Physically Based Modeling of the Long-Term Dynamics of Water Balance and Snow Water Storage Components in the Ob–Irtysh River Basin

Abstract

The applicability of the previously developed technique for simulating the runoff hydrographs of northern rivers to the Ob River, which has largest basin area among Russian rivers and flows under severe conditions of the Western Siberia, has been investigated. The technique is based on a land surface model SWAP (Soil–Water–Atmosphere–Plants) with input data based on global data sets on land surface parameters and meteorological forcing data derived from observations at meteorological stations situated within the Ob basin. The uncertainty of Ob runoff has been evaluated. The potentialities of SWAP model in reproducing the long-term dynamics of the mean snow water storage in the Ob–Irtysh basin have also been studied.