STEVEN A.

MARGULIS

Introduction to
Hydrology

including a MATLAB-based Modular Distributed

Watershed Educational Toolbox (MOD-WET)
2017A EDITION
© 2017 Steven A. Margulis. All rights reserved.

Cover photo credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean
color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group;
MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Me-
teorological Satellite Program (city lights).

Throughout the text I have attempted to provide credit to the author/creator/reference from which any graphics
were obtained. Most of the graphics that are not original creations for this text were taken from the publicly-
available COMET (MetEd) program. Others were taken from the public-domain and/or from credited sources. I
apologize for any omissions and would greatly appreciate being informed of them for correction in future versions.

i

Preface
This open-access “e-textbook” is the third iteration in an
experiment designed to provide a novel tool for learning the
basic concepts in hydrologic science. I hope it is a tool that
will be useful to the hydrologic community at large. It is
expected that the book and accompanying codes will be a
dynamic entity that will continue to evolve going forward. The
book is optimized for use as an electronic book on an iPad (or
other iBooks platform) to take full advantage of multimedia,
search capability, web links, etc. However, for those without
access to those platforms we also offer a PDF version (which
will not have the full functionality of the iBooks version).
Note: To be able to play the embedded multimedia
links in the PDF you will need to view the document
using the freely available Adobe Reader program
(www.adobe.com).
The material in the book is primarily derived from notes and
other material used in the undergraduate Civil &
Environmental Engineering (CEE) 150: “Introduction to
Hydrology” course offered in the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at UCLA. CEE 150 is a 10-week
course designed to provide a survey of the hydrologic cycle.
The format of the course and topical coverage owes much of
its genesis to a similar course taught at MIT by Dara
Entekhabi. I have taught the course at UCLA for over 10
years and it has undergone a significant evolution over those
years.
The structure of the course is based on 4 lecture-hours per
week with a 2-hour discussion section for review and example
problems. This e-textbook is an attempt at organizing all of
the material in one format for students in the class (as well as
any others who may find the topic and material useful). It
would be relatively easily adaptable to either quarter-based or
semester-based courses. Some material beyond that which is
covered in the course is provided in the book for completeness.
It could also be useful as a reference text for other
undergraduate or graduate hydrology courses.
The book is organized into ten main sections: 1. The
Hydrologic Cycle, 2. Atmospheric Composition and
Thermodynamics, 3. Radiation Processes, 4. Large-scale
Atmospheric Circulation, 5. Precipitation Processes, 6. Snow
Processes, 7. Unsaturated Flow and Infiltration, 8.
Evaporation Processes, 9. Groundwater Flow and Well
Hydraulics, 10. Runoff and Streamflow. The chapters in the
book are organized based on this topic list. A final chapter is
used to develop and present a distributed watershed model
developed from concepts covered throughout the previous
chapters of the book. The model is meant to show how
modular hydrologic concepts can be built-up to form a fully
functional watershed model. Each chapter comes with a set of
Learning Objectives that explicitly lay out the key things you
should know by the end of that chapter. Sample conceptual
questions and sample problems are also provided to assist in
the learning of the material.
It is my strong belief that the most important aspect of the
course is building student’s knowledge base through realistic
ii
problem solving. Weekly homework assignments provide a
significant amount of hands-on problem solving, with a
particular emphasis on realistic problem solving using
numerical modeling and applications. For numerical problems
I use MATLAB (http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab)
as a framework since it is taught to all CEE undergraduates
earlier in their curriculum and is a relatively accessible and
user-friendly numerical tool. If not freely available in a
student computer lab, the student version of MATLAB provides
a useful alternative.
A novel aspect of the book is a companion set of MATLAB
functions. The functions are presented with each chapter as
modular units for doing associated numerical calculations and
modeling. The functions are ultimately pieced together to
form a simple distributed watershed model for educational
usage. Together, the set of functions and model are described
as the Modular Distributed Watershed Educational Toolbox
(MOD-WET). Apart from specific applications using
individual codes, MOD-WET aims to illustrate for students
how modular codes are useful because they can be reused in
many applications (not just in this course, but other related
courses) and built-up to form more complicated analysis and
modeling frameworks. The code along with the book and a
model tutorial are available for download at: http://
aqua.seas.ucla.edu/margulis_intro_to_hydro_textbook.html.
Many chapters have a section with MOD-WET problems,
which when put together take the student through the setup
and analysis of a watershed simulation.
The book benefits greatly from figures and animated videos,
many of which were created or inspired by others. In
particular the textbooks of Bras (1990), Mays (2005),
Marshall and Plumb (2007), and Dingman (2008) are
referenced extensively throughout the text. Additionally, the
resources posted at the MetEd site (www.meted.ucar.edu)
provide a fantastic set of modules for learning many of the
concepts covered here (as well as many other related to
meteorology and associated fields). The MetEd site is
maintained by the COMET program (www.comet.ucar.edu)
with the primary goal of assisting education through advanced
learning materials. Many of the figures and movies used in the
text are those provided by MetEd. I am greatly appreciative
of this resource and would strongly encourage students to
explore the MetEd learning modules in more detail on their
own.
I greatly acknowledge the teaching assistants over the years
(in particular Michael Durand, Bart Forman, Keith
Musselman, Manuela Girotto, Laurie Huning, Mahdi Navari,
Elisabeth Baldo, and Gonzalo Cortes) who have significantly
contributed to the development of the material into its current
form. In particular, Laurie and Manuela have greatly helped
in the development of the initial version of the book and the
integrated watershed model. Additionally Ben Wong was very
helpful in updating and standardizing many of the MOD-
WET codes.
Any errors (typographical or otherwise) or omissions in the
text are attributable to me. Bringing them to my attention
would be greatly appreciated and allow for continued
iii
improvement of the text. I would be happy to add other
relevant problems to the book, watershed simulations, and/or
functions to MOD-WET based on user contributions.

Steve Margulis (margulis@seas.ucla.edu); August 2017

iv

Table of Contents
Preface ..........................................................i
Chapter 1: The Hydrologic Cycle .................8
Section 1: Learning Objectives ..........................................9
Section 2: Motivation ......................................................10
Section 3: The Hydrologic Cycle ......................................13
Section 4: Unique Properties of Water .............................15
Section 5: Mass balance, fluxes, and units .......................19
Section 6: Global Hydrologic Cycle and Average
Mass Balance.........................................................23
Section 7: Watershed Mass Balance .................................27
Section 8: MOD-WET Codes ...........................................33
Section 9: Conceptual Questions ......................................34
Section 10: Sample Problems ...........................................35
Section 11: MOD-WET Problems ....................................38
Chapter 2: Atmospheric Thermodynamics ..41
Section 1: Learning Objectives ....................................... 42
Section 2: Atmospheric Composition .............................. 43
Section 3: Atmospheric States .........................................45
Section 4: Metrics for Water Vapor Concentration
in Air.....................................................................48
Section 5: Vertical Profiles of Atmospheric States ...........53
Section 6: MOD-WET Codes ...........................................58
Section 7: Conceptual Questions ......................................59
Section 8: Sample Problems .............................................60
Section 9: MOD-WET Problems ......................................63
Chapter 3: Radiation Processes ..................64
Section 1: Learning Objectives ........................................65
Section 2: Basics of Radiation .........................................66
Section 3: Shortwave vs. Longwave Radiation ..................69
Section 4: Radiative Properties of Media .........................71
Section 5: Modeling Top-of-Atmosphere Shortwave
Fluxes ...................................................................74
Section 6: Modeling Surface Shortwave Fluxes ................82
Section 7: Modeling Longwave Fluxes at the Surface .......93
Section 8: Net Radiation at the Surface ...........................97
Section 9: MOD-WET Codes ...........................................99
Section 10: Conceptual Questions ..................................100
Section 11: Sample Problems .........................................101
Section 12: MOD-WET Problems ..................................105
Chapter 4: Atmospheric Circulation ..........108
Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................109
Section 2: Global Distribution of TOA Net Radiation ...110
Section 3: Atmospheric Motions Driven by
Latitudinal Energy Imbalance .............................113
Section 4: Summary of Key Characteristics of
Circulation ..........................................................119
Section 5: Fundamental Equations of Atmospheric
Motion ................................................................125
Section 6: Conceptual Questions ....................................131
Section 7: Sample Problems ...........................................132
Chapter 5: Precipitation Processes ............134
Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................135
Section 2: Thermodynamics of Cloud Formation ............136
Section 3: Cloud Microphysics .......................................141
Section 4: Meteorology of Precipitation .........................148
Section 5: Precipitation Climatology and Extremes .......158
v
Section 6: Precipitation Measurement ............................162 Section 9: Conceptual Questions ....................................252
Section 7: MOD-WET Codes .........................................174 Section 10: Sample Problems .........................................253
Section 8: Conceptual Questions ....................................175 Section 11: MOD-WET Problems ..................................256
Section 9: Sample Problems ...........................................176 Chapter 8: Evaporation .............................257
Chapter 6: Snow Processes ........................180 Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................258
Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................181 Section 2: Basics of Evapotranspiration .........................259
Section 2: Surface Energy and Mass Balance .................182 Section 3: Mass-transfer Model for Evaporation ............261
Section 3: Snowpack Characteristics ..............................185 Section 4: Transpiration ................................................269
Section 4: Snowpack Accumulation and Section 5: Additional ET Models ...................................276
Metamorphism ....................................................190 Section 6: MOD-WET Codes .........................................282
Section 5: Snowmelt ......................................................198 Section 7: Conceptual Questions ....................................283
Section 6: Impact of Vegetation .....................................202 Section 8: Sample Problems ...........................................285
Section 7: Snow Climatology .........................................205 Section 9: MOD-WET Problems ....................................285
Section 8: Snow Measurement ........................................208 Chapter 9: Groundwater Flow ...................288
Section 9: MOD-WET Codes .........................................214 Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................289
Section 10: Conceptual Questions ..................................215 Section 2: Basic Groundwater Characteristics ................290
Section 11: Sample Problems .........................................216 Section 3: Development of Groundwater Flow
Section 11: MOD-WET Problems ..................................218 Equation .............................................................295
Chapter 7: Unsaturated Flow and Section 4: Groundwater Flow to Pumping
Infiltration.........................................220 Wells ...................................................................301
Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................221 Section 5: Superposition of Groundwater
Section 2: Unsaturated Zone Characteristics ..................222 Solutions .............................................................308
Section 3: Flow in Unsaturated Porous Media ...............228 Section 6: Conceptual Questions ....................................318
Section 4: Modeling Unsaturated Zone Flow Section 7: Sample Problems ...........................................319
Dynamics ............................................................235 Chapter 10: Runoff and Streamflow ..........322
Section 5: Infiltration ....................................................238 Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................323
Section 6: Infiltration Capacity Models ..........................242 Section 2: Basic Runoff and Streamflow Definitions .......324
Section 7: Modeling Actual Infiltration ..........................245 Section 3: Runoff Generation Mechanisms .....................327
Section 8: MOD-WET Codes .........................................251 Section 4: Streamflow Hydrographs ...............................334

vi
Section 5: Unit Hydrograph Rainfall-Runoff Modeling ...338
Section 6: Physically-based Rainfall-Runoff Modeling ....352
Section 7: Streamflow Routing: Unsteady Flow ..............358
Section 8: Streamflow Routing: Hydrologic Routing .......366
Section 9: Measurement of Streamflow ...........................368
Section 10: Conceptual Questions ..................................371
Section 11: Sample Problems .........................................372
Section 12: MOD-WET Problems ..................................375
Chapter 11: A Simple Watershed
Model ................................................376
Section 1: Learning Objectives ......................................377
Section 2: MOD-WET Model Development ....................378
Section 3: MOD-WET Model Implementation ...............386
Section 4: Example MOD-WET Model Applications ......392
Section 5: Example MOD-WET Hydrograph
Characteristics ....................................................406
Section 6: MOD-WET Codes .........................................410
Section 7: Conceptual Questions ....................................411
Section 8: Sample Problems ...........................................412
Chapter 12: MATLAB Basics ......................413
Chapter 13: References .................................418

vii
Chapter 1

The
Hydrologic
Cycle
S ECTION 1 10. Construct a watershed from topographic data for use in
hydrologic analysis
Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:

1. Provide a basic definition of hydrology

2. List some of the key motivations for studying hydrology

3. Describe the primary reservoirs in the global hydrologic

cycle and their relative sizes

4. Describe the primary water fluxes connecting the

reservoirs in the global hydrologic cycle

5. Describe and differentiate the unique properties of water

relevant to hydrology

6. Convert between mass, volume, and energy fluxes and flux

densities

7. Write down and apply the mass balance equation for a

particular control volume

8. Identify the average rate of the global hydrologic cycle and

the corresponding average residence times of water in
different global hydrological reservoirs

9. Define a watershed and explain its relevance to hydrology

9
S ECTION 2
Motivation
Before beginning our discussion of hydrology we should
define what it is and why its study is important. Simply put,
hydrology is the study of water. In particular, hydrologic
science is a branch of geoscience that aims to diagnose and
predict: 1) the spatial and temporal characteristics of water in
its various storage reservoirs (terrestrial, atmospheric,
oceanic) and 2) the corresponding fluxes of water between
these reservoirs.
There are many motivations for studying hydrology. The
fundamental motivation is that water is required for life,
making it of paramount societal importance. While the overall
amount of water is fixed, population is increasing and
therefore having an understanding of water and its storage
and movement is key to our survival and will likely dictate
how and where we will live in the future.
There is also a significant scientific motivation for
studying water because it plays a key role in the Earth system
as a whole, including weather and climate processes,
landscape evolution, and biogeochemical processes. For
example, in terms of climate, we would like to know how and
why water varies from one location to another. A relevant
example in terms of annual average precipitation distribution
over California is shown in Figure 1.1. The map shows clear
gradients in precipitation from North to South as well as a
function of elevation (i.e. high precipitation occurs in the
Sierra Nevada). Understanding how and why this variability
exists will be a key component of this course.
Significant connections also exist between water and
engineering due to the need to design water resources systems
(both for water supply and hazard mitigation) to manage and
allocate water resources. A map of population distribution in
California is shown in Figure 1.2. It is clear from the map that
there is a distinct mismatch between the areas of highest
precipitation and highest population. For example, Los
Angeles receives approximately 15 inches of precipitation per
year (Figure 1.1), which amounts to approximately 90
gallons/day/person. The average user in Los Angeles however
requires approximately 200 gallons/day, an amount that
cannot be met by local supply. Beyond urban water use, a
significant amount of water is used for agricultural irrigation,
much of which occurs in some of the areas of lowest
precipitation in the state (i.e. the Central Valley and the
Imperial Valley in the southeastern corner of the state). Such
mismatches in distribution of water availability and use is not
uncommon throughout the world and necessitates a significant
amount of water resources engineering to move water from
where it is plentiful to where it is needed.
Finally, the need for water and its scarcity implies
economic value, hence making water of high economic interest.
In fact, much of the development of the Western U.S. has
been and will be dictated by water (e.g. Reisner, 1993,
Hundley, 2001, Carle, 2004, Green, 2007). Questions like who
has the right to water and whether it should be treated like
10
 F IGURE 1.1 Map of annual average precipitation over Califor-
nia (from www.ocs.orst.edu/prism).

other commodities are beyond the scope of this course, but

hugely important.
F IGURE 1.2 Population in California based on 2000 U.S. Cen-
The focus on this course will be on the basic physical sus survey.
understanding of processes related to hydrology as a basis for
ultimately engaging the issues and problems described above.
11
In terms of quantification of processes, many equations will be
used throughout the book. The majority of the equations used
will be physically based rather than empirical. Physically
based equations are derived from fundamental physical
equations and are therefore dimensionally consistent (and
most commonly use SI units). Empirically based equations are
not derived from physics, but instead fitted to experimental
data. As such, they may use and require that inputs be in
particular units and provide answers in prescribed units.
When empirical equations are presented throughout the book,
the necessary units for inputs and outputs are described
explicitly. For physically based equations, units are typically
not explicitly mentioned because they can consist of any
dimensionally consistent set.

