Meeting:Abstract 2011 CSDMS meeting-065

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CSDMS all hands meeting 2011

Modeling a Continuous Permafrost Basin on the North Slope of Alaska

Ruth Mugford, University of Cambridge Cambridge NO STATE, . rm423@cam.ac.uk
Poul Christoffersen, University of Cambridge Cambridge , United Kingdom. pc350@cam.ac.uk
Julian Dowdeswell, University of Cambridge Cambridge , United Kingdom. jd16@cam.ac.uk


[[Image:|300px|right|link=File:]]GEOtop 1.145 is used to model the thermal and hydrological state of the subsurface in the Kuparuk basin, Alaska. GEOtop is a distributed hydrological model with coupled water and energy budgets. The surface energy balance scheme includes sensible, latent and radiative heat fluxes at the air-soil or air-snow interface. The subsurface represents heat fluxes in the vertical and water fluxes in the vertical and horizontal directions. The ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis product, which is used to force the model, is compared to meteorological and radiation data from the Kuparuk Basin and other stations on the North Slope of Alaska. The use of ERA-Interim reanalysis to force GEOtop enables large-scale simulations to be performed over areas where in situ meteorological data is sparse, such as the North Slope of Alaska. Model simulations forced by ERA-Interim reanalysis data are validated using borehole observations of soil temperature. Model results will be presented demonstrating the interactions between soil properties, snow cover, vegetation and climate.