Impact of land surface and forcing parameters on the spin-up behaviour of Noah land surface model over the Indian sub-continent

Abstract

In the present study, an attempt is made to understand the influence of land surface parameters (such as soil moisture conditions, soil type and vegetation type) and forcing parameters on the model spin-up behaviour of a Land Surface Model (LSM), namely Noah LSM, over the Indian sub-continent. The work presented here primarily aims to understand the optimum initial conditions to achieve the least spin-up time over the subtropical conditions that exist over the region of interest. The study is presented in three major parts. In the first part, a multivariate statistical analysis, namely principle component analysis is employed to investigate how parameters such as precipitation, air temperature, soil moisture, radiation components as well as various parameters that characterize soil and vegetation types influence the model spin-up. The second part deals with the study of the impact of soil and vegetation parameters in different seasons on the model spin-up behaviour. Finally, the third part looks into the influence of initial soil moisture condition and precipitation forcing on the spin-up behaviour of the model in different seasons to obtain the optimum initial conditions for the minimum spin-up time of the model. From the study, it is seen that the soil and vegetation type, as well as the soil moisture content influence the model spin-up significantly. The present study reports that the experiments initialized just before a continuous rainfall event has the least spin-up unless the initial soil is saturated.