12
S ECTION 3
The Hydrologic Cycle
A useful way to conceptualize hydrology is via the notion
of the hydrologic cycle as shown in Figure 1.3 and Movie 1.1.
One can envision this cycle occurring across spatial scales
from local to global and across all time scales. Some of the
key hydrologic reservoirs include: the atmosphere, soil water
(i.e. near-surface in the unsaturated soil zone and in deeper
F IGURE 1.3 Conceptual picture of the hydrologic cycle.
M OVIE 1.1 Conceptual movie of the hydrologic cycle.
groundwater reservoirs), surface water (i.e. rivers, lakes), the
cryosphere (including seasonal snowpacks, glaciers, icecaps),
the biosphere (e.g. water stored in vegetation), and the
oceans. Across all reservoirs, water can be stored in any of its
three phases (liquid water, solid ice, and water vapor). For
example, in the atmosphere, water can exist in all three
phases, while the cryosphere consists mostly of solid ice and
soil and surface water is primarily liquid. Table 1.1 shows
estimates of the volume of water stored in the key reservoirs
in the global system. Note that these are very rough estimates
and different cited sources will yield different estimates. The
numbers are meant to illustrate the order of magnitude of
each reservoir. The ocean is by far the largest of the reservoirs
and contains saline water. The next biggest reservoir is the ice
caps and glaciers which contain mostly bound-up (albeit
increasingly changing) fresh water in frozen form. For the
13
T ABLE 1.1. E STIMATES OF STORAGE IN PRIMARY feeds surface water bodies via lateral flow and runoff. The
GLOBAL HYDROLOGIC RESERVOIRS (B RAS , 1990). atmospheric water is replenished via evaporation from the soil
and open water surfaces and transpiration from vegetation.
VOLUME
RESERVOIR % TOTAL WATER Fluxes and storage are directly linked via mass balance as
(km3) described in more detail below.
Oceans 1,322,000,000 97.2
A key aspect of the hydrologic cycle is the fact that it is
Ice caps & glaciers 29,199,700 2.1 driven by energy inputs (primarily from the sun; Figure 1.3).
Groundwater (near-surface) 4,171,400 0.31 At the global scale, the system is essentially closed with
respect to water; negligible water is entering or leaving the
Lakes & Rivers 130,700 0.017
system. In other words, there is no external forcing in terms of
Soil Moisture 66,700 0.005 a water flux. Systems with no external forcing will generally
eventually come to an equilibrium state. So what makes the
Atmosphere 12,900 0.0009
hydrologic cycle so dynamic? The solar radiative energy input,
dynamic (mobile) freshwater reservoirs, groundwater is by far which is external to the system, drives the hydrologic cycle.
the largest. The relatively small fraction of water stored in Averaged over the globe, 342 W m-2 of solar radiative energy
lakes and rivers, soil moisture, the atmosphere, and biosphere is being continuously input to the system at the top of the
misrepresents their importance as they tend to be the most atmosphere. This energy input must be dissipated, and this is
dynamic parts of the hydrologic cycle as will be described in done, to a large extent, via the hydrologic cycle. Due to this
more detail below. fact, the study of hydrology is not isolated to the study of
water storage and movement, but also must often include
Water moves between these various reservoirs via fluxes. study of energy storage and movements.
Some of the key hydrologic fluxes include: precipitation (either
in liquid or solid form), evaporation and transpiration
(together referred to as evapotranspiration), infiltration,
recharge, and runoff. Precipitation and evapotranspiration are
the key fluxes between the atmosphere and surface (land and
oceans). Precipitation may accumulate when it falls as snow
while rainfall is partitioned at the surface into infiltration and
surface runoff. Percolation of water through the unsaturated
soil zone recharges groundwater aquifers which ultimately
14
S ECTION 4

Unique Properties of Water

Many of the reasons for the importance of water in the
Earth system (and for its necessity in life) have to do directly
with its unique properties. Some of the key properties relevant
to hydrology are discussed in more detail below.

The key properties of water are ultimately a function of

its molecular structure, which consists of two hydrogen atoms
and one oxygen atom (i.e. H2O). In particular, a H2O molecule
is polar in nature where the hydrogen “side” of the molecule
has a positive charge and the oxygen “side” has a negative
charge (Figure 1.4). The polarity of the molecule controls how
water molecules arrange themselves in liquid and ice form,
where the positive end of one molecule is attracted to the
negative end of another molecule via so-called hydrogen
bonds. The arrangement of molecules determines the density
of water which for liquid water is approximately 1000 kg m-3
(with a slight variation with temperature as shown in Table
1.2) and for ice is 917 kg m-3.
The attraction from these bonds leads water to have a
high viscosity and surface tension among other unique
properties. Figure 1.5 shows the thermodynamic phase
diagram for pure water, which is simply a plot showing how
regions of pressure-temperature space correspond to the
particular phase of water. The curves represent equilibrium
conditions where two water phases can coexist and the
F IGURE 1.4 Basic structure of a water molecule showing its
polarity (from bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/2010/olson_moll/
polarwatermoleculeGOOD.jpg).
intersection of all three curves is the triple point. The
equilibrium curve between solid and liquid represents melting
(or fusion), the curve between liquid and vapor represents
vaporization (or condensation) and the curve between solid
and vapor represents sublimation (or deposition). Of
particular relevance is that the pressure and temperature
conditions for Earth on the phase diagram are located in a
region that is near boundaries between all three phases, and
in fact phase changes on Earth are a common occurrence. For
context, conditions on most other planets in the solar system
have pressure and temperature conditions that are not
15

F IGURE 1.5 Phase diagram showing phases of pure water as a
function of pressure and temperature (from
msduncanchem.com/Unit_11/phase_diagrams_ws_files/image001.gif).
suitable for such phase transformations (if water was even
present). As described further below, phase changes for water
are associated with considerable energy consumption/release.
This is one of the primary reasons why water and the
hydrologic cycle is of primary importance in the climate
system.
Of particular importance with respect to climate on
Earth are the latent heat and thermal heat capacity
properties of water. The specific heat capacity of a substance
is the amount of energy required to raise a given mass of the
substance by 1 degree. For water, the specific heat capacity
(cp) at T=0ºC is 4216 J kg-1 K-1. Like many properties of
T ABLE 1.2. P ROPERTIES OF P URE L IQUID W ATER AS
A FUNCTION OF T EMPERATURE A BOVE F REEZING
SPECIFIC HEAT
TEMPERATURE DENSITY
CAPACITY
(ºC) (kg m-3)
(J kg-1 K-1)
0 999.87 4216
15 999.13 4184
30 995.67 4177
water, this can vary with temperature as shown in Table 1.2.
This is the highest specific heat capacity of any known
substance (Mays, 2005). So why is this property so important
to climate on Earth? The primary effect is one of buffering
temperature changes. Much of the solar energy entering the
top of the Earth’s atmosphere reaches the surface, a
significant fraction of which is covered by water. The high
heat capacity of water means that much of this energy can be
absorbed with relatively small temperature changes. A planet
without water would warm much more significantly for the
same energy input. This effect can also be seen in regional
climate patterns. Coastal areas near large bodies of water
generally have a more temperate climate (i.e. relatively small
temperature variations) compared to those inland due to the
buffering capacity of the water body. In another example, the
human body takes advantage of the high heat capacity of
16
water to regulate the body’s temperature within the small
range needed for healthy functioning.
Another key set of properties of water are the so-called
latent heats associated with phase transformation. While heat
capacity is the energy required to change the temperature of a
given substance (i.e. liquid water), the latent heats are the
energy associated with a constant temperature (isothermal)
phase change. The latent heat of vaporization (Lv) is the
energy consumed in transforming liquid water to water vapor
(or released in converting vapor to liquid) and has a value (at
T = 0ºC of Lv = 2.5×106 J kg-1. This property has a slight
variation with temperature (e.g. equals 2.25 x 106 J kg-1 at
100ºC), but for most applications we can use this nominal
value. The latent heat of fusion (Lf) is the energy consumed in
transforming solid water (ice) to liquid water (or released in
converting liquid to ice) and has a nominal value of Lf = 3.34
×105 J kg-1. Note that this is almost an order of magnitude
less than the latent heat of vaporization. The latent heat of
sublimation (Ls) is the energy consumed in transforming ice to
water vapor (or released in converting vapor to solid) and has
a nominal value of Ls = 2.85×106 J kg-1. The large amounts of
energy required to break the hydrogen bonds between water
molecules make these properties very high compared to other
substances. The fact that these latent heats are so large for
water, coupled with the fact that phase transformations are
quite common in the Earth system, result in significant energy
sources and sinks in the hydrologic cycle. Specifically, latent
heating is critical in energy transfer between the surface and
atmosphere and in global heat transport.
E XAMPLE 1.4.1
How much energy would be released if all of the
atmospheric water vapor were condensed?
According to Table 1.1, the volume of water in the
atmosphere is approximately equal to 12,900 km3. The
equivalent amount of mass (using a density of water of
1000 kg/m3) is then given by:
(1000)3 m 3
Mass = (12,900 km )(1000 kg m )
3 -3
1 km 3
= 1.29 × 1016 kg
The equivalent amount of released energy is obtained by
multiplying the mass by the latent heat of vaporization
(Lv). Hence the amount of energy is:
Energy = (1.29 × 1016 kg)(2.5 × 10 6 J kg -1 )
= 3.225 × 10 22 J
This is a large amount of energy. Despite the atmosphere
only containing relatively “little” water compared to
other reservoirs, this amounts to enough energy to power
over 1 trillion 100 W light bulbs for over 10 years! The
key point is that the water in the atmosphere is a
significant potential latent heat source (or sink) when
phase changes occur. This energy, which is due to the
high latent heat of water, is one of the primary
mechanisms for energy transport in the atmosphere.
17
E XAMPLE 1.4.2

If the energy released in the previous example

were absorbed by the global oceans, how much of
a temperature change would there be?

The specific heat capacity of a substance dictates how its

temperature will change (per unit mass) given an energy
input. According to Table 1.1, the volume of water in the
global oceans is approximately equal to 1,322,000,000
km3. The equivalent amount of mass (using a nominal
density of water of 1000 kg/m3) is then given by:

(1000)3 m 3
Mass = (1,322, 000, 000 km )(1000 kg m )
3 -3

1 km 3
= 1.322 × 10 21 kg

The temperature change that would result from the

energy input would then be:
Temperature change =
(3.225 × 10 22 J)/(1.322 × 10 21 kg)/(4216 J kg -1K-1 )
= 5.8 × 10 −3 K

Due to the large heat capacity of the ocean (and its large
mass) there would be an imperceptible change in
temperature due to this large energy input. This is
illustrative of the large buffering capacity of water.

18
S ECTION 5 Properties of the fluid are denoted as either extensive or
intensive. Extensive properties are those that are in some way
Mass Balance, Fluxes, and related to the total mass of the system, including mass (m),
momentum (mV), and energy (E). Intensive properties are

Units generally normalized by mass (e.g., momentum per unit mass,

which is simply velocity, energy per unit mass, etc.). In the
control volume approach, we can represent an extensive
The key starting point of most hydrologic analyses
property as B and an intensive property as B (dB/dm). The
involve application of mass balance. A mass balance equation
general control volume equation can be expressed as (Mays,
for any system (as well as many other conservation laws) can
2005):
be derived using Reynolds transport theorem (Mays, 2005).
dB d
The theorem starts with the definition of a control volume in
dt
= ∫ ρB dV + CS∫ ρBV ⋅dA
dt CV
(1.5.1)
space defined by a control surface (Figure 1.6). Implicit in any
mass balance application is a pre-specified control volume;
without one the mass balance is not meaningful. where the individual terms are:
dB
≡ total rate of change of extensive property
dt
d
∫ ρB dV ≡ rate
dt CV
of change of extensive property in control
volume (where ρ is density of fluid and dV is a
differential volume)

∫ ρBV ⋅dA ≡ netcontrol

CS
rate of outflow of extensive property across
surface (where V is velocity and dA
is differential area of the control surface)

The mass balance (or continuity) equation is derived

from the Reynolds transport theorem by setting B to mass
(making B = 1) and noting that for mass conservation the
F IGURE 1.6 Basic schematic of a control volume with fluxes left-hand-side term equals zero, which yields:
across the control surface (adapted from Mays, 2005).
d dM
∫
dt CV
ρ dV =
dt
= − ∫ ρV ⋅dA
CS
(1.5.2)

19
which simply states that the rate of change of mass storage in In the context of mass-balance (or other) applications,
the control volume (mass/time) is exactly balanced by the net several forms of fluxes are used and it is important to be able
rate of mass outflow across the control surface. Several to differentiate between them and the units associated with
simplifying assumptions can be made to Equation (1.5.2), them. Mass fluxes (i.e. used in Equation (1.5.2)) have units of
including constant density (often appropriate in the case of mass/time (e.g., kg s-1). Volume fluxes (i.e. used in Equation
liquid water flow/storage problems) in which case: (1.5.4)) have units of volume/time (e.g., m3 s-1). To convert
d between the two, the density of the fluid can be used, i.e. for
∫ dV = −CS∫ V ⋅dA
dt CV
(1.5.3) water:
kg 1 m3
× = ; ρw = 1000 kg m −3
s ρw s
which can then simply be written as:
dS
= ∑ I i − ∑Oi (1.5.4) Often a flux density is used in place of a flux, which is simply
dt i i
either a mass or volumetric flux normalized by an appropriate
cross-sectional area across which the flux is occurring, i.e.
where S is the volume storage and the right-hand-side is the
sum of volumetric flux inflows (Ii) minus the sum of kg 1 kg
Mass: × → 2
volumetric flux outflows (Oi) across the control surface of the s A ms
control volume. A key point is that only fluxes across the m3 1 m mm m
Volume: × → (or , , etc.)
control surface need be considered in the mass balance s A s d y
equation. Internal fluxes do not contribute to mass/volume
where as shown above, if the mass flux density is known,
storage changes. This fact is often used in the construction of
volume flux density can be obtained by dividing by the
a control volume to eliminate fluxes that are unknown by
density of water. The volume flux density is a common way of
making them internal fluxes. Hence for the equation to be
expressing fluxes in hydrology. For example, the annual
meaningful, a control volume must be explicitly defined.
average rainfall in Los Angeles is 15 inches/year, which is
Another simplified case is that of steady-state in which case
implicit over a given area. To get the actual volume flux
the storage term is equal to zero, yielding:
would require multiplying this flux density by the surface area
∑ I = ∑O
i i (1.5.5) of Los Angeles over which the flux density occurs.
i i

20
 As will be discussed in much more detail later, and has
been alluded to above, water and energy fluxes are often E XAMPLE 1.5.1 ( CONTINUED )
directly connected. The most relevant example is that the
be lined with concrete to prevent any drainage or
evaporation flux is tied directly to a phase change energy flux.
For example, the latent heat flux associated with phase seepage from the bottom. Using a water balance,
change is simply the mass flux density multiplied by the latent what volume (on average) of groundwater (in
heat of vaporization: cubic meters) must be added to the lake each
year to keep the pond at a steady-state level?
J kg
Energy flux density = Lv × Mass flux density → = Wm −2
kg m s
2
The first step to any mass balance is the definition of a
control volume. For this problem the control volume and
where the units of W m-2 are the most commonly used for relevant fluxes are shown below:
energy fluxes (actually flux densities) in hydrology.

E XAMPLE 1.5.1

A golf course has requested a permit to install a

40,000 ft2 pond to enhance the beauty of its
facilities. It is hypothesized that due to high
evaporation rates, the water in the pond will
have to be supplemented with pumped
groundwater. There is a small creek that
discharges an average of 0.0005 m3/s into the where the mass balance for the pond can be written as:
pond. The outlet valve from the pond releases an
dS pond
average rate of 0.0003 m3/s to keep the pond = P +Qin +Gin − E −Qout
from getting stagnant. Precipitation on the pond dt
is 260 mm/year, and the annual evaporation is
The steady-state form can be invoked in which the
estimated to be 105 inches/year. The pond will storage change would be zero so that:

21
E XAMPLE 1.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

Gin = E +Qout − P −Qin

Next, the fluxes must be converted to proper and

consistent units. Converting everything to SI units, the
area of the pond is given by:

2
! 1m $
Apond = 40000 ft #
2
& = 3718 m
2

" 3.28 ft %

The known fluxes are given by:

mm 1 m
P = 260 × 3718 m 2 = 967 m 3 /y
y 1000 mm
in 2.54 cm 1 m
E = 105 × 3718 m 2 = 9916 m 3 /y
y 1 in 100 cm
m3
Qout −Qin = (0.0003 − 0.0005) ×
s
(3600 × 24 × 365) s
= −6307 m 3 /y
1y

The necessary influx from the groundwater pumping is

then given by:

Gin = (9916 − 967 − 6307) m 3 /y = 2642 m 3 /y

22
S ECTION 6

Global Hydrologic Cycle

and Average Mass Balance
To begin to understand timescales of hydrologic fluxes
and mass balance it is instructive to start at the global scale.
If we consider a control volume covering the entire surface of
the globe (Figure 1.7), the relevant fluxes across the control
surface are the precipitation and evaporation fluxes over both
land and ocean. Note that the runoff between land and ocean
is an internal flux and therefore not relevant to the mass
balance of the control volume we have chosen. The F IGURE 1.7 Estimates of global long-term average fluxes and
instantaneous global mass (or volume) balance can then be reservoir storage over land and ocean. Storages are indicated
by boxes (in units of 103 km3) and fluxes are indicated by ar-
written as: rows (in units of 103 km3/year) (adapted from U.S. National Research
Council, 1991; Mays, 2005).
dS
= Pland − Eland + Pocean − Eocean (1.6.1)
dt

difficult, if not impossible, to estimate accurately (especially

where S simply represents the mass/volume stored in the
over large scales). Therefore to simplify hydrologic analysis we
ocean and land water reservoirs and consistent units must be
often take the “long-term” average of the above mass balance
used (either in terms of mass or volume). Given the above
equation, where we can use the time-averaging operator:
equation, if all instantaneous fluxes are known, then the
1 t +T
storage change can be determined. Alternatively, if the storage X =
T ∫
t
X dt (1.6.2)
change is known and all fluxes but one are known, the
equation can be used to solve for the unknown flux as a
residual. where T is an averaging window in time and the above
In practice, the instantaneous mass balance terms are equation can be applied to each term in the mass balance

