Testing the VB95 land surface model against catchment runoff

Abstract

Numerical weather prediction and climate models require information on the water and energy fluxes from the land surface as a lower boundary condition. Simulations of land surface processes are an important element of these models and provide both the required boundary conditions as well as an estimate of the surface water balance and landscape runoff. The land surface model developed by Viterbo and Beljaars (VB95) is used in the numerical weather prediction and climate models of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. At present the operational weather forecasting system routinely simulates runoff for each grid cell. While these simulations potentially have value for various applications, the..