Advancing Water Resources Research and Management

Abstract: Web and ftp sites for Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX)

Authors: Qingyun Duan, John Schaake, Shuzheng Cong, and Alan Hall

A key step in applying land surface parameterization schemes is to estimate model parameters that vary spatially and are unique to each basin. Improved methods for parameter estimation (especially for parameters important to runoff response) are needed. To develop these methods, data from a wide range of climate regimes throughout the world must be assembled, and an international cooperative effort to assess how well parameters of different models can be estimated is required. The primary goal of Model Parameter Estimation Experiment (MOPEX) is to develop techniques for the a priori estimation of the parameters used in land surface parameterization schemes of atmospheric and hydrologic models. An important step in achieving this goal is to assemble historical hydrometeorological data and river basin characteristics for about 200 intermediate scale basins (500-10,000 sq km) from a range of climate throughout the world. The data sets are not model specific and are appropriate for developing parameter estimation schemes for most, if not all, land parameterization schemes. These data are made available through MOPEX web and ftp sites to the scientific community both for MOPEX research as well as for other global hydrological research. This presentation will give an overview of MOPEX web and ftp sites. Some in-depth discussion of what data are collected, how they are processed, how they are organized on the web and ftp sites will be given. Examples of how data can be used to estimate parameters of land surface models will also be shown.

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