Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales

Abstract

Frozen soil consists of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground (Cuo et al., 2015). Seasonally frozen ground refers to areas where soil is frozen for 15 days or more per year (Y. Zhang et al., 2003), whereas permafrost is defined as the ground that remains below subfreezing temperatures for two or more consecutive years. Permafrost and seasonally frozen ground account for about 58% (or 55 million km 2 ) of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere (NSIDC, 2022;T. Zhang et al., 1999), exerting tremendous impacts on water infiltration; ecosystem biogeochemical processes; greenhouse gas emissions; and freshwater, carbon, and nutrient inputs into the Arctic oceans. The presence of ice in soil reduces soil permeability while increasing thermal conductivity, which affects partitioning of snowmelt water into infiltration and surface runoff. At least eight out of the 32 most significant

Impacts of Topography‐Driven Water Redistribution on Terrestrial Water Storage Change in California Through Ecosystem Responses

“…To reduce these deficiencies, we made several major revisions in ELM mod as follows (also see Table 1) based on our modeling experience and manual calibrations: To reduce saturated‐excess runoff and thus increase infiltration, we modified both the decay factor of SIMTOP surface ( f over = 0.5) and subsurface runoff ( f sub = 2.5) to 2 as Niu et al. (2005) suggested; f over = 0.5 generally produces too much saturation‐excess runoff in desert regions. We changed f c (0.4) and μ (0.14) to 0.8 and 2.0 and increased the maximum infiltration rates ( q in , max ), respectively, to reduce infiltration‐excess runoff and thus increase water fluxes to deeper soil layers. For frozen soils, we used a scheme from Niu and Yang (2006) that considers fractional permeable area in a model grid and computes the soil hydraulic properties based on total soil moisture rather than soil liquid water content and the ice impedance factor, Ω (Swenson et al., 2012), to enhance frozen soil permeability and infiltration rates; a recent study indicates that higher frozen soil permeability favors streamflow predictability due to the presence of macropores formed by ice volume expansion during freezing (Agnihotri et al., 2023). We set the minimum bedrock depth as 2 m in ELM mod instead of 0.2 m in ELM default .…”

“…For frozen soils, we used a scheme from Niu and Yang (2006) that considers fractional permeable area in a model grid and computes the soil hydraulic properties based on total soil moisture rather than soil liquid water content and the ice impedance factor, Ω (Swenson et al., 2012), to enhance frozen soil permeability and infiltration rates; a recent study indicates that higher frozen soil permeability favors streamflow predictability due to the presence of macropores formed by ice volume expansion during freezing (Agnihotri et al., 2023).…”

“…water content and the ice impedance factor, Ω (Swenson et al, 2012), to enhance frozen soil permeability and infiltration rates; a recent study indicates that higher frozen soil permeability favors streamflow predictability due to the presence of macropores formed by ice volume expansion during freezing (Agnihotri et al, 2023). 4.…”

Development of a Distributed Physics‐Informed Deep Learning Hydrological Model for Data‐Scarce Regions

“…In the aforementioned parameters, as the state of soil freeze‐thaw undergoes dynamic fluctuations, we designated the parameter $$\alpha $$ as time dynamic. Considering that soil freezing will reduce soil hydraulic conductivity (Agnihotri et al., 2023) and therefore influence the velocity of soil water outflow, the parameter $$F$$ (which controls the rate of decline in flow from soil bucket) was also considered as dynamic. Furthermore, mirroring the approach of Feng et al.…”

What Are the Key Soil Hydrological Processes to Control Soil Moisture Memory?

“…Niu et al, 2011; for its extensive use within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, the Unified Forecast System (UFS) for weather and short-term climate projections, and the National Water Model (NWM) for streamflow and water resource forecasting. The "semi-tile" sub-grid methodology of Noah-MP enables detailed calculation of surface energy and fluxes, differentiating effectively between bare and vegetated terrains to precisely compute variables such as latent and sensible heat fluxes (Agnihotri et al, 2023).…”