Validation of lake surface state in the HIRLAM v.7.4 numerical weather prediction model against in situ measurements in Finland

Rontu, Laura; Eerola, Kalle; Horttanainen, Matti

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3707-2019

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3707-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Modelling lakes in the climate system (GMD/HESS inter-journal...

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3707-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

Model evaluation paper

|

23 Aug 2019

Model evaluation paper |

| 23 Aug 2019

Validation of lake surface state in the HIRLAM v.7.4 numerical weather prediction model against in situ measurements in Finland

Laura Rontu, Kalle Eerola, and Matti Horttanainen

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Final revised paper (published on 23 Aug 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Nov 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

SC1: 'Executive Editor comment on gmd-2018-270', Astrid Kerkweg, 07 Nov 2018
- AC1: 'Reply', Laura Rontu, 20 Feb 2019
RC1: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 12 Dec 2018
- AC2: 'Reply to three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 Feb 2019
- AC1: 'Reply', Laura Rontu, 20 Feb 2019
  - AC4: 'Updated reply to three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 May 2019
RC2: 'Modelling of lakes in NWP and climate models', Anonymous Referee #2, 12 Jan 2019
- AC2: 'Reply to three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 Feb 2019
  - AC5: 'Updated reply to the three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 May 2019
RC3: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #3, 26 Jan 2019
- AC2: 'Reply to three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 Feb 2019
  - AC6: 'Updated reply to the three reviewers', Laura Rontu, 20 May 2019
EC1: 'Concerns over the Quality of the Hirlam data', Jason Williams, 21 Feb 2019
- AC3: 'Reply to the editor', Laura Rontu, 21 Mar 2019
  - EC2: 'Reply to authors comments', Jason Williams, 22 Mar 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Laura Rontu on behalf of the Authors (20 Feb 2019) Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (22 Feb 2019) by Jason Williams

AR by Laura Rontu on behalf of the Authors (21 Mar 2019) Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (22 Mar 2019) by Jason Williams

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (07 Apr 2019)

RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (11 Jun 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The manuscript untitled “Validation of lake surface state in the HIRLAM v.7.4 NWP model against in-situ measurements in Finland” from Rontu et al. is an interesting paper on a current topic: the representation of lakes in numerical weather prediction models. To my knowledge, it is the first time anyone has analyzed the results of more than 6 years of operational data of lake relevant meteorological parameters (Surface Temperature and freeze-up / break-up dates). It is an honest description of the results.
I have carefully analyzed the authors' responses and the modifications made. In my opinion, the authors have fully answered the questions raised by previous reviewers. Therefore, I suggest that the article be published.
Anyway, I still suggest the following minor changes:

page 2 line 14: change 2016 for 2013.
page 2 line 22: change “appears to be quite” for “is”
page 3, line 16 change “near surface temperatures” for “near surface temperatures, humidity and wind”
page 3, line 20 : “Bottom sediment calculations were excluded.” is in contradiction with Apendix A. please explain or rectify
page 5, line 18: “After that the development of HIRLAM was frozen.” please rewrite
page 6, line 4: change “on he” for “on the”
page 9, line 1: “When subzero temperatures were excluded (...)” If the condition is this one, there are no reason to exclude many of the occurrences of 275 and 278 K…
page 9, label of figure 3: The classes are not well explained. It seems that there are 3 K intervals... The same comment applies to the next figures.
Page 9, line 3: change “situation” for “results” or …
Page 10, line 5: And what about the effect of a direct radiative heating of the bottom sediments?
Page 12, Table 3: The meaning opf the columns should be indicated in the label.
Page 20, line 20: And what about the effect of a direct radiative heating of the bottom sediments?
Page 20, line 24: delete “evidently”
Page 21, line 11: change “ applied in the European” for “ applied in some European”
Page 21, line 13: Is HARMONIE the same as ALADIN_HIRLAM? Please explain what is HARMONIE?

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (27 Jun 2019) by Jason Williams

AR by Laura Rontu on behalf of the Authors (05 Jul 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (16 Jul 2019) by Jason Williams

AR by Laura Rontu on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2019) Manuscript

Short summary

Numerical weather prediction model HIRLAM includes prognostic treatment of lake surface state since 2012. Forecast is based on the Freshwater Lake model (Flake). We compared the predicted lake water temperature, freeze-up and break-up dates as well as the ice thickness and snow depth during six years over 45 lakes in Finland against observations by Finnish Environment Institute. Water surface temperatures and freezing of lakes were well predicted but the ice tended to melt too early in spring.