23
equation:
dS
= Pland − Eland + Pocean − Eocean
dt
The question then becomes, if the averaging period is long
enough, can we say anything about any of these terms? Over
the long-term we can reasonably say that the (average)
storage change should be close to zero or at least much
smaller than the average fluxes. This implicitly assumes some
stationarity in the system (i.e. it is steady-state in the long-
term). In general, the longer the averaging period the more
accurate the assumption will be. At a minimum it should be
at least a full year to average over the seasonal cycle (i.e. most
regions have a “wet” season where water storage is increasing
and “dry” season where water stores are depleted). Anything
less would be expected to violate the steady-state assumption.
Taking the long-term average results in:
dS
≅ 0 = Pland − Eland + Pocean − Eocean = Pglobal − E global
dt
→ Pglobal = E global
which should make sense because if these fluxes were not in
balance, water would either be accumulating over the long-
term in the atmosphere (if evaporation exceeded
precipitation) or in the land/ocean (if precipitation exceeded
evaporation). From data it is estimated that:
Pglobal ≅ 1 m yr -1 = E global
where this is expressed in terms of a volumetric flux density
(i.e. normalized over the surface of the Earth). Expressed as a
(1.6.3)
volumetric flux this would equal 1415 km3 day-1.
We can think of the above flux as the average global rate
of the hydrologic cycle. In other words this is the average
amount of water moving through the various hydrologic
reservoirs. Note that the instantaneous fluxes at any given
point and time may be very different than this (as will be
discussed later). Given this rate we can estimate average
residence time in the various reservoirs using the relationship:
Volume of reservoir
Residence Time = (1.6.6)
Average volumetric flux rate
which provides an estimate of the turnover time of water in a
given reservoir. Given the estimates of reservoir volumes
(shown in Table 1.3), the residence times can be estimated
and are shown in Table 1.3. These residence times are
(1.6.4) indicative of how dynamic the different reservoirs are. For
example, a molecule of water will stay in the atmosphere for 9
days on average before precipitating out, while a molecule of
(1.6.5) water will spend 8 years on average flowing through
groundwater. So while the atmosphere and soil moisture
reservoirs are among the smallest, they are the most dynamic
based on their residence times and contribute to much of the
variability in the system.
It is very important to keep in mind that the above
numbers are global long-term averages. Significant variability
exists in most hydrologic fluxes in both space and time. In
24
T ABLE 1.3. E STIMATES OF RESIDENCE TIME IN
PRIMARY GLOBAL HYDROLOGIC RESERVOIRS . T HESE
VALUES ASSUME A GLOBAL AVERAGE HYDROLOGIC
RATE OF 1 METER / YEAR (1415 km 3/day)

VOLUME RESIDENCE
RESERVOIR
(km3) TIME

Oceans 1,322,000,000 2500 years

Ice caps & glaciers 29,199,700 -

Groundwater (near-surface) 4,171,400 8 years

Lakes & Rivers 130,700 88 days

Soil Moisture 66,700 47 days

Atmosphere 12,900 9 days

fact it is this variability that must be accommodated for in
the design of water systems. Some interesting examples to
illustrate spatial variability include consideration of the
“driest” and “wettest” places on Earth. For the purposes of
illustration we can compare long-term average precipitation as
a representative measure of the local hydrology. For example,
Los Angeles receives an average of approximately 15 inches
(38 cm) of rainfall per year making it a relatively dry place.
However the driest place on Earth is the Atacama Desert in
Chile (Figure 1.8). In parts of the Atacama there has never
been recorded rainfall, and over the whole desert, rainfall
averages less than 1 mm/year! The lack of water makes for a
particularly stark landscape with little to no life to the point
that it is often compared to the surface of Mars (Figure 1.9).
F IGURE 1.8 Location of Atacama Desert in Chile (the “driest
place on Earth”).
In contrast, the “wettest” place on Earth is generally
considered to be Cherrapunji, India (Figure 1.10), which
receives an annual average rainfall of 11.1 m/year. Moreover,
due to its monsoon climate, most of this rainfall occurs within
the 3-6 month rainy season. Keeping in mind this is the long-
term average, another interesting example is the maximum
observed annual rainfall in Cherrapunji, which was 26.5
meters!
These two examples provide interesting ends of the
hydrologic spectrum, where in one water is extremely scarce,

25
 F IGURE 1.9 Illustrative photo of the arid terrain of the Ata-
cama desert (from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paranal_360-degree_
Panoramic.jpg).

making water supply a problem. In the other, water is too

plentiful causing extreme flooding problems. Beyond these two F IGURE 1.10 Location of Cherrapunji India (the “wettest
examples of extreme spatial variability in hydrology, it is place on Earth”).
important to keep in mind the temporal variability. For
example, most of the 38 cm (15 in.) of annual average rainfall
in Los Angeles is isolated to the winter season (December-
January-February-March), which is in contrast to
Cherrapunji, which receives almost all of its rainfall during the
Summer. In doing any hydrologic analysis, it is important to
clearly define the relevant spatial and temporal scales of
interest.

26
S ECTION 7 gauge exists). A watershed is simply the set of all points
(upstream) that would ultimately route water to the defined
Watershed Mass Balance outlet point. If one has topographic (i.e. elevation) maps, the
watershed can be defined using a relatively simple set of rules.
This process is generally referred to as “watershed delineation”
The last section used a global control volume to gain and traditionally was done by hand using hard-copy
some insight into long-term hydrologic fluxes at large scales topographic maps. Now it is more commonly done in an
and the corresponding residence times in key hydrologic automated way using digital representations of topography
reservoirs. In many hydrological analyses we are instead (discussed in more detail below). Watersheds come in all
shapes and sizes and any given watershed is made up of many
interested in some local or regional scale. The question then
smaller watersheds (sub-watersheds or sub-basins). Examples
becomes: How do we choose an appropriate control volume for
of some of the large watersheds covering the continental U.S.
such analyses? While any control volume can be chosen, one
are shown in Figure 1.11. Note that the full Mississippi River
that is physically-meaningful involves the concept of a
basin covers approximately 50% of the land area of the
watershed (or catchment or river basin). The watershed is in
recognition of the fact that topographic slopes are the primary
drivers of many (especially surface) fluxes. Physically
speaking, water is expected to flow down hill into a nearby
stream channel where that water will then flow downstream
through the river network. Smaller tributary streams merge
with other streams forming larger and larger streams that will
ultimately tend to flow into the ocean or other large water
bodies. The river network is simply the organization of
drainage patterns over the landscape.

The definition of a watershed starts with the choice of a

point in space that coincides with a location on a particular
river network, typically referred to as the watershed outlet.
The outlet may be the terminal outlet (i.e. to an ocean or F IGURE 1.11 Major watersheds covering the United States
(from maps.howstuffworks.com/united-states-watersheds-map.htm).
other large body of water) or some location on the river
upstream from the terminal outlet (perhaps where a stream

27
continental U.S. The continental divide (Great Divide) along
the peak of the Rocky Mountains separates the watersheds
that drain to the Pacific Ocean or Gulf of California vs. those
that drain to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. Of
particular relevance to California are the primary basins
draining the Sierra Nevada (Figure 1.12) and the Colorado
River (Figure 1.13), both of which provide the major water
supply to California. The western Sierra Nevada basins drain
into a large series of dams controlled by the California
Department of Water Resources (CADWR), which provides a
major supply of water to California, while two basins on the
eastern side of the Southern Sierra Nevada (Mono and Owens)
supply the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Water from the Colorado
River is conveyed via the Colorado River Aqueduct to
Southern California (Figure 1.14).

Digital topographic information can be used to

automatically delineate a watershed. These digital
representations are most commonly referred to as digital
elevation models (DEMs), where a map of elevation is
provided on a regular grid at some nominal spatial resolution.
Some DEMs are simply digitized versions of old topographic
maps and are available from agencies like the USGS (http://
eros.usgs.gov/#/Guides/dem), while others have been
developed from satellite-based algorithms (i.e. the SRTM
[http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/] and ASTER [http://
asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gdem.asp] products). Based on these
various sources of data, much of the topography of the globe F IGURE 1.12 Key watersheds in Sierra Nevada responsible
is now available at spatial resolutions of less than 100 meters. for water supply to California.
A DEM can be thought of as simply an array of elevation

28
 data on some coordinate grid system. (Such gridded data is
often called “raster” data). From the gridded data and a
specified outlet coordinate, one can derive the upstream pixels
that will ultimately flow to the specified outlet. A MATLAB
code for doing such watershed delineation is included in the
Modular Distributed Watershed Educational Toolbox (MOD-
WET) provided as part of the textbook. The specific code is
called: watershed_area_and_stream_delineation.
Geographic Information System (GIS) software (e.g. ArcGIS)
also generally have built-in functions for watershed analysis.

The primary reason a watershed is a convenient control

volume is the fact that by construct it has one lateral flux (i.e.
runoff at the outlet), where it is commonly assumed that there
is negligible groundwater flow between watersheds. The
instantaneous mass balance applied to a watershed control
volume is given by:
dS
= ∑ I i − ∑Oi = P − E − Q (1.7.1)
dt i i

where S is the total storage of water within the basin (i.e.

snow, soil moisture, groundwater), P is the precipitation, E is
the evaporation and Q is the streamflow (runoff at the outlet).
As can be done for any mass balance, if we take the long-term
average, this yields:

dS (1.7.2)
F IGURE 1.13 The Colorado River watershed (from ≅ 0 = P − E −Q
dt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River).

so that over the long-term the average basin yield (i.e. the
29
maximum amount of water that could be extracted) is given This simple form of mass balance is useful for a first-order
by: estimate of basin yield assuming long-term average
precipitation and evaporation are known. Other fluxes
Q = P −E (1.7.3) discussed previously (i.e. infiltration, percolation, groundwater
flow, etc.) are internal fluxes when the entire watershed is
used as a control volume and therefore do not contribute to
the mass balance in this context.

It is important to keep in mind that the basin yield

shown in Equation (1.7.3) provides an estimate of the total
amount of available local water. In many regions, California
chief among them, local water supply is not enough to meet
local demand. In such instances water must be imported from
other watersheds. This is precisely what is done in California
where the Sierra Nevada (Figure 1.12) and Colorado River
(Figure 1.13) yield is conveyed to populated and agricultural
areas via a complex series of water resource systems. Figure
1.14 illustrates this system, where many dams are used (in
both the western Sierra Nevada and along the Colorado
River) to store water and aqueducts are used to convey water
from one location to the next. As seen in Figure 1.14,
Southern California gets water via the California, Colorado
River, and Los Angeles Aqueducts.

E XAMPLE 1.7.1

F IGURE 1.14 Map showing the key elements of the California A new dam is built to create a municipal
water system (from reservoir at the outlet of a watershed. The
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:California_water_system.jpg).
average annual rainfall for the region is 1.0 m y-1.

30
E XAMPLE 1.7.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 1.7.1 ( CONTINUED )

Evaporation pans in the area indicate an average mass or volume since the water density is effectively
open-water evaporation rate of 1.1 mm d-1. The constant. The storage volume can be expressed as
river system brings an average inflow of 1.75 m3 the(constant) area multiplied by the reservoir height.
s-1 into the reservoir. The equation can then be written as:

a) How long would it take to fill the reservoir to dh

= P − E +Q
a depth of 3 m if no water is released through dt
the dam gates during the filling period? Assume
where the fluxes on the right-hand-side can be written in
that the reservoir has an approximately constant
terms of volume flux densities, which are just the volume
surface area of 10,000 hectares (1 ha = 10,000
fluxes per unit area:
m2).
P = 1.0 m y -1
b) Once the reservoir is filled, what is the
! 1 m $ ! 365 d $
average reservoir release (in m3 s-1) that can be E = 1.1 mm d # -1
&# & = 0.4 m yr
-1

made that will maintain the given reservoir level " 1000 mm % " 1 y %
-1 86400 s
! $ ! 365 d $ ! 1 $
at steady-state? Q = 1.75 m s #
3
&# & # 8 2 & = 0.55 m yr
-1

" 1 d % " 1 y % " 10 m %

The relevant control volume for this problem is the
reservoir itself. Assuming no groundwater seepage into or
out of the reservoir, the mass balance equation can be
written as:
dS
= P − E +Q
dt
where the storage and fluxes (precipitation, evaporation,
and inflow respectively) can be expressed in terms of
The rate of storage change in the reservoir is then given
by:
dh
= (1.0 − 0.4 + 0.55) m y -1 = 1.15 m y -1
dt
Based on this rate, with no outflows, the reservoir will
take 2.6 years to fill up to a depth of 3 meters.
If there is a reservoir release (Qout) the (steady-state)

31
E XAMPLE 1.7.1 ( CONTINUED )

mass balance equation changes to:

dS
= P − E +Q −Qout = 0
dt
→ Qout = P − E +Q = 1.15 m y -1

which, not surprisingly, is the same as the filling rate if

there is no outflow. The above flux can be converted
back to volumetric flux units by multiplying by the
reservoir area, which yields: Qout = 3.6 m3 s-1.

In practice, most reservoirs are primarily responsible for

smoothing out natural variability so that in wet years
the reservoir may add storage and in dry years storage
may be depleted. The size of the reservoir is a key design
variable that needs to be large enough to meet demands
or attenuate floods with a specified reliability criteria.
Note that in this simple example the reservoir area is
constant, whereas in most cases, the area will increase as
the reservoir fills.

32
S ECTION 8 MOD-WET meteorological file pre-processing code:
process_met_file.m

MOD-WET Codes
Throughout the course, several of the equations and/or
concepts that can be applied numerically are implemented for
student use in MATLAB code. Together these functions are
referred to as the “Modular Distributed Watershed
Educational Toolbox” (MOD-WET). The MOD-WET codes
are available as a companion to the book and are provided to
help cement basic applied concepts for students. They are
generally implemented as functions (i.e. with inputs/outputs)
rather than scripts. This makes them modular in structure so
they can be used in conjunction with other MOD-WET codes
or additional codes you develop on your own. They are listed
at the end of each chapter where the relevant concepts are
introduced. The actual functions provide documentation
about the inputs/outputs/units and other details. The user
should carefully examine each code before applying it so that
you are aware of the details behind the calculations.

Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in this

chapter include:

Watershed delineation code:

watershed_area_and_stream_delineation.m

MOD-WET watershed pre-processing code:

MOD_WET_watershed_preprocessing.m

33
S ECTION 9
Conceptual Questions
1. Name at least four hydrologic reservoirs.
2. Name at least four hydrologic fluxes.
3. Is water a polar or non-polar molecule? Explain.
4. How does one convert between a volumetric flux and a
volumetric flux density? What are the typical units of each
type of flux?
5. What is the largest global water reservoir? What is the
largest freshwater global reservoir? It it an active or
relatively static component of the hydrologic cycle? What is
the largest active freshwater reservoir in the global system?
6. What is the nominal density of liquid water? What is the
nominal density of ice? Which is bigger? What is the
implication for a freezing lake?
7. Are the specific heat capacity and latent heats for water
generally large or small compared to other substances?
What are some of the implications of this?
8. What are the SI units for a volumetric flux? a mass flux? a
volumetric flux density? a mass flux density?
9. What property of water is used in the context of
evaporation to convert between a mass flux density and an
energy flux density?
10. What are the SI units of an energy flux density?
11. If a watershed is used as a control volume in a mass
balance problem, what generally are the relevant hydrologic
fluxes in the mass balance?
12. If you wanted to estimate the long-term water yield of a
basin using mass balance, what assumption is often
invoked?
13. What is the average rate of the global hydrologic cycle (in
meters/year)? How does that compare to the driest and
wettest places on Earth?
14. What is the average residence time of water in the global
atmosphere? How does it compare to the residence time in
the groundwater system?
15. Describe what a watershed is. What is a sub-watershed?
16. What is a DEM?
34
S ECTION 10 energy (i.e. temperature) of the air brought in from outside.
The result is a lowering of the outside air temperature as it is
Sample Problems brought inside. The process tends to also increase the
humidity (vapor content) of the air. Hence it is an attractive
option in some semi-arid regions where outside air is very hot
and dry.
Problem 1.1. Answer the following questions based on your
textbook reading and/or ancillary sources. Make sure to
always cite your source.

a) Where does Los Angeles get its water from? How much
water comes from each source? For any external (non-local)
sources, how is the surface water transported to Southern
California?

b) What is the long-term average precipitation rate of the

global hydrologic cycle (in meters/year)? How does that
compare to the driest and wettest places on Earth and to Los
Angeles?

c) How does the long-term global surface precipitation rate

(in m/year) compare to the long-term global surface
evaporation rate (m/year)?
Problem 1.2. Water has many unique molecular properties
that make it extremely important. One application that takes
advantage of these properties is a so-called evaporative cooler
(or swamp cooler, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Evaporative_cooler), which is a device that cools air through
the evaporation of water. Liquid water is changed into water
vapor, whereby the energy used to evaporate the water (i.e.
latent heat of vaporization) is consumed from the internal
a) What is the latent heat of vaporization for water? Is this
value generally large or small compared to other substances?
What are some of the implications of this?
b) Suppose you have an evaporative cooler that has an air
volume of 1 m3. In other words, at any instant in time it
contains 1 m3 of outside air that it will cool and transfer
indoors. Suppose the evaporative cooler has a pump that
injects 5 mL of water into the cooling system. How much

