22nd Conference on Hydrology
20th Conference on Climate Variability and Change

JP1.1

Assessing the Performance of CLASS in the Canadian Regional Climate Model

Edmond Chan, EC, Toronto, ON, Canada; and M. MacKay and D. Verseghy

The latest version of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) has been incorporated into the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM). Featuring three soil layers, a snow layer, and a thermally separate vegetation canopy, recent updates to CLASS include improvements in the treatment of soil evaporation, canopy conductance, snow, and turbulent transfer from the canopy. The new scheme also includes an option to model the lateral flow of water in the soil layers. With the exception of the updated land surface scheme, the CRCM uses essentially the same physics parameterization package as the GCM from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. The performance of the newer scheme is investigated by examining simulations made with it over the Mackenzie Basin. A 5-year simulation over the same domain generated with the previous version is used for comparison.

Joint Poster Session 1, Land-Atmosphere Interactions
Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM, Exhibit Hall B

Next paper

Browse or search entire meeting

AMS Home Page