in Land Surface Schemes: Results from PILPS 2(d) , 2001 .

[21]  Michael G. Bosilovich,et al.  Results from Global Land-Surface Data Assimilation Methods , 2001 .

[22]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Estimating soil water‐holding capacities by linking the Food and Agriculture Organization Soil map of the world with global pedon databases and continuous pedotransfer functions , 2000 .

[23]  Jean-François Mahfouf,et al.  Evaluation of the Optimum Interpolation and Nudging Techniques for Soil Moisture Analysis Using FIFE Data , 2000 .

[24]  R. Koster,et al.  Variance and Predictability of Precipitation at Seasonal-to-Interannual Timescales , 2000 .

[25]  Zong-Liang Yang,et al.  Simulations of a boreal grassland hydrology at Valdai, Russia: PILPS phase 2(d). , 2000 .

[26]  Victor Koren,et al.  Use of Soil Property Data in the Derivation of Conceptual Rainfall-Runoff Model Parameters , 2000 .

[27]  J. Townshend,et al.  Global land cover classi(cid:142) cation at 1 km spatial resolution using a classi(cid:142) cation tree approach , 2004 .

[28]  K. Mitchell,et al.  A parameterization of snowpack and frozen ground intended for NCEP weather and climate models , 1999 .

[29]  Dennis P. Lettenmaier,et al.  Hydrologic effects of frozen soils in the upper Mississippi River basin , 1999 .

[30]  W. Paul Menzel,et al.  Estimation of sea surface temperatures using GOES-8/9 radiance measurements , 1999 .

[31]  A. J. Dolman,et al.  The Pilot Phase of the Global Soil Wetness Project , 1999 .

[32]  Taikan Oki,et al.  Assessment of Annual Runoff from Land Surface Models Using Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP) , 1999 .

[33]  Fei Chen,et al.  Using the GEWEX/ISLSCP Forcing Data to Simulate Global Soil Moisture Fields and Hydrological Cycle f , 1999 .

[34]  B. Ramsay,et al.  The interactive multisensor snow and ice mapping system , 1998 .

[35]  G. Gutman,et al.  The derivation of the green vegetation fraction from NOAA/AVHRR data for use in numerical weather prediction models , 1998 .

[36]  R. Dickinson,et al.  The Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes PILPS phase 2 c Red–Arkansas River basin experiment: 3. Spatial and temporal analysis of water fluxes , 1998 .

[37]  R. Dickinson,et al.  The Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes PILPS Phase 2 c Red–Arkansas River basin experiment: 1. Experiment description and summary intercomparisons , 1998 .

[38]  Douglas A. Miller,et al.  A Conterminous United States Multilayer Soil Characteristics Dataset for Regional Climate and Hydrology Modeling , 1998 .

[39]  K. Mitchell,et al.  Impact of Atmospheric Surface-layer Parameterizations in the new Land-surface Scheme of the NCEP Mesoscale Eta Model , 1997 .

[40]  K. Mitchell,et al.  Assessment of the Land Surface and Boundary Layer Models in Two Operational Versions of the NCEP Eta Model Using FIFE Data , 1997 .

[41]  Randal D. Koster,et al.  The Interplay between Transpiration and Runoff Formulations in Land Surface Schemes Used with Atmospheric Models , 1997 .

[42]  D. Lettenmaier,et al.  Streamflow simulation for continental‐scale river basins , 1997 .

[43]  Gusev,et al.  Cabauw Experimental Results from the Project for Intercomparison of Land-Surface Parameterization Schemes , 1997 .

[44]  Eric F. Wood,et al.  Hydrological modeling of continental-scale basins , 1997 .

[45]  Eric F. Wood,et al.  One-dimensional statistical dynamic representation of subgrid spatial variability of precipitation in the two-layer variable infiltration capacity model , 1996 .

[46]  D. Lettenmaier,et al.  Surface soil moisture parameterization of the VIC-2L model: Evaluation and modification , 1996 .

[47]  Eric F. Wood,et al.  Application of a macroscale hydrologic model to estimate the water balance of the Arkansas-Red River Basin , 1996 .

[48]  K. Mitchell,et al.  Simple water balance model for estimating runoff at different spatial and temporal scales , 1996 .

[49]  Y. Xue,et al.  Modeling of land surface evaporation by four schemes and comparison with FIFE observations , 1996 .

[50]  D. Deaven,et al.  The Regional Analysis System for the Operational “Early” Eta Model: Original 80-km Configuration and Recent Changes , 1995 .

[51]  D. Baldocchi,et al.  A Comparison of a Hierarchy of Models for Determining Energy Balance Components over Vegetation Canopies , 1995 .

[52]  S. Zilitinkevich,et al.  Non-local turbulent transport pollution dispersion aspects of coherent structure of convective flows , 1995 .

[53]  X. R. Liu,et al.  The Xinanjiang model. , 1995 .

[54]  D. Lettenmaier,et al.  A simple hydrologically based model of land surface water and energy fluxes for general circulation models , 1994 .

[55]  M. Wigmosta,et al.  A distributed hydrology-vegetation model for complex terrain , 1994 .

[56]  Scott A. Isard,et al.  A Soil Moisture Climatology of Illinois , 1994 .

[57]  J. D. Tarpley.  Monthly Evapotranspiration from Satellite and Conventional Meteorological Observations , 1994 .

[58]  Arun Kumar,et al.  A Multiseason Climate Forecast System at the National Meteorological Center. , 1994 .

[59]  C. Daly,et al.  A Statistical-Topographic Model for Mapping Climatological Precipitation over Mountainous Terrain , 1994 .

[60]  Randal D. Koster,et al.  The components of a 'SVAT' scheme and their effects on a GCM's hydrological cycle , 1994 .

[61]  R. Dickinson,et al.  The Project for Intercomparison of Land Surface Parameterization Schemes (PILPS): Phases 2 and 3 , 1993 .

[62]  H. Pan,et al.  Interaction between soil hydrology and boundary-layer development , 1987 .

[63]  A. Dalcher,et al.  A Simple Biosphere Model (SIB) for Use within General Circulation Models , 1986 .

[64]  C. Gautier.  Surface Radiation Budget , 1984 .

[65]  J. D. Tarpley.  Estimating Incident Solar Radiation at the Surface from Geostationary Satellite Data , 1979 .

[66]  P. Jarvis.  The Interpretation of the Variations in Leaf Water Potential and Stomatal Conductance Found in Canopies in the Field , 1976 .

[67]  Eric A. Anderson,et al.  National Weather Service river forecast system: snow accumulation and ablation model , 1973 .