35
energy input would be required to completely evaporate the
water?
c) Assuming all of the energy is taken from the internal
energy (temperature) of the air, what would be the air
temperature indoors? Assume the water to be at the outside
air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. Hints: Keep in mind
that the air, which is being cooled, has a heat capacity about
24% of water (0.24 x 4177 Jkg-1K-1). The density of air at 30
degrees Celsius is 1.16 kg/m3.
Problem 1.3. Hydrologists throughout the world use a
variety of units. Although SI units are fairly universal, it is
useful to be familiar with other common unit conventions.
The following exercises should help achieve this familiarity.
a) What are the SI units for a volumetric flux? a mass flux?
a volumetric flux density? a mass flux density? an energy flux
density? How does one convert between a volumetric flux and
a volumetric flux density?
b) The concept of volumetric fluxes is commonly expressed in
terms of a volume per unit area (flux density), or a depth.
This is generally the case in measuring rainfall over a known
area, like a river basin. Seattle, a fairly wet region receives
(on average) about 37 inches of rainfall per year. How many
meters of rain fall in the area per year? Compare this with
average rainfall in Los Angeles (look in your textbook).
c) For 37 inches of rainfall over a river basin that is 1000 km2
in area, what is the volume of water received over a year in
cubic kilometers?
d) An acre is an area that covers 4047 m2. In the U.S., a
commonly used unit of volume is the acre-ft. (AF) or the
volume of water required to cover one acre of land with water
1 ft. deep. How many cubic feet in an acre-ft.? How many
cubic meters?
e) Another commonly used unit of volume is the U.S. gallon
(264.17 gal = 1m3). The average US family has four people.
Assume the average family does 8 loads of laundry per week.
If a top loading washing machine has a capacity of 4.5 ft3 and
a front-loading washing machine has a capacity of 28.4
gallons, how many cubic centimeters of water does the average
family use per week for each of these washing machine types?
Assume there are eight million families in California, how
much water in cubic meters could California save if everyone
used a front-loading washing machine instead of a top-loading
washing machine?
Problem 1.4. A Palm Spring golf course has requested a
permit to install a 40000 ft2 pond to enhance the beauty of its
facilities. Since the evaporation rates are very high in Palm
Springs, it is likely they will need to pump a lot of
groundwater to keep the pond full. The city has hired you (a
water resources engineer) to determine how much water needs
to be pumped per year in order to keep the pond filled. There
is a small creek that discharges an average of 0.25 m3/s into
the pond. The outlet valve from the pond releases an average
rate of 0.30 m3/s (to keep the pond from getting stagnant).
Precipitation on the pond is 260 mm/year, and the annual
evaporation is estimated to be 105 inches/year. The pond will
be lined with concrete to prevent any drainage or seepage
36
from the bottom. Using a water balance, what volume (on
average) of groundwater (in cubic meters) must be added to
the lake each year to keep the pond at a constant level?
Draw a schematic of the problem to identify the control
volume and the relevant fluxes. Clearly write out/define your
water balance equation and variables along with any
assumptions you make.
Problem 1.5. The relatively unique properties of water are
among the reasons why it plays such a key role in the Earth's
climate. Among those properties are the ones that relate
energy and water processes. Provide all answers in standard
SI units.
the same dimension as the one in part c) in your tea. If the
energy used to melt the ice came from the internal energy (i.e.
temperature) of the tea, what is the lowered temperature of
your tea?
e) Suppose you do not drink the all of the tea, and you leave
50 ml in the cup. How much energy would be required to fully
evaporate the remaining tea? If this energy came from the air
in a room surrounding the cup of tea, how would the air
temperature change, i.e. by what amount and as an increase
or decrease? Assume the room has dimensions of 5 m x 5 m x
3 m and the air average density is 1.2 kg/m3.

a) Define the differences (in meaning) of the heat capacity of

a substance and latent heat (i.e. of vaporization or fusion) of a
substance. Which one is used in the context of evaporation to
convert between a mass flux density and an energy flux
density? What are the typical values of these properties for
water at 0ºC?

b) What is the nominal density of liquid water? What is the

nominal density of ice? Which is bigger?

c) Suppose you have a 2 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm ice cube that is

frozen at a temperature of 0ºC. How much energy input
would be required to melt it?

d) Suppose you are making yourself 0.50 liters of tea but its
temperature is 75ºC, which is too hot for you to drink. In
order to cool its temperature, you immerse three ice cubes of

37
S ECTION 11
MOD-WET Problems
MOD-WET contains MATLAB functions for many of the
hydrologic processes that will be covered in this textbook (e.g.
precipitation, evaporation, runoff, snow processes, radiation
process, infiltration, etc.). These process-based functions are
unified in a watershed model that can be used to model the
hydrologic cycle at the watershed-scale. We will build up your
knowledge and understanding of the processes involved
throughout the textbook. The schematic shown below
summarizes the key model inputs/outputs and hydrological
processes that are modeled in MOD-WET.
The textbook comes with sample watershed data for several
watersheds. The “MOD-WET Problems” throughout the
textbook can be used with any of those watersheds or one
that you are interested in setting up and studying. To use the
MOD-WET watershed model, all that is needed is a raster
grid for the DEM in order to delineate the watershed as
indicated in the MOD-WET tutorial and a meteorological
input file with the necessary forcing inputs. For the purposes
of generality, the problems in all MOD-WET Problems
sections of the textbook assume you are using DEM and
meteorological forcing files, named: watershed_dem_data.mat
and met_forcing_data.mat. It is assumed that the
simulation is performed over a full water year so that seasonal
variations can be examined, but the questions can be sub-
sampled to investigate shorter simulations.
Problem 1.1. In this problem you will setup a MOD-WET
simulation for the watershed and forcing data of interest.
a) Run the MOD-WET model pre-processing code
(MOD_WET_watershed_preprocessing.m) for the watershed of
interest. The pre-processing (discussed in the MOD-WET
User Manual) generates the watershed delineation mask, flow
network, slope/aspect of the terrain, and shade due to terrain
that is needed for a MOD-WET simulation and generates
several figures to visualize the watershed and its
characteristics. (This assumes you already know the outlet
coordinate. If you do not, you can delineate the watershed
offline to derive the outlet coordinate for the watershed you
want to simulate.)
38
Among the preprocessing function inputs, the first four flags
(i.e. terrain_flag, delineation_flag, slope_aspect_flag,
and shade_calc_flag) should be set to 1 in order to perform
the calculation for the delineation, slope/aspect and shade. If
you already have a pre-processed meteorological file set the
fifth flag (i.e. met_file_process_flag) to 0; otherwise you
can transform your meteorological forcing file to the proper
format using the pre-processing function. Additionally, you
should specify the name of the file that is output from the
pre-processing code that contains all static inputs needed for
the MOD-WET model, e.g.:
watershed_dem_and_delineation_data.m
Carefully read the code and text printed to screen to make
sure you know what the pre-processing is doing.
b) Run the MOD-WET model for your watershed and
meteorological forcing for a one-year simulation. This assumes
your meteorological forcing file contains one water year of
data. The primary model code wrapper is given by:
MOD_WET_model_driver.m where the key model inputs
including parameters, and input/output file pointers are
defined in the functions:
set_control_parameters.m and
set_static_physical_parameters.m
The model wrapper calls many additional functions that are
part of MOD-WET. You will learn about those in more detail
later in the textbook. The model generates a single output file
that you should specify the name of in the input file, e.g.:
watershed_output_data.mat
Note that descriptions of each output can be found in the
MOD-WET User Guide.
c) Based on the figures generated during pre-processing,
qualitatively describe where the largest and smallest flow
accumulation values are found in the basin? How is the
predicted location of the streamflow network related to the
flow accumulation values? How does the elevation of the
upstream regions in the watershed compare to the elevation of
the outlet? What is the area (in km2) of the watershed you
delineated?
d) Meteorological input data (i.e. precipitation, shortwave, air
temperature, specific humidity, wind speed, and surface air
pressure) as specified in the file met_forcing_data.mat is a
key driver of hydrologic processes. The data should be
organized on a water year (WY) basis (and on UTC time). A
WY differs from the calendar year since it starts on Oct. 1st
and ends on Sept. 30th. This is the period over which the
simulation is performed. While you could analyze the input
file directly (which is at 15 minute time step) the
meteorological inputs are also generated as hourly basin-
average outputs for your convenience in the
disaggregated_forcing.timeseries structure array
contained in the model output file. You will focus on the
hourly precipitation forcing
(disaggregated_forcing.timeseries.PPT in m/hr) in this
problem.
39
Compute and plot the hourly precipitation (mm/hr) vs. day
of water year (DOWY). What is the hourly maximum
precipitation (in mm/hr)? When does the hourly maximum
precipitation occur? What is the maximum daily precipitation
rate (in mm/day) and on what DOWY does it occur?
Describe when (i.e. seasonally) the most/least precipitation
occurs? (i.e. Are there distinct wet/dry seasons? When do
they occur? Is rainfall spread almost equally over the entire
year?)
e) Compute and plot the cumulative volumetric precipitation
over the watershed (in m3) vs. the day of water year
(DOWY). What is the total annual precipitation in m/year
and m3/year from the meteorological data?
Problem 1.2. In hydrology the concept of mass balance is
important. In this problem you will analyze the mass balance
simulated for your watershed.
a) Write down the daily mass balance equation for this basin
in terms of precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and total
storage. Draw a simple schematic with arrows that shows the
key inputs, outputs, and storage from the watershed control
volume.
b) Using the instantaneous hourly streamflow at the outlet
(fluxes.time_series.outlet_hydrograph in m3/s),
compute and plot the cumulative daily runoff time series in
m3 (i.e. cumulative sum of the runoff at the outlet for each
day) vs. day of water year (DOWY). When during the year
does the majority of runoff occur in the watershed? What is
the total (cumulative) runoff in m3/year and m/year? What is
the daily-average runoff over the year (m3/day and mm/day)?
c) Repeat the same procedure using the basin-averaged
(instantaneous) hourly evaporation (fluxes.time_series.ET
in m/hr) to compute and plot the cumulative daily ET (m3)
time series vs. day of water year (DOWY). What is the total
(cumulative) evaporation in m3/year and m/year? What is the
daily-average evaporation over the year (mm/day)? How does
the magnitude of the total (cumulative) evaporation at the
end of the WY compare to the total precipitation and runoff?
d) Finally, you will perform an annual water balance over the
entire watershed. You will use the total daily precipitation
time series and the runoff and evaporation time series
respectively. Using the cumulative precipitation, evaporation,
and runoff time series for the water year, compute and plot
the cumulative total watershed storage time series (in m3), i.e.
relative to the beginning of the water year vs. day of water
year (DOWY). Note that the storage simply corresponds to
water stored in all of the hydrologic reservoirs in the
watershed (soil moisture, groundwater, and snow). Describe
the variability and seasonality in the storage time series.
What is the total storage change at the end of the water year
(in cm)? Is the overall storage change during this water year
positive, negative, or zero? Explain the meaning of the sign of
the storage term in this case. Is it a “small” or “large” change
relative to the total precipitation over the year? If you had
several years of data, what would you expect the long-term
change in storage to be and why?
40
Chapter 2

Atmospheric
Thermody-
namics
S ECTION 1 8. Sketch the typical profiles of temperature, pressure, and
density in the atmosphere
Learning Objectives 9. State the typical lapse rate of temperature in the
troposphere

By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to: 10. State typical values for air pressure and density near the
surface
1. List the key constituents of the atmosphere, specifically
including the radiatively active components

2. Write down the ideal gas law (equation of state) for moist
air in terms of air temperature, density, pressure, and
water vapor content

3. Use the ideal gas law to compute the density of air from
the other states

4. Define the concepts of saturated vapor pressure and

saturated specific humidity and how they are dependent
on temperature (i.e. the Clausius-Clapeyron equation)

5. List and define the typical descriptors used to identify the

actual water vapor content of air and be able to convert
between the different metrics

6. Describe the difference between specific humidity or vapor

pressure and saturated specific humidity or saturated vapor
pressure.

7. Use the hydrostatic equation to relate atmospheric

pressure and density as a function of height

42
S ECTION 2 T ABLE 2.1. P RIMARY C ONSTITUENTS OF THE
S TANDARD A TMOSPHERE IN THE T ROPOSPHERE
Atmospheric Composition GAS % BY VOLUME

Nitrogen (N2) 78.084

The atmosphere is a gaseous mixture of several Oxygen (O2)* 20.946

constituents, some of which are relatively constant, while Argon (A) 0.934
others are quite variable. The composition of the atmosphere
is shown in Table 2.1. By volume, the air in the atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide (CO2)* 0.040

composed almost entirely of nitrogen and oxygen (together Neon (Ne) 0.00182
equaling 99%). These two constituents and many others
Helium (He) 0.000524
(argon, neon, helium, krypton, hydrogen, and nitrous oxide)
represent the vast majority of the atmosphere and are Methane (CH4)* 0.00016
relatively constant in their concentration. Several components Krypton (Kr) 0.0014
vary as a result of natural or anthropogenic processes. The
Hydrogen (H2) 0.00005
most variable constituent is water vapor, which varies
naturally as a result of the hydrologic cycle. Carbon dioxide Nitrous Oxide (N2O) 0.000035
varies both naturally (due to photosynthesis and respiration) Ozone (O3)* 0 - 0.000007
and anthropogenically (due to the burning of fossil fuels). Of
Water (H2O)* 0-4
particular importance to climate and the hydrologic cycle are
those gases that are “radiatively active” (i.e. water vapor, *radiatively active gases
ozone, methane, carbon dioxide, and to a lesser extent
oxygen). have added a significant amount of carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere and 2) it is a greenhouse gas. In fact, water vapor
A radiatively active gas is one whose molecular structure and methane are more radiatively active, but carbon dioxide
is such that it absorbs (and emits) radiative energy (this will gets the most attention because it is the one that is increasing
be discussed in much more detail in the next chapter). rapidly due to anthropogenic sources. The vertical profiles of
Radiatively active gases are often referred to as “greenhouse some of these constituents will be discussed below. The clear
gases”. The primary hypothesis for anthropogenic climate signature of both natural and anthropogenic effects on carbon
change has to do with the combined facts that 1) humans dioxide can be seen in measurements. An observatory on

43
 in Figure 2.1 which is attributable directly to the
anthropogenic source from the burning of fossil fuel. As shown
in Figure 2.1, this source has led to a dramatic increase in
CO2 concentrations of approximately 25% in the last 50 years.
Moreover the trend is not linearly increasing, but accelerating
under present emission conditions. A major topic of ongoing
research is what impact does this significant increase in
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have on the global climate,
weather patterns, and extremes.

F IGURE 2.1 Time series of measured atmospheric CO2 at

Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii shown in red along with a
moving average of the long-term trend shown in black (from
esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.png).

Mauna Loa, Hawaii has provided relatively long-term records

of the carbon dioxide concentration (Figure 2.1). Two key
modes of variability are seen in the data. The first is the
natural seasonal variability, where CO2 decreases due to
increased uptake by deciduous plants in the Spring/Summer
season and increases due to respiration as a result of fallen
leaf (and other biomass) decay during the Fall/Winter. This
natural pattern should have some interannual variability, but
is expected to be relatively steady in terms of the long-term
average. The second mode of variability is the clear trend seen
44
S ECTION 3
Atmospheric States
The “state” of the atmosphere is the set of variables that
can be used to quantitatively describe it. The thermodynamic
states include temperature, pressure, density, and some metric
of water (vapor) concentration. It is important to keep in
mind that the atmosphere is simply a moving fluid (with the
above characteristics varying in space and time) so another
key state variable is the wind speed (which has components in
three orthogonal directions). Knowledge of the state of the
atmosphere at a given location/time will ultimately provide a
mechanism for quantifying many of the water and energy
movements in the atmosphere and between the atmosphere
and land surface. Some key questions that will be addressed in
this and other sections of this chapter include:
1. How are the variables that comprise the thermodynamic
state of the atmosphere related (at a given location)?
2. What metrics for water vapor concentration are used, and
related to some of these metrics, what is the upper limit to
the concentration of water vapor?
3. How do key variables vary with height and what
relationships govern this variation?
To start with the first question, it is worth pointing out
that the atmosphere behaves like an “ideal” gas (something
you should have covered in your physics course). Simply put,
an ideal gas is one whose density is relatively low, and the
atmosphere generally satisfies the necessary criteria. In
particular, one could treat each constituent of the atmosphere
(Table 2.1) as an individual ideal gas, i..e.
pi = ρi RiT (2.3.1)
pi ≡ partial pressure of gas i [Pa]
ρi ≡ density of gas i [kg m -3 )
Ri ≡ gas constant for gas i [J kg -1 K-1 ]
T ≡ temperature of gas (mixture) [K]
Having an equation for each gas is generally unnecessary since
we are primarily interested in the bulk properties of the
atmosphere (not of individual gases). To simplify things, we
generally consider an air parcel in the atmosphere as
essentially a two-component mixture:
Moist Air = Dry Air (N2, O2, ...) + Water Vapor (H2O)
This idea is in recognition of the fact that most of the
constituents of the atmosphere are relatively fixed, especially
when compared to the high variability seen in water vapor.
Given this, the density of moist air is given by:
ρ = ρd + ρv (2.3.2)
where the d subscript refers to dry air and the v subscript
refers to (water) vapor. Substituting the ideal gas law
expressions for each of the two components yields:
45
 pd p p e (2.3.3)
ρ= + v = d +
RdT RvT RdT RvT
where pd and pv are the partial pressures of dry air and vapor
respectively, and Rd and Rv are the dry air gas constant (287 J
kg-1 K-1) and the vapor gas constant (461 J kg-1 K-1)
respectively. In many texts related to hydrology, the partial
pressure for water vapor (i.e. “vapor pressure”) pv is replaced
by e, which is what we will do here. Equation (2.3.3) can be
rearranged noting that the total pressure is equal to the sum
of the two partial pressures (i.e. p = pd + e) to form a more
compact equation of state (i.e. ideal gas law) for moist air:
where in this case the moisture correction is embedded in the
virtual temperature definition. While virtual temperature can
be thought of simply as a definition, if one wishes to attach a
physical meaning to it, it denotes the temperature a parcel of
dry air would have to be at to have the same density as one
with a vapor pressure e.
As will be discussed in more detail below, the total
pressure of the atmosphere varies greatly with height, but a
typical value near the surface (at sea level) is 100,000 Pa or
1000 mb. Also note that the units required in the above
equations must be in SI.

p " e% Rd (2.3.4)
ρ= $1 − (1 − ε ) ' ; ε = = 0.622 E XAMPLE 2.3.1
RdT # p& Rv
What is the density of moist air at a pressure of
where the second term on the right-hand-side essentially 1000 mb, air temperature of 25ºC, and vapor
represents a correction for the presence of vapor. The ratio of pressure of 25 mb? How does the density change
vapor pressure to total pressure (e/p) represents the fraction as a function of vapor pressure?
of total pressure made up by the partial pressure of the water The virtual temperature under these conditions is:
vapor molecules. What Equation (2.3.4) also illustrates is that
an air parcel with more water vapor (i.e. higher e/p) will T (25 + 273.15) K
Tv = =
actually be less dense than a parcel of dry air with the same " e% " 2500 Pa %
$1 − (1 − ε ) ' $1 − (1 − 0.622) '
temperature and pressure. Without changing the above # p& # 100000 Pa &
equation, we can also define a new quantity called virtual = 300.99 K
temperature (Tv) so that we can write:
and the density is then given by:
T
p = ρRdTv ; where Tv = (2.3.5)
⎡ e⎤
⎢1 − (1 − ε )
⎣ p ⎥⎦

46
E XAMPLE 2.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

p 100000 Pa
ρ= = = 1.16 kg m -3
RdTv (287 J kg K )(300.99 K)
-1 -1

These answers can be confirmed with the MOD-WET

functions: virtual_temperature.m and air_density.m.
Note that this moist air density is about three orders of
magnitude smaller than the density of water. Near-
surface air density is typically between 1 and 1.2 kg m-3.

