NoahPy: a differentiable Noah land surface model for simulating permafrost thermo-hydrology

Tian, Wenbiao; Yu, Hu; Zhao, Shuping; Cao, Yuhe; Yi, Wenjun; Xu, Jiwei; Nan, Zhuotong

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-57-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-57-2026

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-57-2026

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

Model description paper

|

06 Jan 2026

Model description paper |

| 06 Jan 2026

NoahPy: a differentiable Noah land surface model for simulating permafrost thermo-hydrology

Wenbiao Tian, Hu Yu, Shuping Zhao, Yuhe Cao, Wenjun Yi, Jiwei Xu, and Zhuotong Nan

Data sets

Data associated with the paper "NoahPy: A differentiable Noah land surface model for simulating permafrost thermo-hydrology" Wenbiao Tian and Zhuotong Nan https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29988163

Model code and software

wbtian/NoahPy: NoahPy v1.0.1 Wenbiao Tian and Zhuotong Nan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17000249

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau permafrost at risk in the late 21st century G. Zhang et al. https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/g7jqr

Short summary

Accurately predicting how permafrost will thaw with land surface models is a grand challenge in Earth science. We created a new computer model by rebuilding a traditional physics model to work with artificial intelligence. Our results show this new approach is much faster and more reliable for tuning model parameters with data. This provides a better tool to build the next generation of climate models and improve predictions of permafrost's future.