Articles | Volume 29, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-547-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-547-2025
Research article
 | 
29 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 29 Jan 2025

Do land models miss key soil hydrological processes controlling soil moisture memory?

Mohammad A. Farmani, Ali Behrangi, Aniket Gupta, Ahmad Tavakoly, Matthew Geheran, and Guo-Yue Niu

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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
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Cited articles

Agnihotri, J., Behrangi, A., Tavakoly, A., Geheran, M., Farmani, M. A., and Niu, G. Y.: Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales, Water Resour. Res., 59, e2022WR033075, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022wr033075, 2023. 
Barlage, M., Chen, F., Rasmussen, R., Zhang, Z., and Miguez-Macho, G.: The importance of scale-dependent groundwater processes in land-atmosphere interactions over the central United States, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL092171, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL092171, 2021. 
Bisht, G., Riley, W. J., Hammond, G. E., and Lorenzetti, D. M.: Development and evaluation of a variably saturated flow model in the global E3SM Land Model (ELM) version 1.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 4085–4102, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-4085-2018, 2018. 
Boone, A.: The Rhône-Aggregation Land Surface Scheme intercomparison project: An overview, J. Climate, 17, 187–208, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<0187:TRLSSI>2.0.CO;2, 2004. 
Brooks, R. H.: Hydraulic properties of porous media, Hydrol. Pap., 3, 1–27, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 1964. 
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Short summary
Soil moisture memory (SMM) shows how long soil stays moist after rain, impacting climate and ecosystems. Current models often overestimate SMM, causing inaccuracies in evaporation predictions. We enhanced a land model, Noah-MP, to include better water flow and ponding processes, and we tested it against satellite and field data. This improved model reduced overestimations and enhanced short-term predictions, helping create more accurate climate and weather forecasts.
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