Simulation and improvement of common land model on the bare soil of Loess Plateau underlying surface

Abstract

Climate model has become an irreplaceable tool for the study and prediction of climate changes. The land surface process, as one of the important parts of all climate models, must be considered so that the simulative ability of climate models could be improved. Using the common land model (CoLM) that is driven by the LOPEX experiment data, the characteristics of land surface processes of the Loess Plateau are simulated. Furthermore, based on the comparison of the field observation data with the simulated results, the simulative performance of CoLM in the Loess Plateau region is also examined. The results show that, CoLM can be used in the Loess Plateau, and it perfectly simulates net radiations and net short-wave radiations. However, the simulated land-surface temperature is slightly higher than actual measured value, while the simulated soil temperature values in lower layers (5, 10, 20, 40 cm) are relatively less and the variety phase of these also lag. Moreover, the simulated sensible heat flux is a little larger, while the simulated soil thermal conductivity value is obviously lower. By modifying the calculation plan of soil thermal conductivity, the simulated result has been greatly improved. As a whole, if CoLM is applied in the Loess Plateau of Northwestern China, the parameterization of soil thermal conductivity should be ameliorated, which can improve its simulative capacity in the Loess Plateau regions.