Articles | Volume 7, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-2831-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-2831-2014
Model description paper
 | 
03 Dec 2014
Model description paper |  | 03 Dec 2014

GEOtop 2.0: simulating the combined energy and water balance at and below the land surface accounting for soil freezing, snow cover and terrain effects

S. Endrizzi, S. Gruber, M. Dall'Amico, and R. Rigon

Abstract. GEOtop is a fine-scale grid-based simulator that represents the heat and water budgets at and below the soil surface. It describes the three-dimensional water flow in the soil and the energy exchange with the atmosphere, considering the radiative and turbulent fluxes. Furthermore, it reproduces the highly non-linear interactions between the water and energy balance during soil freezing and thawing, and simulates the temporal evolution of the water and energy budgets in the snow cover and their effect on soil temperature.

Here, we present the core components of GEOtop 2.0 and demonstrate its functioning. Based on a synthetic simulation, we show that the interaction of processes represented in GEOtop 2.0 can result in phenomena that are significant and relevant for applications involving permafrost and seasonally frozen soils, both in high altitude and latitude regions.

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Short summary
GEOtop is a fine scale grid-based simulator that represents the heat and water budgets at and below the soil surface, reproduces the highly non-linear interactions between the water and energy balance during soil freezing and thawing and simulates snow cover. The core components of GEOtop 2.0. are described. Based on a synthetic simulation, it is shown that the interaction of processes represented in GEOtop 2.0. can result in phenomena that are relevant for applications involving frozen soils.