The Influence of the Inclusion of Soil Freezing on Simulations by a Soil–Vegetation–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme

Abstract

The interactions between the soil, biosphere, and atmosphere (ISBA) land surface parameterization scheme has been modified to include soil ice. The liquid water equivalent volumetric ice content is modeled using two reservoirs within the soil: a thin surface layer that directly affects the surface energy balance, and a deep soil layer. The freezing/drying, wetting/thawing analogy is used, and a description of the modifications to the ISBA force?restore scheme, in particular to the hydrological and thermal transfer coefficients, is presented. In addition, the ISBA surface/vegetation scheme is coupled to a multilayer explicit diffusion soil heat and mass transfer model in order to investigate the accuracy of the force?restore formalism soil freezing parameterization as compared with a higher-order scheme. An example of the influence of the inclusion of soil freezing in ISBA on predicted surface and soil temperatures and surface fluxes is examined using prescribed atmospheric forcing from a micrometeorological case study that includes freeze?thaw cycles. Surface temperature prediction is improved in comparison with the observed values, especially at night, primarily from the release of latent heat as the soil freezes. There is an improvement in the overall surface flux prediction, although for some specific periods there is increased error in the prediction of various components of the surface energy budget. Last, the simplified force?restore approach is found to produce surface flux and temperature predictions consistent with the higher-resolution model on typical numerical weather prediction model timescales (on the order of several days to two weeks) for this particular site.