Based on the equation it is clear that an increase in

humidity (i.e. vapor pressure) will actually decrease the
density of air. Hence moister air will generally be less
dense and therefore more buoyant.

47
S ECTION 4 The units of mixing ratio are kg H2O/kg dry Air. It is
important to keep these explicit underlying units in mind, but
Metrics for Water Vapor because it is a ratio of masses the mixing ratio is often given
as a unitless quantity.

Concentration in Air 3. Specific humidity (q): This is another mass-based metric

representing the Mass of vapor/Mass of moist air and can be
As shown in the previous section, the presence and expressed as:
amount of water vapor in air impacts the thermodynamic ρv e
q= =ε (2.4.2)
properties of air. Several metrics for quantifying vapor ρv + ρd p − (1 − ε )e
concentration are used and are discussed here. It is important
to note that all are different ways of expressing the same thing
The units of specific humidity are kg H2O/kg Air. Note that
and therefore knowledge of one can always be used to get
in many cases, and especially near the surface, p >> e (i.e.
another. In some cases, one may be measured and another
100,000 Pa vs. 2000 Pa) in which case the above equations
may be needed in a model. The most common descriptors are:
could be written as:
1. Vapor pressure (e): As described above, this represents the e
q ≅w ≅ε (2.4.3)
partial pressure of water vapor. Pressure is simply the force p
(per unit area) imparted by the kinetic motion of molecules,
so the more water vapor molecules present, the higher the
vapor pressure. The common units used for vapor pressure are Typical values for specific humidity (or mixing ratio) near the
Pascals (Pa) and millibars (mb) where 100 Pa = 1 mb. The surface are 5-15×10-3 kg kg-1, where the small values simply
vapor pressure amount clearly depends on the humidity of the represent the small fraction of vapor in the atmosphere (Table
air (and varies with height in the atmosphere), but typical 2.1). Because of the small values, units of g/kg are often used,
values of vapor pressure in the atmosphere near the surface in which case the typical values near the surface are 5-15 g
are in the range 1000 - 3000 Pa. H2O/kg Air.

2. Mixing ratio (w): This is a mass-based metric representing Several other metrics exist that are relative in nature.
the Mass of vapor/Mass of dry air and can be expressed as: Before defining these, the upper limit (“water vapor holding
ρv e capacity”) of the atmosphere must be discussed. From
w= =ε (2.4.1) thermodynamic principles one can define the saturated vapor
ρd p −e
48
pressure (es), which simply represents the amount of vapor
that would be in equilibrium with a bulk water surface. In
fact, the curve between liquid water and vapor shown in the
pure water phase diagram (Figure 1.5) is illustrative of this
quantity. Note that the pressure in the phase diagram is for
pure water meaning that the pressure on the y-axis is in fact
the vapor pressure of water (since for pure water the partial
pressure is equal to the total pressure). It can be shown that
the saturated vapor pressure is given by the Clausius-
Clapeyron equation, which is defined by:
des Lv es (2.4.4)
= ei (T ) = es 0 exp ⎜ s
dT Rv T 2
This differential form (i.e. an ordinary differential equation
[ODE]) shows that the saturated vapor pressure is dependent
solely on temperature. If one ignores the relatively slight
temperature dependence of Lv, the above can be solved via
separation of variables, yielding the integrated form of the
Clausius-Clapeyron equation:
⎛L ⎡ 1 1 ⎤⎞ (2.4.5)
es (T ) = es 0 exp ⎜ v ⎢ − ⎥⎟
⎝ Rv ⎣T0 T ⎦⎠
where T0 and es0 are integration constants (273.16 K and 611
Pa respectively) chosen in the integration. Note that empirical
equations also exist that differ in form and take into account
the temperature dependence of the latent heat of
vaporization. The physical interpretation of es can be thought
of as the water holding capacity of air. Imagine a closed water
bottle with some air space above the liquid water. Given the
temperature of the system in the bottle, the equilibrium
amount of vapor in the air space would have a vapor pressure
equal to the saturated vapor pressure. In truth, some water
molecules will escape the liquid state and others will leave the
vapor state and condense on the liquid. The saturated vapor
pressure is the equilibrium condition where the rate of
vaporization of liquid water molecules is equal to the rate of
condensation of vapor molecules. An analogous quantity can
be defined over bulk ice and yields:
⎛L ⎡ 1 1 ⎤⎞ (2.4.6)
⎢ − ⎥⎟
⎝ Rv ⎣T0 T ⎦⎠
with the primary differences being the substituted use of the
latent heat of sublimation and that this is only relevant for
sub-freezing temperatures. The focus of the equations below
are on the saturated vapor pressure over water, but that for
ice becomes relevant in cold clouds and snow processes as
described in later chapters.
In practice the saturated vapor pressure is to a very
good approximation the upper limit to the actual vapor
pressure in air, i.e.:
0 ≤ e ≤ es (T ) (2.4.7)
Based on the previous definition of specific humidity, we can
also define the saturated specific humidity:
ε
qs ≅ e ; with 0 ≤ q ≤ q s (T, p) (2.4.8)
p s
49
This upper limit to vapor content or “water vapor holding diurnal variability (even if the amount of actual vapor (i.e. the
capacity” will turn out to be very important in both numerator) is relatively constant).
evaporation and cloud/precipitation processes discussed later.
5. Dew point temperature (Td): This metric is defined as the
A key point that should be understood is that the actual
temperature at which air of a given vapor concentration (e or
amount of vapor (i.e. e or q) in an air parcel is in general
q) would need to be cooled (at constant pressure) to reach
different (less than) the saturated amount of vapor (i.e. es or
saturated conditions. This can be defined via the integrated
qs) except in the case of saturation. The saturated vapor
Clausius-Clapeyron equation:
pressure or specific humidity are theoretical (not measurable)
upper limits on the measurable quantities e or q. In other ⎡L ⎛ 1 1 ⎞⎤ (2.4.10)
words, if the temperature of the air is known, you know its e = es (T = Td ) = es 0 exp ⎢ v −
⎜T T ⎟ ⎥
⎢⎣ Rv ⎝ 0 d ⎠⎥
⎦
water vapor holding capacity, but you have no knowledge of
the actual humidity in the air (unless saturation conditions
which can then be solved for Td :
exist).
−1
⎡ 1 Rv ⎛ e ⎞ ⎤ (2.4.11)
These newly defined saturation quantities allow for the Td = ⎢ − ln ⎜ ⎟ ⎥
definition of other metrics of vapor concentration in air: T
⎢⎣ 0 Lv ⎝ es 0 ⎠ ⎥⎦

4. Relative humidity (RH): This quantity is simply the ratio of
actual to saturated concentration, i.e.:
e q (2.4.9)
RH = = (2.4.12)
es q s
The above definition gives relative humidity as a fraction,
however, RH can also be defined as a percentage. Based on
the above definitions, it is expected that the RH of air will
generally vary between 0 (dry) and 100% (fully saturated air).
An important point to keep in mind is the strong temperature
dependence of RH due to the denominator’s dependence on T
via the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Since temperature varies
strongly throughout the day, the RH generally has a strong
Based on the definition of dew point temperature, you should
be able to convince yourself of the following condition:
Td ≤ T
6. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD): This metric is another
relative one that identifies how close the air is to saturated air
via:
VPD = δe = es − e (2.4.13)
which by definition is equal to zero under saturated conditions
and is positive under non-saturated conditions (when e < es).
It also highlights the fact that saturated vapor pressure and
actual vapor pressure are two different quantities.

50
7. Wet-bulb temperature (Tw): This metric is defined as the
temperature air would be cooled to by evaporating water into E XAMPLE 2.4.1
it (at constant pressure) until saturation is reached. It is
For a parcel of air with a vapor pressure of 1500
defined from the first Law of Thermodynamics as:
Pa, a temperature of 20ºC, and a pressure of
T −Tw L (2.4.14)
= v 98000 Pa, determine the following alternate
q s (p,Tw ) − q c p humidity metrics for the parcel:

a) vapor density, b) specific humidity, c) relative

where cp is the specific heat capacity of air (~1004 J/kg/K).
humidity, d) dew point temperature, and e)
Due to the nonlinearity in the saturated specific humidity, this
vapor pressure deficit
is an implicit equation that needs to be solved iteratively. The
metric gets its name from the a wet-bulb thermometer which a) The vapor density is given by the ideal gas law for
is used to measure it. A wet-bulb thermometer is a regular water vapor (Equation (2.3.1)), i.e.:
thermometer with a saturated wick covering the thermometer
e 1500 Pa
sensor. The evaporative cooling from the wick cools the air in ρv = =
RvT (461 J/kg/K)(293.15 K)
the immediate vicinity of the sensor. When used in
= 0.01 kg(H 2O)/m 3 (Air)
conjunction with a regular (dry-bulb) thermometer (often
together called a sling psychrometer), one can deduce the
where note that this is about 1% of a typical moist air
humidity of the air based on the difference between the dry-
density.
bulb and wet-bulb temperatures.
b) The specific humidity provides a mass-based
Together the metrics defined above represent the most concentration, i.e.:
commonly used variables for expressing the concentration of
water vapor in air. It is important to remember that each is e
q =ε
simply a different way of representing the humidity of air and p − (1 − ε )e
that it is often necessary to convert between two different 1500 Pa
= 0.622
metrics. 98000 Pa − (0.378)(1500 Pa)
= 0.0096 kg(H 2O)/kg(Air) = 9.6 g(H 2O)/kg(Air)

51
E XAMPLE 2.4.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 2.4.1 ( CONTINUED )

c) The relative humidity requires that the saturated e) The vapor pressure deficit is given by:
vapor pressure first be calculated. Using Equation
(2.4.6), the saturated vapor pressure is: VPD = δe = 2368 Pa − 1500 Pa = 868 Pa

) 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg # where the larger the vapor pressure deficit the drier the
1 1 &,
es = (611 Pa)exp + % − (. air is (i.e. relative to saturation). Air with a relative
* 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 293.15 K '-
humidity of 100% will have a vapor pressure deficit equal
= 2368 Pa to zero.

The relative humidity is just the ratio of the actual These answers can be confirmed with the MOD-WET
vapor pressure to the saturated vapor pressure, which in functions: vp_to_specific_humidity.m,
this case is equal to 63.4%. sat_vapor_pressure.m, vp_to_RH.m,
vp_to_dew_point_temperature.m, and
d) The dew point temperature is defined as the
vapor_pressure_deficit.m.
temperature that air would have to be cooled to so that
it reached saturation and is given implicitly by solving
for the temperature at which e = es, which can be
inverted to yield:

−1
) 1 461 J/kg/K # 1500 Pa &,
Td = + − ln % (.
* 273.16 K 2.5 × 10 J/kg $ 611 Pa '-
6

= 286.1 K = 13. C

This means that if the air were cooled by 7ºC it would

reach saturation. By definition, at the dew point
temperature the air would have a relative humidity of
100%.

52
S ECTION 5

Vertical Profiles of Atmos-

pheric States
It is important to discuss the primary variability of the
atmospheric states with height, specifically typical profiles for
temperature, pressure, density and humidity. The collection of
typical state profiles are often referred to as the “standard
atmosphere”. At any moment in time and space the profiles
may vary greatly from these standard profiles.

The typical temperature profile is used to define different

layers of the atmosphere (Figure 2.2). The lowest layer of the
atmosphere is called the troposphere and is approximately 10
km in depth. This is the layer most relevant to hydrologists
since it is where most of the weather processes occur and
where most of the water vapor exists. The temperature in the
troposphere is reasonably linear (decreasing with height), i.e.: F IGURE 2.2 Plot of standard profiles of temperature, density,
and pressure in the atmosphere (from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
T(z) = T0 − Γz, (2.5.1) File:Comparison_US_standard_atmosphere_1962.svg).
T0 ≡ surface temperature
Γ ≡ lapse rate in temperature
z ≡ altitude limited to the troposphere is due to the increasing
temperature with height in the stratosphere. This stratified
The lapse rate in the troposphere is approximately 6.5 K/km temperature profile is very stable (i.e. warmer air overlying
and the surface temperature is approximately 290 K. The colder air) and acts as a “lid” to vertical motions. Exceptions
reason most of the water vapor and weather processes are to this include extreme thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions,

53
both of which can penetrate the tropopause into the
stratosphere.

Pressure and density profiles are tightly coupled via the

hydrostatic equation, which can be derived from the balance
of pressure and atmospheric weight forces to yield:
dp
= − ρg (2.5.2)
dz

where the density itself depends on pressure, temperature, and

vapor pressure via the Ideal Gas Law (Equation (2.3.4)).
Combining Equations (2.3.4) and (2.5.2) along with the
decreasing temperature with height (Equation (2.5.1)) leads to
decreasing (near exponential) profiles for both pressure and
density with height (Figure 2.2). The typical values for
pressure and density at the surface are approximately 100,000
Pa and 1.2 kg m-3 respectively. At the top of the troposphere
the pressure and density drop off to about 25,000 Pa (250 mb)
and 0.4 kg m-3 respectively. The air density is negligible above
40 km (mid-stratosphere). Also, because pressure decreases F IGURE 2.3 Typical profiles of specific humidity in the tropo-
monotonically with height, it is often used interchangeably sphere at different latitudes.
with altitude as a vertical coordinate.

There is no standard water vapor profile, but there are

that the specific humidity quickly drops off with height and is
key characteristics that can be described. Figure 2.3 shows
essentially zero at the top of the troposphere. The reason for
representative profiles for three different latitude bands. In
this profile is that the primary source of water is at the
general, the higher latitudes have less vapor since they are
surface and the stratosphere prevents vertical movement
colder. The lower humidity is largely controlled by the
beyond the lower layer of the atmosphere.
saturated specific humidity governed by Clausius-Clapeyron
(i.e. colder air cannot hold as much vapor). The key feature is
54
 To characterize the bulk amount of vapor in the ea (2.5.5)
Wp = 46.5
atmospheric column, we often use the so-called total Ta
precipitable water, which is simply the integration of water
vapor mass (per unit volume, i.e. vapor density) with height: where ea and Ta are near surface vapor pressure (in units of
mb) and temperature (in units of K) respectively and the
Wp = ∫ ρ dz
v (2.5.3)
units for precipitable water are again in units of cm.
which using SI will have units of kg (H2O)/m2. The physical
An illustrative example of the variability in total
interpretation of precipitable water is that this would be the
precipitable water on the timescale of days is shown in Movie
amount (mass) of water that would be yielded (per unit area)
2.1. The key features are that the highest precipitable water
if all vapor were condensed out of that column of air. Since
occurs over equatorial regions (where oceans are prevalent and
vapor density is difficult to measure, the above expression can
evaporation is highest). Also visible are so-called “atmospheric
be rewritten in a more convenient form using the definition of
rivers”, which represent relatively narrow bands of high
specific humidity and the hydrostatic equation as given by:
ps
precipitable water values that often bring vapor on-shore.
z z p
1 1 (2.5.4)
Wp = ∫ ρv dz = ∫ ρq dz = − ∫ q dp = g ∫ q dp
0 0 g ps p

Note that in cloudy atmospheric columns the liquid and ice

water could also be considered. Often precipitable water is
expressed in depth units (i.e. equivalent depth of water) using
the density of liquid water as a conversion. Typical values of
precipitable water are on the order of 0 - 5 cm. In cases where
only near-surface data is available (i.e. full profiles of specific
humidity are not available), empirical equations exist, i.e.
(Dingman, 2008):

Wp = 1.12 exp(0.0614Td ) (2.5.5)

where in this empirical equation [Wp] = cm and [Td] = ºC.
Other empirical models for precipitable water exist including
the following by Prata (1996):
M OVIE 2.1 Illustration of hourly precipitable water pattern
evolution (over the ocean) as measured from the AMSU satel-
lite (from sos.noaa.gov/videos/PrecipitableWater.mov).
55
E XAMPLE 2.5.1 E XAMPLE 2.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

Estimate the precipitable water from the tropical
specific humidity profile in Figure 2.3. Assume a
standard atmospheric pressure profile. How does
that estimate compare to the one from the
empirical expression shown in Equation (2.5.5)?
Without data for the specific profile, it can be
approximated via a piecewise linear profile where at
altitudes of 0, 3, 5, 7, and 9 km, the corresponding
specific humidities are approximately given by 16, 5.5,
2.5, 1.5, and 0.5 g/kg respectively. The atmospheric
pressures corresponding to each level can be roughly
estimated from the standard atmosphere shown in Figure
2.2 as 101300, 70120, 54050, 41110, and 30800 Pa
respectively for the altitudes listed above.
The integral in Equation (2.5.4) can then be evaluated
numerically (i.e. using the trapezoidal rule):
ps
1 1 1
Wp = ∫ q dp  g ∑ 2 (q + qi )(pi+1 − pi )
Hence the integrated amount of water in the tropical
profile is equivalent to a depth of 4.4 cm of liquid water.
Now we can compare this estimate to one obtained using
the empirical equation. It should be noted that whenever
you are using an empirical equation, it was developed
from the specific dataset analyzed and therefore is not
always generalizable to other cases. Also, in this case the
empirical expression relies only on near-surface humidity.
This makes its application much easier since a full profile
is not needed, but it implicitly depends on an assumed
profile which may differ from the one being used. Based
on the surface specific humidity, the surface vapor
pressure is given by:
pq (101300 Pa)(15.5 × 10 −3 kgkg -1 )
e = = 2524 Pa
ε 0.622
The dewpoint temperature is then given by:
−1

g i+1
) 1 461 J/kg/K # 2524 Pa &,
p i Td = + − ln % (.
* 273.16 K 2.5 × 10 6
J/kg $ 611 Pa '-
= [(16 + 5.5) × 10 −3(101300 − 70120)Pa +
= 294.2 K = 21. C
(5.5 + 2.5) × 10 (70120 − 54050)Pa +
−3

(2.5 + 1.5) × 10 −3(54050 − 41110)Pa + The precipitable water from Equation (2.5.5) is then
(1.5 + 0.5) × 10 (41110 − 30800)Pa] / 2 / 9.81 m s
−3 -2
given by:
= 44.4 kg m -2 = 4.44 cm
Wp = 1.12 exp(0.0614(21)) = 4.1 cm

56
 E XAMPLE 2.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

In this particular case the two estimates are relatively

close (i.e. within 10%).

