Improving Hydrology in Land Ice Models

Land Ecosystems and Hydrology

GEO387H – Literature Review: Land surface Models and Surface Water Hydrology

Improving land surface models with FLUXNET data

There is a growing consensus that land surface models (LSMs) that simulate terrestrial biosphere exchanges of matter and energy must be better constrained with data to quantify and address their uncertainties. FLUXNET, an international network of sites that measure the land surface exchanges of carbon, water and energy using the eddy covariance technique, is a prime source of data for model imp...

Subglacial hydrology and ice stream margin locations

Fast flowing ice streams in West Antarctica are separated from the nearly stagnant ice in the adjacent ridge by zones of highly localized deformation known as shear margins. It is presently uncertain what mechanisms control the location of shear margins, and possibly allow them to migrate. In this paper we show how subglacial hydrological processes can select the shear margin location, leading ...

Time Scales of Land Surface Hydrology

This paper intends to investigate the time scales of land surface hydrology and enhance the understanding of the hydrological cycle between the atmosphere, vegetation, and soil. A three-layer model for land surface hydrology is developed to study the temporal variation and vertical structure of water reservoirs in the vegetation–soil system in response to precipitation forcing. The model is an ...