Analysis of Different Freezing/Thawing Parameterizations using the UTOPIA Model

Abstract

Soil moisture changes are generally due to external factors (precipitation, evaporation, etc.) and internal forces (gravitational force, capillarity, transpiration, etc.). When soil temperatures remain below 0 °C for a long time (hours or even entire consecutive days), part of the liquid water content of the soil can freeze, thus freezing/thawing effects must be taken into account in those conditions. The present work is devoted to the numerical modeling of the water phase change in the soil. The model used in this study for the land surface processes is UTOPIA (University of TOrino land Process Interaction in Atmosphere) model, which is the updated version of LSPM (Land Surface Process Model). Scientific literature proposes some formulations to account for freezing/thawing processes. Three different parameterizations have been compared using a synthetic dataset in order to assess which one performs best from a physical point of view. Parameterizing freezing/thawing processes creates numerical instability and water overproduction in the UTOPIA model. These problems have been solved and described in the paper by means of synthetic data created to test the new parameterizations. The results show that UTOPIA is able to capture the freezing/thawing physical processes.

Development of black ice prediction model using GIS-based multi-sensor model validation

“…If the precipitation is greater than zero, freezing occurs when the road temperature is less than 1 et al, 2002). If the precipitation is zero, freezing occurs when the temperature is below 0 • C ( Bonanno et al, 2010). The contents are the same as those in Eq.…”

System Dynamics Modeling for Estimating the Locations of Road Icing Using GIS

“…For thawing, Hillshade and air temperature are involved. A higher value of Hillshade means larger exposure to sun energy [29,52]. In addition, when road moisture freezes, it is affected by the air temperature because it rises to the top due to a reduction in density, and more thawing occurs as its value increases.…”

Climate change over the high-mountain versus plain areas: Effects on the land surface hydrologic budget in the Alpine area and northern Italy

“…The UTOPIA was also coupled with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model, version 3, and applied to a flash flood caused by a landfall typhoon, as well as to the exceptionally wet period 2008-2009 in the northwestern Italy (Zhang et al, 2009(Zhang et al, , 2011. Recent applications include studies on the parameterization of soil freezing (Bonanno et al, 2010), and the cold spells over the Alpine area and the Po Valley (Galli et al, 2010). It has also been applied to studies on vineyards environment, including canopy resistance (Prino et al, 2009), energy and hydrologic budgets (Francone et al, 2010), sensitivity to vegetation parameters (Francone et al, 2012a), and an analysis of turbulence (Francone et al, 2012b).…”