These answers can be confirmed with the MOD-WET

functions: specific_humidity_to_vp.m,
precipitable_water.m, and Wp_from_Td.m.

A specific example of an atmospheric river is the so-called

“Pineapple Express”, which consists of intermittent events that
bring a significant amount of vapor (and often subsequent
precipitation) from the region of the Pacific Ocean near
Hawaii to the northwestern U.S. coastal regions. Movie 2.2
shows another example in terms of the monthly average M OVIE 2.2 Illustration of monthly averaged precipitable wa-
precipitable water over the globe. The key features seen in the ter over the globe from July 2002-July 2012 (from
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/).
animation are the latitudinal dependence of water vapor, with
highest values near the equator, and the seasonal north-south
shift, which is driven by seasonal effects of the sun as will be
described in the next chapter.

57
S ECTION 6 Saturated vapor pressure (Clausius-Clapeyron) over wa-
ter:
MOD-WET Codes sat_vapor_pressure.m

Vapor pressure (from specific humidity):

specific_humidity_to_vp.m
Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in
this chapter include: Vapor pressure deficit:
vapor_pressure_deficit.m
Air density:
air_density.m Virtual temperature:
virtual_temperature.m
Bisection (root finding) function:
bisect.m Dew point temperature (from vapor pressure):
vp_to_dew_point_temperature.m
Vapor pressure (from dew point temperature):
dew_point_temperature_to_vp.m Relative humidity (from vapor pressure):
vp_to_RH.m
Script with definitions of key physical constants used in
other functions: Specific humidity (from vapor pressure):
physical_constants.m vp_to_specific_humidity.m

Precipitable water (from profile data): Wet-bulb temperature (from vapor pressure):
precipitable_water.m vp_to_wet_bulb_temperature.m

Vapor pressure (from relative humidity): Vapor pressure (from wet-bulb temperature):
RH_to_vp.m wet_bulb_temperature_to_vp.m

Saturated vapor pressure (Clausius-Clapeyron) over ice: Precipitable water (empirical functions):
sat_vapor_pressure_ice.m Wp_from_near_surface_met_data.m

58
S ECTION 7 9. What is the dew point temperature a metric of? Does
knowledge of the dew point temperature generally tell you
Conceptual Questions anything about the actual temperature? Explain.

10. Name the layer of the atmosphere that is most relevant to

1. Name at least two radiatively active gases in the
atmosphere.
2. What gas in the atmosphere is most variable?
3. What is the general trend of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. What are its two key modes of variability?
Explain.
4. Name the atmospheric state variables that are related to
each other via the equation of state for moist air (i.e. ideal
gas law).
5. With all else equal, is an air parcel with more vapor
concentration less dense or more dense than a parcel with
less vapor?
hydrologists. Explain why.
11. How does the temperature profile generally vary within
the troposphere?
12. How do the pressure and density profiles generally vary
within the troposphere? What equation governs the
pressure profile?
13. How does the specific humidity profile generally vary
within the troposphere?
14. Describe in words what precipitable water is. Where on
the globe is precipitable water generally highest/lowest?
15. What is an atmospheric river?

6. What, if anything, does the saturated vapor pressure of the

atmosphere tell you about the actual vapor pressure of the
atmosphere?

7. If the relative humidity of air is 100%, what do you know

about the specific humidity?

8. If the specific humidity is constant throughout the day, how

would you expect the relative humidity to change (if at all)
throughout the day. Explain.

59
S ECTION 8
Sample Problems
Problem 2.1.
a) Name the four atmospheric state variables that are related
to each other via the equation of state for moist air (i.e. ideal
gas law).
b) Describe the difference between specific humidity and
saturated specific humidity.
c) At a particular time measured values for near-surface air
temperature, pressure, and specific humidity were 275.3 K,
71724 Pa, and 0.0011 kg/kg, respectively. Compute the vapor
pressure (in Pa) and density of the air (in kg m-3) for the
given time.
d) What are the saturated vapor pressure (in Pa) and relative
humidity (in %) of the air parcel from part c)? Explain how
the saturated vapor pressure changes with temperature?
e) What is the dewpoint temperature (in ºC) of the air in
part c)? Based on your answer, how much would the air have
to be cooled to reach saturation?
Problem 2.2. The following problems are aimed at gaining
experience at working with atmospheric variables and their
thermodynamic relationships.
a) A parcel of moist air is at 870 mb, with a temperature of
12ºC and a relative humidity of 95%, what is the moist
density of the air in kg m-3?
b) What is the saturated vapor pressure of air (in Pa) at a
temperature of 37ºC? Explain the physical meaning of
saturated vapor pressure. How does it change as the
temperature increases? How does it change as the humidity
level of air changes?
c) What is the specific humidity of the air in part a)?
d) What temperature would a dry parcel of air need to have
in order to have the same density of the air in part a)?
e) What is the dewpoint temperature (in ºC) of the air in
part a)?
Problem 2.3. A large room in a museum has a 3-meter high
ceiling and its lateral dimensions are 10 by 15 meters. To
preserve the artwork, it is imperative that the specific
humidity be kept at 10 g/kg and air temperature maintained
between 20ºC and 25ºC. Due to a power outage, the climate
control system responsible for maintaining conditions in the
room fails.
You are called to help fix the problem and by the time you
arrive your measurements indicate that the air relative
humidity is 80% with an air temperature of 21ºC and air
pressure of 1000 mb. You have a portable dehumidifier that
takes in air from the closed room, removes water vapor by
condensing the vapor into liquid, and then discharges the dry
60
air back into the closed room. You run the dehumidifier until
the specific humidity is lowered to the required value.
a) What mass of water (in kilograms) will need to be
condensed out to reach the required humidity level?
b) What is the amount of energy released (in Joules) as a
result of condensing the humidity?
c) Assuming the energy computed in part b) goes into
warming the air, what is the expected rise in air temperature
due to the dehumidification. Note: The specific heat capacity
of air is 1004 J/kg/K. For your calculation, you may assume
that the change in air density (or change in air mass) is
negligible as a result of the heating/dehumidification.
d) Will the air temperature still be in the necessary range as
a result of the dehumidification or will it need to be
additionally cooled?
Problem 2.4. In winter-time, heated indoor air reduces the
relative humidity inside buildings. This is especially a problem
inside hospitals in cold climates where the air temperature
and relative humidity must be kept at 69ºF (20.6ºC) and 75%
respectively for health and hygiene reasons.
Consider a cold winter day in Chicago when the outside air
temperature is 20ºF (-6.7ºC) and the relative humidity is
90%. (Assume air density is 1.2 kg m-3 and air pressure is
1000 mb).
a) What is the relative humidity inside the hospital building if
the air is brought from outside and heated to the required
temperature, but not humidified?
b) Consider a hospital building with 1500 m3 volume. It has
a humidifier system that vaporizes 1 gallon hr-1 of water
(264.2 gallons = 1 m3). How many hours should the humidifier
be in operation to increase the relative humidity of the indoor
air to the regulation limit?
Problem 2.5.
a) Combine the hydrostatic equation and the equation of
state (ideal gas law) to show that the pressure profile for a
general virtual temperature profile (Tv) is given by:
# g z
dz &
p(z) = p0 exp %− ∫ T (z)(
$ Rd 0 v '
b) Derive the expression for the pressure profile for the case
with a linear virtual temperature profile:
Tv (z) = Tv 0 − Γz
which is a reasonable approximation to the profile in the bulk
troposphere (i.e. with a constant temperature lapse rate).
Problem 2.6. Several atmospheric constituents, most notably
water vapor not only impact water fluxes, but greatly affect
the radiative properties of the atmosphere. Therefore, it is
important to be able to estimate how much water is in the
atmospheric column over an area of interest. The
61
thermodynamic state of the atmosphere is often characterized
using radiosondes, which are essentially weather balloons that
take measurements as they ascend through the atmosphere.
Radiosonde data collected at Hilo, Hawaii on June 21, 2012
showed that the virtual temperature of the air decreases
linearly with a lapse rate of:
ΓT = 5 K km -1
v ρv (z) = ρv 0 exp $− '
as the radiosonde altitude increases from the surface (0 km
above sea level [asl]) to 8 km asl. The observed surface virtual
air temperature is equal to 28ºC. (Note: A linear decrease is
usually a reasonable approximation to the virtual air
temperature profile in the troposphere). Surface air pressure is
equal to 1000 mb.
a) Based on the derived pressure profile in the previous
problem, plot the pressure profile for this case. What is the air
pressure at an altitude of 8 km?
b) A common metric that is used to characterize the total
amount of vapor is precipitable water:
z
Wp =
∫ ρ (z)dz
v
0 this might affect precipitation (frequency and rates).
which simply measures the integrated amount of water vapor
in the vertical column from height 0 to height z. To get the
total amount of water you would integrate to the top of
atmosphere. What are the units of precipitable water in the
equation shown above? How would you convert from these
units to a depth (e.g. cm of water)?
c) Suppose the observed water vapor density from the surface
to an altitude of 8 km is described by the following
exponential decay function:
" z%
# H&
where the surface vapor density is equal to 11 g (H2O) m-3,
and H is a length scale describing how quickly the variable
decays with height. What is the precipitable water (in cm of
water) of the 8 km atmospheric column observed by the
radiosonde in Hilo on June 21st?
d) Increased greenhouse gases are expected to result in an
increase in atmospheric temperature. The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that the increase in
the next 100 years may be between 0.6- 3.4 K. Conceptually,
what is the effect that the increase in temperature will have
on maximum water storage in the atmosphere (e.g. Is air
capable of holding more or less water?)? Comment on how
62
S ECTION 9 temperature tend to be the highest/lowest? Provide reasoning
for the seasonality observed in each of the time series.
MOD-WET Problems
Problem 2.1 In this problem you will examine
meteorological variables and how they vary seasonally and are
distributed over the watershed.

a) Using the basin-averaged specific humidity (qair) time

series in kg/kg and air temperature (Tair) time series in deg.
K stored in the disaggregated_forcing structure array of
the watershed output file, compute and plot the diurnal cycles
(i.e. for each hour of the day) of the basin-averaged air
temperature vs. Universal Time Coordinate (UTC) and the
basin-averaged relative humidity vs. UTC on October 1st.
Describe when the relative humidity and air temperature tend
to be the highest/lowest? Qualitatively describe and provide
reasoning explaining how the relative humidity varies with air
temperature. Note: You can use the functions
specific_humidity_to_vp.m and vp_to_RH.m to compute
relative humidity.

b) Plot the daily-average time series of the basin-averaged

specific humidity time series (in g/kg) vs. the day of water
year (DOWY). Also plot the daily-average time series of the
basin-averaged air temperature in Kelvin. Describe the
seasonality of the specific humidity and air temperature over
the watershed. Describe when the specific humidity and air

63
Chapter 3

Radiation
Processes
S ECTION 1 9. Describe what factors at the surface will contribute to
variability in incoming shortwave radiation at a point (in
Learning Objectives addition to the basic Earth-Sun geometry effects that
determine TOA fluxes)

10. Define net radiation at the land surface and its

By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:
1. Write down the integrated radiation equation for emission
from a blackbody
2. Write down the integrated radiation equation for emission
from a graybody
3. Define emissivity, albedo, transmissivity, and absorptivity
4. List the primary factors controlling spatial/temporal
variability in incoming solar radiation at the top of
atmosphere (TOA)
5. Draw a schematic of the radiation budget of the Earth
components
11. Use empirical formulas to estimate atmospheric
emissivity
12. List the necessary inputs (measured/estimated
quantities) needed to compute net radiation
13. Compute incoming solar radiation at the land surface
14. Compute incoming/outgoing longwave radiation at the
land surface
15. Compute net radiation at the land surface

6. Write down typical values for emissivity and albedo of the

Earth’s land surface

7. Describe how (and based on what variables) the

atmosphere impacts the amount of TOA shortwave
radiation that reaches the surface (in both clear/cloudy
skies)

8. Describe how (and based on what variables) the

atmosphere impacts the amount of longwave radiation
that reaches the surface (in both clear/cloudy skies)

65
S ECTION 2

Basics of Radiation
Radiation is a form of energy that plays a crucial role in
hydrology. Radiative energy provided by the sun is the
external forcing of the system that drives the global
hydrologic cycle and atmospheric and oceanic motions. The
Earth’s surface and atmosphere reflect and absorb energy
from the sun as well as emit radiative energy of their own.
The absorbed energy and energy fluxes tends to drive water F IGURE 3.1 Electromagnetic spectrum showing shortwave
and longwave radiation regions as well as sub-regions of the
fluxes and transformations (i.e. phase changes). Due to the spectrum (i.e. visible, infrared, microwave, etc.).
importance of radiative fluxes we would like to understand the
mechanisms responsible for the variability in radiative forcing
and develop simple models for these fluxes. We will start with
a quick refresher on basic radiation physics. For a much more which shows that the speed of light can be used to convert
detailed treatment of radiation processes, the reader is between wavelength and frequency. A schematic illustrating
referred to Liou (1992, 2002). the electromagnetic spectrum, which simply corresponds to
the characterization of such radiation across the spectrum of
Radiation is a form of energy carried by electromagnetic wavelength/frequency is shown in Figure 3.1. Of particular
(EM) waves (or photons). These waves travel at the speed of relevance to hydrology are those waves between ultraviolet
light and can be characterized by either wavelength (the (nanometer scale) and microwave (centimeter scale) that
length of a single period of the wave) or frequency (the contain non-negligible amounts of energy.
number of periods of the wave passing a given point per unit
time). The relationship between the two is given by: From physics we know that the amount of energy
radiated per unit area per unit wavelength (i.e. spectral
λν = c (3.2.1) radiant emittance) by a so-called “blackbody” (i.e. a perfect
λ ≡ wavelength [m] emitter) is given by the Planck function:
c ≡ speed of light [3.0 × 10 8 m/s]
ν ≡ frequency [s −1 = Hz]
66
 2π hc 2 (3.2.2)
Rλ = B λ =
( )
λ 5 ehc/(K λT ) − 1
which has SI units of W m-2 m-1 and where h is the Planck
constant (6.626×10-34 J s), K is the Boltzmann constant
(1.3806×10-23 m2 kg s-2 K-1), and T is the physical
temperature of the body. What this equation tells us is that:
i) the emitted radiation occurs over a spectrum of wavelengths
F IGURE 3.2 Planck function as a function of temperature and
wavelength. The yellow and red curves corresponds to the ap-
proximate blackbody emission that would occur from the Sun
and Earth’s surface respectively (from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:BlackbodySpectrum_loglog_150dpi_en.png).
or frequencies and ii) is controlled solely by the physical
temperature of the emitting body. An illustrative example of
this dependence is shown in Figure 3.2. The key
characteristics of the figure are that the peak is a strongly
increasing function of temperature (note log-scale on figure),
while the center of mass of the spectrum shifts to shorter
wavelengths with increasing temperature. For illustration, the
blackbody emission spectrum is shown for the Sun and Earth.
If we are interested in the bulk (integrated) radiative
energy flux from a body, then we can integrate the spectral
radiant emittance across all wavelengths, i.e. for a blackbody:
R = ∫ Bλ d λ (3.2.3)
λ
Based on the analytical form of the Planck function one can
show that the above integral yields the so-called Stefan-
Boltzmann equation:
R = σT 4 [Wm −2 ] (3.2.4)
σ ≡ Stefan-Boltzmann constant = 5.67 × 10 −8 W m −2 K−4
It turns out that the sun, to a good approximation, behaves
like a blackbody. However, many other natural media (i.e. the
Earth’s surface and atmosphere) are not. Instead they are
referred to as “graybodies”, where the spectral irradiance is
given by:
Rλ = ε λ B λ ; ε λ ≡ spectral emissivity [−] (3.2.5)
67
The spectral emissivity represents the efficiency of emission
(varying between 0 and 1), i.e. how close the body is to a
blackbody, at a given wavelength. Note that in general the
emissivity can be a strongly varying function of wavelength.
By definition a blackbody has an emissivity equal to 1.0 at all
wavelengths. The integrated flux from a graybody can be
obtained by integrating across all wavelengths as above
introducing a broadband emissivity:

R = εσT 4 (3.2.6)
ε ≡ broadband emissivity [−]

This can be thought of as a general equation for the

integrated radiative flux with a blackbody being a special
case.

