Improving hydrologic processes in Earth System Models Objective

Improving hydrologic processes in Earth System Models Objective • Many of the scientific and societal challenges in understanding and preparing for global environmental change rest upon our ability to understand predict the water cycle change at large river basin, continent, and global scales • Current large-scale land models do not yet reflect the best hydrologic process understanding or utilize the large amount of hydrologic observations for model testing. Hydrology Precipitation Transpiration Evaporation Throughfall Evaporation Sublimation Infiltration Melt Approach • Discuss opportunities and challenges to improve hydrologic processes in ESMs Surface runoff Saturated fraction Soil Aquifer recharge Water table Unconfined aquifer Sub-surface runoff Impact • • • Land models can benefit from recent advances in hydrology by incorporating key processes and representing spatial variability and connectivity Hydrologic benchmarking will help understand model weaknesses and prioritize model development needs Stronger collaboration between ESM and hydrology community required Clark, M. P. , Y. Fan, D. M. Lawrence, J. C. Adam, D. Bolster, D. J. Gochis, R. P. Hooper, M. Kumar, L. R. Leung, D. S. Mackay, R. M. Maxwell, C. Shen, S. C. Swenson, and Xubin Zeng, 2015: Improving the representation of hydrologic processes in Earth System Models. Wat. Research, doi: 10. 1002/2015 WR 017096.