Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-133
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-133
06 Oct 2022
 | 06 Oct 2022
Status: a revised version of this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.

An ensemble of 48 physically perturbed model estimates of the 1/8° terrestrial water budget over the conterminous United States, 1980–2015

Hui Zheng, Wenli Fei, Zong-Liang Yang, Jiangfeng Wei, Long Zhao, and Lingcheng Li

Abstract. Terrestrial water budget (TWB) data over large domains are of high interest for various hydrological applications. Spatiotemporally continuous and physically consistent estimations of TWB rely on land surface models (LSMs). As an augmentation of the operational North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 (NLDAS‑2) four-LSM ensemble, this study presents a 48-member perturbed-physics ensemble configured from the Noah LSM with multi-physics options (Noah‑MP). The 48 Noah‑MP physics configurations are selected to give a representative cross-section of commonly used LSMs for parameterizing runoff, atmospheric surface layer turbulence, soil moisture limitation on photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance.

The ensemble simulated the 1980–2015 monthly TWB over the conterminous United States (CONUS) at a 1/8° spatial resolution. Simulation outputs include total evapotranspiration and its constituents (canopy evaporation, soil evaporation, and transpiration), runoff (the surface and subsurface components), as well as terrestrial water storage (snow water equivalent, four-layer soil water content from the surface down to 2 m, and the groundwater storage anomaly). This dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7109816 (Zheng et al., 2022). Evaluations carried out in this study and previous investigations show that the ensemble performs well in reproducing the observed terrestrial water storage, snow water equivalent, soil moisture, and runoff. Noah-MP complements the NLDAS models well, and adding Noah-MP consistently improves the NLDAS estimations of the above variables in most areas of CONUS. Besides, the perturbed-physics ensemble facilities the identification of model deficiencies. The parameterizations of shallow snow, lakes, and near-surface atmospheric turbulence should be improved in future model versions.

Hui Zheng et al.

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on essd-2022-133', Anonymous Referee #1, 29 Dec 2022
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Hui Zheng, 19 Feb 2023
  • RC2: 'Review Comment on essd-2022-133', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Jan 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Hui Zheng, 19 Feb 2023

Hui Zheng et al.

Data sets

An ensemble of 48 physically perturbed model estimates of the 1/8° terrestrial water budget over the conterminous United States, 1980–2015 Hui Zheng, Wenli Fei, Zong-Liang Yang, Jiangfeng Wei, Long Zhao, Lingcheng Li https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7109816

Hui Zheng et al.

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Short summary
The information on evapotranspiration, runoff, and water storage in groundwater, snow, and soil is useful for monitoring and understanding the variability of water resources. An ensemble of spatially continuous estimates is generated here using a land surface model with consideration of the uncertainty associated with the model formulation.