68
 λ =4 µm
S ECTION 3
Shortwave: Rs = ∫ Rλ d λ

Shortwave vs. Longwave

λ =0.1 µm

Radiation
Based on the Planck function it is evident that
temperature plays the key role in the intensity and
distribution of emitted radiative energy from a given body. In
the Earth system, we are generally dealing with two sources of
radiative energy: solar radiative fluxes (emitted by the sun)
and terrestrial radiative fluxes (emitted by the Earth’s surface
and atmosphere). The temperature of these two sources are
vastly different, with the temperature of the Sun’s surface F IGURE 3.3 Distribution of shortwave and longwave radia-
tion.
approximately 5800 K, while terrestrial temperatures are on
the order of 250 - 300 K. Based on these temperatures, the
relative spectral irradiance for solar (at the top-of-
atmosphere) and terrestrial sources are shown in Figure 3.3. when you see something, what your eye is really sensing is the
As expected, the location of the peaks are different (i.e. solar (visible) radiation being reflected from that object. The
approximately 0.6 microns for solar and approximately 10 object’s color corresponds to the wavelengths of the visible
microns for terrestrial). Moreover, what becomes clear is that light that are reflected (rather than absorbed).
there is very little overlap in the two spectra; i.e. the right tail
The terrestrial spectrum covers two different parts of the
of the solar spectrum becomes negligible around 4 microns
EM spectrum: infrared (thermal infrared and far infrared) and
and is approximately coincident with the left tail of the
microwave (in the tail of the distribution beyond 50 microns).
terrestrial spectrum.
The peak occurs in the thermal infrared (around 12 microns).
The solar irradiance distribution covers three primary The basic principle of “night-vision” goggles takes advantage of
parts of the EM spectrum: ultraviolet (in the left tail), visible this fact where the sensors are tuned to be sensitive to the
(around the peak), and near-infrared (on the right side of the thermal infrared region. So even though little visible light may
distribution). The human eye is only sensitive to visible light; be available, the thermal infrared signature is still apparent.
69
 Due to these differences, we often treat the two fluxes
separately, in terms of both measurement and modeling. The
solar fluxes are referred to as “shortwave” radiation (spanning
approximately 0.1-4 microns) and terrestrial fluxes are
referred to as “longwave” radiation (spanning approximately
4-100 microns). Formally, the integrated fluxes can be written
as:
λ =4 µm

Shortwave: Rs = ∫
λ =0.1 µm
Rλ d λ
(3.3.1)

λ =100 µm

Longwave: Rl = ∫
λ =4 µm
Rλ d λ (3.3.2)

Measurements of these fluxes are made by looking at these

distinct bands.

70
S ECTION 4 T ABLE 3.1. T YPICAL BROADBAND EMISSIVITY FOR
VARYING LAND SURFACE TYPES ( FROM A RYA , 2001)
Radiative Properties of Me- SURFACE TYPE EMISSIVITY

dia
Water 0.92-0.97
Snow (old) 0.82-0.89
Snow (fresh) 0.90-0.99
As shown above, an emitted radiative flux from a
particular body depends on its physical temperature and its Ice 0.92-0.97

emissivity. The broadband emissivity strongly depends on the Bare soil 0.84-0.97
media characteristics. For land surfaces, the surface type Grass (long, 1 m) 0.90
largely dictates the broadband emissivity (see Table 3.1) and Grass (short, 0.02 m) 0.95
typically ranges between 0.9-1.0. The broadband emissivity of
Agricultural crops 0.90-0.99
the atmosphere strongly depends on the concentration of
Forests 0.97-0.99
radiatively active gases, i.e. conceptually:

ε = f ([H 2O],[CO2 ],[CH 4 ],...)
Since the gas concentrations can vary in time and space, the
emissivity itself varies. The most variable radiatively active
gas is water vapor and hence most models for the broadband
emissivity of the atmosphere depend explicitly on the water
vapor concentration. Examples will be discussed in more
detail in Section 7 where longwave flux modeling is discussed.
While the emissivity is a radiative property that
describes the efficiency of radiation emission, other radiative
properties are important in terms of how incident radiation
interacts with media. For example, at the top of the
atmosphere, shortwave radiation is incident on the atmosphere
in a downwelling direction. Another example is upwelling
longwave radiation emitted by the land surface that is
incident on the bottom of the atmosphere. We are interested
in what happens to these radiative fluxes as they interact with
media. To begin to quantify these interactions we define three
additional radiative properties of a media: the transmissivity
(t), absorptivity (a), and reflectivity (r). Each of these
represent an efficiency of a particular radiative process.
Transmissivity represents the fraction of incident
radiation that gets transmitted through a media. On a
molecular level this represents photons (radiation) that do not
directly interact with the molecules in the media and therefore
directly passes through it. Absorptivity represents the fraction
of incident radiation that gets absorbed by the media, i.e. the
time-averaged fraction of incident photons (radiation) that hit
individual molecules and are absorbed. Reflectivity represents
the fraction of incident radiation that is scattered in all
71
directions, i.e. the time-averaged fraction of incident photons
that hit individual molecules and are reflected. It is important
to note that these properties are not independent, but linked
via energy conservation at a particular wavelength, i.e.:

t λ + a λ + rλ = 1 (3.4.1)

which is simply a statement that all incident energy on a

given media (at a particular wavelength) is either transmitted,
absorbed, or reflected.

Applying the above conservation principal to the

atmosphere, we can write for the shortwave band (i.e. using
an s subscript for shortwave):

ts + as + rs = 1 (3.4.2)

and for the longwave band (i.e. using an l subscript for

F IGURE 3.4 a) Normalized blackbody radiance spectrum for
longwave): the sun and earth and b) absorption as a function of wave-
length and molecular absorption (from homepages.ius.edu/
tl + al + rl = 1 (3.4.3) kforinas/ClassRefs/ElectroMagnetic.html).

The shortwave reflectivity is often referred to as “albedo”.

As with emissivity in the atmosphere, each of these
properties are functions of the greenhouse gas concentrations
(where absorption by radiatively active gases is highly
dependent on wavelength). An illustration of the absorptivity
of the atmosphere across both the shortwave and longwave
spectra is shown in Figure 3.4 along with the primary
molecules responsible for absorption. One can see that even
over relatively short wavelength intervals, the absorption can
vary from close to 100% to close to 0%. Key features seen in
the figure include almost complete absorption of UV radiation
by ozone (O3), relatively little absorption in the visible region,
with the highest absorption occurring near 7 microns due to
water vapor, and key absorption features in the longwave due
to carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor (among others).
Not shown on the figure is the microwave region (above 100
microns), which has relatively low absorption. The
determinant of the atmospheric “windows” (i.e. relatively
transparent due to low absorption) versus regions where the
72
atmosphere is opaque (high absorption) depend primarily on The land surface is essentially opaque to both shortwave and
the radiatively active gases in the atmosphere along with longwave radiation (i.e. the transmissivity is small) and
scattering due to molecules and aerosols. similar to the atmosphere, longwave reflectivity is small so
that:
Some rough approximations can be made for the
radiative properties in different parts of the spectrum and for as + rs  1 → as  1 − α (3.4.7)
atmosphere vs. land surface. In general in the atmosphere, α ≡ surface albedo
scattering within the longwave spectrum is considerably
smaller in the clear sky atmosphere compared to al  1 (3.4.8)
transmissivity and absorptivity, such that:
which simply states that the fraction of incident shortwave
tl + al  1 → tl  1 − al (3.4.4) radiation that is not reflected is absorbed and most of the
incident longwave radiation is absorbed.
which simply states that the fraction of longwave radiation
transmitted through the atmosphere is essentially equal to the
fraction that is not absorbed. This simple model explains one
of the primary mechanisms for global warming. As the
concentration of greenhouse gases increase, the (longwave)
absorptivity increases thereby decreasing the amount of
transmitted surface longwave radiation through the
atmosphere (that would otherwise ultimately leave the Earth
system at the top of the atmosphere). This absorbed radiation
is then re-emitted by the atmosphere, a fraction of which is
emitted toward the surface ultimately increasing the surface
temperature.

The same conservation principle can be applied to the

land surface for shortwave and longwave fluxes:

ts + as + rs = 1 (3.4.5)

tl + al + rl = 1 (3.4.6)

73
S ECTION 5

Modeling Top-of-
Atmosphere Shortwave
Fluxes
The solar radiation entering the top of the Earth’s
atmosphere is the key external driver of the Earth system.
Understanding how much of the radiation at the TOA is
absorbed by the atmosphere, reaches the surface, and is
reflected back to space provides a key basis for understanding
the temporal and spatial variability of the hydrologic cycle. As
stated earlier, the sun acts like a blackbody emitter at a
temperature of approximately 5780 K. Hence the amount of
F IGURE 3.5 Schematic showing general picture of a location
on Earth’s TOA relative to the incoming solar beam and the re-
radiation emitted by the surface of the sun is given by: sulting solar zenith angle.

σTsun
4
 (5.67 × 10 −8 W m −2 K−4 )(5780 K)4 = 6.33 × 10 7 W m −2

This amount of energy is radiated in all directions. The Earth
only intercepts a small fraction of this amount (the ratio of
the surface area of the Sun to the surface area of a sphere
defined by the Earth’s distance from the Sun). The solar
beams are essentially parallel by the time they reach the top
of the Earth’s atmosphere and the incoming radiation is
generally referred to as the “solar constant” (I0):
I 0 = 1367 W m −2
which would be the amount of radiative energy intercepted by
a surface perpendicular to the incoming beam (Figure 3.5).
This amount of radiation then gets projected differently at
different locations on the globe as locations are more or less
perpendicular to the incoming beam. Figure 3.6 illustrates
this where the same flux density (i.e. W m-2) is projected over
an area with a length scale of 1000 km near the equator, but
double that nearer the poles. Hence the amount of energy
(perpendicular to the TOA) is much less at higher latitudes
than it is at lower latitudes. This simple effect of geometry is

74

F IGURE 3.6 Illustration of how an equal amount of energy
(i.e. the solar constant -- here scaled by the ratio of the inter-
cepted area to the global surface area) is distributed over larger
areas as one moves further from the location normal to the in-
coming beam.
to first-order responsible for most of the spatial and temporal
variability seen in hydrology, weather, and climate.
The position of the sun relative to a location on the
Earth (either at the surface or TOA) can be uniquely defined
by two angles: the solar zenith angle and the solar azimuth
angle (Figure 3.7). The zenith angle is a measure of the
departure of the incoming solar beam direction from the
vertical at the point of interest. The solar zenith angle is 0º if
the sun is directly overhead (i.e. exactly perpendicular to the
F IGURE 3.7 Schematic showing the solar position in terms of
zenith (angle from vertical) and azimuth (angle in horizontal
plane from North) angles.
tangent plane) and 90º at the horizon (i.e. exactly parallel to
the tangent plane). It is this angle which describes “how
perpendicular” the surface is to the incoming beam and
therefore how much the solar constant is reduced. The
azimuth angle is an angle in the horizontal plane, usually
referenced to be 0º (or 360º) at due North and 180º at due
South.
Recall that the Earth is tilted (at approximately 23.5º)
relative to the orbital plane around the Sun (Figure 3.8). This
tilt combined with the orbit around the Sun is the reason for
seasonal variability over the course of a year. Additionally, the
orbit around the sun is not circular, but elliptical which
introduces another (relatively minor) mode of seasonal
75
 provides an illustration of the diurnal progression of day-night
(the so-called terminator) over the globe on the winter
solstice. On this day, the Earth’s tilt (relative to the sun) is at
its maximum of 23.5º which shows up directly in the
terminator line angle. On either equinox, the terminator
would line up directly with the Earth’s axis of rotation. Of
particular note is that the south pole experiences daylight
throughout the day and the southern hemisphere experiences
a longer day compared to the northern hemisphere (the
opposite would be true for the summer solstice).

F IGURE 3.8 Plane of the elliptical orbit of the Earth around

the Sun indicating the Earth’s tilt as well as its orientation as a
function of day of year (from physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/
images/ecliptic_plane.jpg).

variability as the actual distance between the Sun and Earth

varies throughout the year. Nominally, the Summer season
corresponds to the time of year when the sun is closest and
more directly overhead, with the opposite being true for
Winter. As a result, the seasons are at opposite times of the
year for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere due to the
tilt of planet. For the Northern Hemisphere, the “summer
solstice” represents the longest day of the year since the
Earth’s Northern hemisphere is “pointing” most directly at the
Sun and vice versa for the “winter solstice” (Figure 3.8). The M OVIE 3.1 Animation showing the minute-by-minute evolu-
opposite is true for the Southern Hemisphere. Movie 3.1 tion of the day-night terminator for the winter solstice (from
sos.noaa.gov/videos/oneday.mov).

76
 Figure 3.9 provides an illustration of the diurnal and
seasonal evolution of the solar position for a given location (in
this case 40º North latitude). The details of how this position
is calculated is given below; here only the qualitative aspects
are discussed. The sun is generally lowest in the sky at the
winter solstice: only 26.5º above the south horizon (i.e. a solar
zenith angle of 63.5º) at “solar noon”. Solar noon is simply the
time corresponding to the highest point in the sky on a given
day (and is generally different that “local noon” which is
impacted by time zones, daylight saving time, etc.). At this
location the sun is 73.5º above the south horizon (i.e. a solar
zenith angle of 16.5º) at solar noon on the summer solstice.
For the Spring and Fall equinoxes, the sun is 50º above the
south horizon (i.e. a solar zenith angle of 40º) at solar noon
since there is no relative tilt between the Earth’a axis and the
axis of the orbital plane on those days.
Based on the above factors, the amount of incoming
shortwave radiation at any location/time at the TOA is a
function of Earth-Sun geometry which is completely defined
by: i) Latitude (i.e. location), ii) Hour of day (due to rotation
of the Earth), and iii) Day of year (due to tilted axis and
elliptical orbit around Sun). Several models for the TOA flux
based on these inputs are available at varying levels of
precision. A relatively simple model for the flux at the
location perpendicular to the TOA is:
⎧ cos θ 0 (3.5.1)
⎪ I0 , daytime: θ 0 ≤ 90
Rs 0 = ⎨ d 2

⎪ 0, nightime
⎩

where the cosine of the solar zenith angle is given by:

cos θ 0 = sin δ sin λ + cos δ cos λ cos τ (3.5.2)

23.45π # 2π &
δ ≡ declination angle = cos % (172 − DOY )(
180 $ 365 '
λ ≡ latitude
T − 12
F IGURE 3.9 Schematic showing the seasonal evolution of so- τ ≡ hour angle = 2π h
24
lar position in the sky at a latitude of 40 degrees North.
# 2π &
d = 1 + 0.017 cos % (186 − DOY )(
$ 365 '
77
where in the above equations: DOY represents the day of year
(i.e. January 1st: DOY = 1 and December 31st: DOY = 365),
Th represents the solar hour of the day (midnight = 0, solar
noon = 12, 11pm = 23), and d represents the distance
between the sun and Earth normalized by the mean distance.
In applications, data are often tied to different time
coordinates including Universal Time Coordinate (UTC; same
as Greenwich Mean Time) or local time (which may or may
not include daylight saving time) rather than solar time. In
such cases, the time should be first converted to solar hour
before applying the above equations. MOD-WET functions for
Equations (3.5.1) and (3.5.2) are provided in solar_geometry
and TOA_incoming_solar.

The above model shows that the projection of the solar

F IGURE 3.11 Mean daily insolation (in W m-2) on a horizon-
tal surface at the top of the atmosphere as a function of the day
of the year and the latitude. White areas correspond to the po-
lar night (from stratus.astr.ucl.ac.be/textbook/images/image(2).jpg).

constant is primarily controlled by the solar zenith angle,

F IGURE 3.10 Seasonal evolution of the solar declination an-
gle (from physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/images/declination.jpg).
which is governed by the latitude of the location of interest,
the declination angle, and the hour angle. The elliptical orbit
plays a smaller role via the denominator in Equation (3.5.1).
The declination angle is the latitude at which the Sun is
directly overhead. Due to the tilt of the Earth, it varies
throughout the year between 23.5ºN (the Tropic of Cancer)
and 23.5º (Tropic of Capricorn) latitude (Figure 3.10). So the
declination angle is the primary seasonal control on the
incoming flux perpendicular to the TOA. As will be discussed
78
further below, the declination angle is also relevant to
radiation received by sloped surfaces. In the Northern
Hemisphere above 23.5ºN, the Sun is always in the Southern
sky. Hence south facing slopes will get exposed to more
radiation than north facing slopes. The opposite is true for
the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, the diurnal variability in
TOA solar flux comes through the hour angle term.
To illustrate the seasonal and spatial variability of the
TOA insolation, the daily-averaged amount can be computed
F IGURE 3.12 Illustration of seasonal evolution of day length
at a particular latitude.
and plotted as a function of latitude and DOY (Figure 3.11).
The main features are that the Northern Hemisphere gets the
highest insolation in the summer and lowest in Winter with
the opposite true for the Southern Hemisphere. It is also clear
that the seasonal variability is least at the equator and
highest at the poles (where one can see the signs of perpetual
daytime during the summer and perpetual nighttime during
the winter). Implicit in Equation (3.5.1) is that the day length
itself varies considerably throughout the year. An example of
the variation in day length (for a location at 45º latitude) is
shown in Figure 3.12. A primary take-home message is that
many hydrologic fluxes will be directly affected by solar
forcing and as such will exhibit many of the variabilities seen
in the characteristics discussed here.
E XAMPLE 3.5.1
Compute the top-of-atmosphere solar flux over
Los Angeles (latitude of 34 degrees North) at
solar noon on the summer solstice (June 21;
DOY 172) and winter solstice (December 21;
DOY 355).
The earth-sun orbital parameters for DOY 172 (June 21)
are given by:
23.45π " 2π %
δ= cos $ (172 − 172)' = 0.409 rad
180 # 365 &
79
E XAMPLE 3.5.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 3.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

12 − 12 23.45π " 2π %
τ = 2π = 0 rad δ= cos $ (172 − 355)' = −0.409 rad
24 180 # 365 &
" 2π %
d = 1 + 0.017 cos $ (186 − 172)' = 1.0165 12 − 12
τ = 2π = 0 rad
# 365 & 24
" 2π %
d = 1 + 0.017 cos $ (186 − 355)' = 0.9835 rad
The cosine of the solar zenith angle is then given by # 365 &
(using radians for all angles, where the latitude is equal
to 0.593 radians): The cosine of the solar zenith angle is then given by
(using radians for all angles, where the latitude is equal
cos θ 0 = sin(0.409)sin(0.593) + to 0.593 radians):
cos(0.409)cos(0.593)cos(0)
cos θ 0 = sin(−0.409)sin(0.593) +
= 0.983 ↔ θ 0 = cos −1(0.983) = 0.185 rad = 10.6
cos(−0.409)cos(0.593)cos(0)
where because this is the summer solstice and at solar = 0.539 ↔ θ 0 = cos −1(0.539) = 1.002 rad = 57.4
noon the solar zenith angle is relatively low. Note: This
day/time corresponds to the lowest solar zenith angle where because this is the winter solstice and at solar
over the entire year. The TOA solar flux is then given noon the solar zenith angle is much higher. Note: This
by: day/time corresponds to the highest noon-time solar
zenith angle over the entire year. The TOA solar flux is
0.983 then given by:
Rs 0 = (1367 W m -2 ) = 1300.5 W m -2

(1.0165)2
0.539
Rs 0 = (1367 W m -2 ) = 761.7 W m -2

The earth-sun orbital parameters for DOY 355
(December 21) are given by:
(0.9835)2
Note that this is less than 60% of the summer solstice
value. The projection of the solar constant at the much
higher zenith angle results in a significant reduction.

