The updated version of SPONSOR land surface scheme: PILPS-influenced improvements

Abstract

The parameterization scheme SPONSOR (Semi-distributed ParameterizatiON Scheme of the ORography-induced hydrology) participating in PILPS (Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes) experiments since 1993 is described in more detail than before, taking into account a range of recent modifications. Improvement of the scheme in several aspects (e.g., soil water movement) resulted in significantly improved results for the Cabauw site (used for PILPS (2a) experiments). Then, parameterization of cold seasons/regions processes (water phase transformations within soil and snow cover) was developed for PILPS (2d) experiments carried out with Valdai data. Testing of the scheme against the data of Kolyma water balance station shows that it is able to reproduce the main features of heat and water exchange at the land surface in the permafrost zone quite satisfactorily. It was found that the scheme results are rather sensitive to the soil heat conductivity, especially in the cold seasons. The original method for the calculation of this parameter was developed using a square root function. The surface temperature and dates of crossing the 0°C temperature threshold for Kolyma station were reproduced with satisfactory accuracy. The temporal variation of the deep soil layers' temperatures was modelled satisfactorily too, but the seasonal amplitude of deep soil temperatures was overestimated by the scheme. This disadvantage can possibly be improved by inclusion of vertical inhomogeneity of soil thermal and hydraulic properties in the model.