Implementation of a dry surface layer soil resistance in two contrasting semi-arid sites with SURFEX-ISBA V9.0

Martí, Belén; Groh, Jannis; Canut, Guylaine; Boone, Aaron

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-1991-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1991-2026

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

Special issue:

The externalised surface model SURFEX

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1991-2026

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

Model description paper

|

09 Mar 2026

Model description paper |

| 09 Mar 2026

Implementation of a dry surface layer soil resistance in two contrasting semi-arid sites with SURFEX-ISBA V9.0

Belén Martí, Jannis Groh, Guylaine Canut, and Aaron Boone

Data sets

Dry Surface Layer SURFEX simulations and necessary code (Versión 1) B. Martí and A. Boone https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15205476

LIAISE_LA-CENDROSA_CNRM_MTO-FLUX-30MIN_L2 G. Canut https://doi.org/10.25326/320

LIAISE_ELS-PLANS_UKMO_MTO-30MIN_L2 J. Price https://doi.org/10.25326/430

LIAISE_ELS-PLANS_UKMO_LAI_01DAY_L1 J. Brooke https://doi.org/10.25326/522

Short summary

The characterization of vegetation at two sites proved insufficient to adequately simulate the evapotranspiration. A dry surface layer was implemented in the land surface model SURFEX-ISBA (Externalized Surface-Interactions Soil-Biosphere-Atmosphere) v9.0. It is compared to simulations without a soil resistance. The application to an alfalfa site and a natural grass site in semiarid conditions results in an improvement in the estimation of the latent heat flux. The surface energy budget and the soil and vegetation characteristics are explored in detail.