Runoff evaluation in an Earth System Land Model for permafrost regions in Alaska

Huang, Xiang; Zhang, Yu; Gao, Bo; Abolt, Charles J.; Crumley, Ryan L.; Demir, Cansu; Fiorella, Richard P.; Busey, Bob; Bolton, Bob; Painter, Scott L.; Bennett, Katrina E.

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-1193-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1193-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1193-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Model evaluation paper

|

09 Feb 2026

Model evaluation paper |

| 09 Feb 2026

Runoff evaluation in an Earth System Land Model for permafrost regions in Alaska

Xiang Huang, Yu Zhang, Bo Gao, Charles J. Abolt, Ryan L. Crumley, Cansu Demir, Richard P. Fiorella, Bob Busey, Bob Bolton, Scott L. Painter, and Katrina E. Bennett

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1193-2026-supplement

Data sets

Data Files for Runoff Evaluation in an Earth System Land Model for Permafrost Regions X. Huang et al. https://doi.org/10.15485/2550570

Daymet: Station-Level Inputs and Cross Validation Result for North America, Version 4 M. M. Thornton et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1850

Model code and software

Energy Exascale Earth System Model v3.0.0 E3SM Project (DOE) E3SM Project (DOE)

Short summary

Predicting hydrological runoff in Arctic permafrost regions is difficult due to limited observations and complex terrain. We used a detailed physics-based model simulations to improve runoff estimates in a Earth system land model. Our method improved runoff accuracy and worked well across two different Arctic regions. This helps make runoff parameterization schemes more reliable for understanding water flow in permafrost areas under a changing climate.