80
E XAMPLE 3.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

This large difference is due solely to the difference in

earth-sun geometry between the two dates. How these
energy inputs are attenuated by the time they reach the
surface will depend on the properties of the atmosphere.

These answers can be confirmed with the MOD-WET

functions: TOA_incoming_solar.m and
solar_geometry.m.

81
S ECTION 6

Modeling Surface Short-

wave Fluxes
The previous section introduced the basic concepts
controlling the amount of shortwave flux incident at the TOA.
Often of particular interest in hydrology is how much of this
TOA flux actually reaches the surface. It is the surface
incident radiation that will drive processes like evaporation.
The TOA flux is attenuated (reduced) by greenhouse gases,
aerosols/dust, and clouds before it reaches the surface. The
specific processes which cause the attenuation are absorption
and scattering. A schematic example of these processes during
daytime conditions is shown in Figure 3.13. Note the figure
shows the solar constant at the TOA, implying the location is
at a latitude corresponding to the declination angle. In general
the amount at the TOA will not be I0, but rather Rs0.
Nevertheless, the relative fractions attenuated due to
absorption and scattering provide a qualitative description of
the various sources and relative magnitudes of attenuation.

As shown in Figure 3.13, there are two primary

components of shortwave radiation reaching the surface. One
is the so-called direct beam radiation. This is the amount of
beam radiation that does not interact with the atmosphere F IGURE 3.13 Schematic showing how solar direct beam radia-
tion is absorbed and scattered in the atmosphere (from
and is therefore completely transmitted. The direct beam powerfromthesun.net/Book/chapter02/chapter02.html).
transmissivity varies with optical depth of the atmosphere (a
function of greenhouse gases and clouds). As shown in Figure
82
3.13, this transmissivity varies very roughly from 33-83%. The
low end of this range would be for cloudy skies, moist air,
and/or high zenith angle (i.e. during the winter and closer to
sunrise/sunset). The high end of this range would be expected
to correspond to clear sky conditions with a low zenith angle
(i.e. near solar noon and during the summer). The second
component is the so-called diffuse radiation. This is radiation
that originated as direct beam at the TOA, but was scattered
(generally multiple times and in varying directions) before
reaching the surface. The fraction of diffuse is generally
smaller than direct beam (5-26%), but also depends on
atmospheric conditions and solar zenith angle. Before sunrise
or after sunset or in overcast conditions, the illumination
provided at the surface is exclusively composed of diffuse solar
radiation (Figure 3.14; in this case very evident as diffuse flux
F IGURE 3.14 Photograph showing diffuse radiation being re-
from clouds). One additional term contributing to incident flected off of clouds near sunset.
radiation at the surface, and not shown in Figure 3.13, is the
backscattered flux. This is the amount of direct and diffuse
flux that is reflected from the surface and then backscattered
In terms of estimating these fluxes, models of varying
by the atmosphere. This term is always smaller than the
complexity can be used. Of high complexity are those models
direct beam and diffuse fluxes.
generally referred to as radiative transfer codes. These require
To model these effects and get the total incident a full accounting of the profiles of atmospheric constituents
shortwave at the surface we can define: and surface conditions and attempt to model the absorption,
scattering and transmission as radiation interacts with each
Rs↓ = Rs,dir
↓
+ Rs,dif
↓
+ Rs,bs
↓
(3.6.1) discretized layer of the atmosphere. These types of models are
Rs↓ ≡ total downwelling shortwave flux commonly used as modules within global climate models,
Rs,dir
↓
≡ downwelling direct beam flux where the atmospheric state profiles are explicitly modeled at
every time step. Measurements of such profiles are not
Rs,dif
↓
≡ downwelling diffuse flux
generally available with sufficient sampling density in space/
Rs,bs
↓
≡ backscattered flux
83
time and so for offline hydrologic analysis, simpler semi- T ABLE 3.2. T YPICAL BROADBAND ALBEDO FOR
empirical bulk models are often used instead. A general VARYING LAND SURFACE TYPES ( FROM A RYA , 2001)
example of such a bulk model is given by:
SURFACE TYPE ALBEDO
Rs,dir
↓
= tsRs 0 (3.6.2) Water (small zenith angle) 0.03-0.10
ts ≡ direct beam shortwave transmissivity Water (large zenith angle) 0.10-1.0
Snow (old) 0.40-0.70
R ↓
s,dif
= β Rs 0 (3.6.3)
Snow (fresh) 0.45-0.95
β ≡ diffuse scattering coefficient Ice 0.20-0.45
Bare soil 0.05-0.40
Rs,bs
↓
= βα(Rs,dir
↓
+ Rs,dif
↓
) (3.6.4)
Grass (long, 1m) 0.16
α ≡ surface broadband albedo
Grass (short, 0.02m) 0.26

The coefficients in each equation represent the bulk
broadband (i.e. integrated across the entire shortwave
spectrum) atmospheric transmissivity, scattering efficiency,
and surface reflectivity. The broadband albedo of the surface
is primarily dependent on surface type (Table 3.2). The
transmissivity and scattering coefficient are expected to vary
with atmospheric characteristics.
Putting the three equations together with the definition
of the total flux yields:
Rs↓ = ⎡⎣ts + β + βαts + β 2α ⎤⎦ Rs 0 (3.6.5)
which shows that the total incident shortwave at the surface is
simply the TOA flux reduced by a multiplicative coefficient
that varies between 0 - 1. It is very important to keep in mind
that the coefficients shown in these equations must depend in
some way on atmospheric conditions and other factors alluded
Agricultural crops 0.10-0.25
Forests 0.05-0.20
to above. This is generally where the semi-empirical nature of
the models show up, where models for these coefficients have
been developed based on experimental data and that may be
used with data available at (or nearby) a given study site.
Many examples of such empirical models exist. Generally,
clear-sky models are easier to develop so that clouds are dealt
with via an additional attenuation factor, although physically
clouds tend to simply change the above defined coefficients
(i.e. decrease transmissivity and increase scattering). Models
are also generally developed for flat horizontal surfaces, with
complex topography effects creating additional complexity.
One such example (Dingman, 2008) uses:
ts = τ sa − γ dust (3.6.6)
84
 τ sa = exp(asa + bsa M opt )
asa = −0.124 − 0.0207Wp
bsa = −0.0682 − 0.0248Wp
γdust ≡ attenuation due to dust (  0-0.13)
β = 0.5(1 − τ s + γdust ) (3.6.7)
τ s = exp(as + bsM opt )
as = −0.0363 − 0.0084Wp
bs = −0.0572 − 0.0173Wp
where in the above equations Mopt is the optical depth of the
atmospheric air mass and Wp is the previously defined
atmospheric precipitable water (here in units of [cm]). It is
very important to note that empirical functions such as these
are often not dimensionally consistent as a result of regression
to data, so that care must be taken with respect to the units
that are used. A first-order approximation used for optical air
mass depth is the inverse of the cosine of the solar zenith
angle (Bras, 1990), i.e.:
M opt = 1 / cos θ (3.6.8)
More accurate representations can be found in Dingman
(2008) or other sources. These equations show that for an
increase in optical depth, precipitable water, or dust (i.e. more
molecules for interaction including greenhouse gases) there is
a decrease in the amount of transmission and an increase in
the amount of scattering (and vice versa for the case of less
optical depth, precipitable water, or dust).
The model shown above is applicable to clear sky
conditions. To take into account clouds, an additional
attenuation must be included. For the purposes of generality,
Equation (3.6.5) could be rewritten as:
Rs↓ = fsc (cloud)"#ts + β + βαts + β 2α $% Rs 0 (3.6.9)
where fsc(cloud) represents an empirical attenuation factor for
clouds in the shortwave spectrum that depends on some
identifiable cloud characteristics. Some examples of this
empirical function include (Bras, 1990):
fsc (C ) = 1 − 0.65C 2 (3.6.10)
where C is areal cloud cover fraction (i.e. 0 for clear-sky and 1
for completely overcast) or (U.S.A.C.E, 1956; Dingman, 2008):
fsc (C ) = 1 − (1 − ksc )C (3.6.11)
where,
ksc = 0.18 + 0.0853Z c (3.6.12)
where Zc is the cloud base height (in kilometers). The
attenuation factor fsc should vary between 0 - 1. Models based
solely on cloud cover fraction do not make any attempt to
incorporate the possible variability due to other cloud
characteristics (i.e. cloud thickness, water content, etc.).
MOD-WET functions for Equations (3.6.6)-(3.6.8) and
(3.6.10) are shown in Section 9 which can be used (along with
the TOA flux) to compute surface solar radiation fluxes.
85
E XAMPLE 3.6.1
For the summer solstice TOA value computed in
Example 3.5.1, estimate the incident shortwave
radiation on a short-grass surface for a clear-sky
day with an atmospheric precipitable water equal
to 3.5 cm and dust coefficient of 0.1.
Qualitatively, how would things change if the
atmosphere were more humid, more smoggy, or
cloudy?
Based on the solar noon zenith angle, the optical depth
for this time is approximately equal to 1/0.983 = 1.02.
The atmospheric shortwave transmissivity can be
estimated by (Equation (3.6.6)):
asa = −0.124 − 0.0207(3.5) = −0.196
bsa = −0.0682 − 0.0248(3.5) = −0.155
τ sa = exp((−0.196) + (−0.155)(1.02)) = 0.70
ts = 0.70 − 0.1 = 0.6
which indicates about 60% of the TOA shortwave flux
will be transmitted directly. The atmospheric scattering
coefficient can be estimated by (Equation 3.6.7)):
as = −0.0363 − 0.0084(3.5) = −0.066
bs = −0.0572 − 0.0173(3.5) = −0.118
τ s = exp((−0.066) + (−0.118)(1.02)) = 0.83
the downwelling surface shortwave on a horizontal plane. In
areas of complex topography (i.e. mountainous regions)
E XAMPLE 3.6.1 ( CONTINUED )
β = 0.5(1 − 0.83 + 0.1) = 0.27
which indicates about 27% of the TOA shortwave flux
will be scattered toward the surface. The total flux
reaching the surface is then given by:
Rs↓ = [0.6 + 0.27 + (0.27)(0.26)(0.6) + (0.27)2(0.26)]Rs 0
= [0.6 + 0.27 + 0.04 + 0.02](1300.5 Wm -2 )
= 1208 Wm -2
which shows that about an equivalent of 93% of the
TOA flux reaches the surface via transmission, forward
scattering or backscattering (in decreasing level of
importance). This fraction is relatively high because it is
the summer solstice. For the winter solstice, the optical
depth would be significantly larger which would decrease
the amount reaching the surface.
A more humid atmosphere would increase the
precipitable water and decrease the flux reaching the
surface. A more smoggy atmosphere would decrease the
transmissivity and increase the scattering, but likely lead
to an overall surface flux reduction. A cloudy atmosphere
would also generally decrease the amount of radiation
reaching the surface (see Equation (3.6.10)).
All of the models described above provide estimates of
86
additional factors must generally be considered. The primary
impact of terrain on incoming shortwave flux is due to varying
exposure to the sun. In the same way that the solar zenith
angle relative to a tangent plane modifies the solar constant at
the TOA (Equation 3.5.1), the local zenith angle due to a
sloping surface can enhance/reduce the amount predicted for
a horizontal plane (Figure 3.15). The local illumination at a
given point in space is a function of two parameters: the slope
(or strictly the slope gradient) and aspect (or slope aspect)
angles.
F IGURE 3.15 Schematic showing how slope/aspect can im-
pact incident shortwave radiation.
The slope (S) is the angle in the vertical plane between
the tangent plane in the steepest descent direction and a
horizontal plane. Based on this definition, a horizontal surface
has a slope of 0 degrees while a vertical surface has a slope of
90 degrees. The aspect (A) angle is the azimuth angle in the
horizontal plane between the steepest descent direction and an
arbitrarily defined reference direction (usually North). So a
point that is facing due North, East, South, or West is
generally labeled with an aspect of 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees
respectively. Based on the slope and aspect angles, one can
define the local illumination (zenith) angle, which is simply
the zenith angle of the solar direct beam relative to the sloped
surface:
cos θs = cos θ 0 cos(S) + sin θ 0 sin(S)cos(φ0 − A) (3.6.13)
θs ≡ local illumination (zenith) angle
θ 0 ≡ solar zenith angle
φ0 ≡ solar azimuth angle
S ≡ slope angle
A ≡ aspect angle
The cosine of the local illumination angle scales the direct
beam flux reaching the surface in the same way the cosine of
the solar zenith angle scales the solar constant at the TOA.
In most applications, the slope and aspect are generally
computed from gridded DEM data. Several methods can be
used to compute the slope and aspect angles. The most
commonly applied computes the slope at a point by fitting a
plane to the neighboring nine cells (inclusive of the point of
87
interest) in the DEM and operating on the elevation data derived slope and aspect maps for a mountainous region are
matrix z(x,y) as: shown in Figures 3.16-3.18 (using MOD-WET function:
generate_slope_and_aspect_from_DEM). Note, as expected
⎛ 2 2⎞
(3.6.14)
⎛ dz ⎞ ⎛ dz ⎞ based on the definitions, the slope is smallest at valley floors
tan(S) = ⎜ ⎜ ⎟ + ⎜ ⎟ ⎟
⎜ ⎝ dx ⎠ ⎝ dy ⎠ ⎟ and ridge tops with some hillslopes having slopes over 50
⎝ ⎠
degrees. For aspect, the north facing slopes are red/pink and
⎛ dz dx ⎞ (3.6.15) south facing slopes are blue/green. The key question is: why
tan(A) = ⎜
⎝ dz dy ⎟⎠ are these variables important to hydrology? It is important to
keep in mind that together the slope/aspect control the
where the derivatives are usually computed via a finite exposure of a given point to the sun. As mentioned above, in
difference approximation. An example of a DEM and the most of the Northern Hemisphere the sun is in the southern
sky. This means that south facing slopes will generally get

F IGURE 3.16 DEM illustrating the distribution of elevation F IGURE 3.17 Distribution of slope (in degrees) of the terrain
(in meters) over an example terrain. represented by the DEM in Figure 3.16.

88
 snow accumulation. North facing slopes will generally have a
significantly longer persistence of snow on the ground
(sometimes weeks or months) due to the smaller snowmelt.

The other main influence that topography can have on

radiation fluxes is a result of shading. The solar zenith and
azimuth angles change continuously diurnally and seasonally.
For a given solar geometry (i.e. zenith/azimuth angle) a point

F IGURE 3.18 Distribution of aspect (in degrees) of the ter-

rain represented by the DEM in Figure 3.16.

more direct beam radiation than north facing slopes. Hence

one would expect more evaporation or snowmelt on south
facing slopes and less on north facing slopes. A good
illustration of this can be seen in Figure 3.19. Despite
relatively close physical proximity to each other, the two
different facing slopes show a stark difference in vegetation
density (which are driven in this case by soil moisture F IGURE 3.19 Photograph illustrating the impact of slope and
patterns). The south facing slope would be expected to be aspect effects on radiation on other hydrologically relevant
properties, in this case soil moisture and vegetation distribu-
drier due to increased evaporation from the higher radiation
tion. The slope on the left is north-facing and the slope on the
inputs. As a result it is much more sparsely populated by right is south-facing (from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:
vegetation than is the northern sloping face. The same can Slope_effect.JPG).
generally been seen in mountainous regions that experience

89
on the ground is either exposed to the sun or the sun’s to the horizontal resolution of the underlying DEM. In the
position is obstructed by neighboring topography. When the case of no shade and zero slope this reduces to Equation
sun’s position is obstructed the point will be in shade. This (3.6.2). The shading mask is a dynamic quantity that is equal
means that the direct beam flux is zero and any shortwave to 0 when the sun is below the local horizon for a given pixel
radiative flux input is due solely to diffuse and backscattered and is equal to 1 when the sun is above the local horizon. The
radiation (Equation (3.6.1)). Similar to the impacts described MOD-WET function topo_shade_calc can be used to
above relative to aspect, these patterns of shading can directly generate these dynamic maps.
impact the patterns of hydrologically relevant variables (snow,
For diffuse flux, the primary impact of topography has to
soil moisture, vegetation, etc.). So in areas of complex terrain,
do with the so-called sky view factor (SVF), which is an
the topography will have many direct impacts on hydrology
integrated measure of the amount of sky “seen” by the ground
(in addition to flow direction which will drive runoff as
at a given point. By definition, a horizontal plane has a SVF
described in Chapter 10).
of 1 and an infinitely deep and narrow canyon would approach
To quantify the impact of topography and shading, the
modified geometry can be accounted for to correct the
horizontal plane fluxes. Muller and Scherer (2005) formulated
the slope/aspect and shade effects into a single correction
term for direct beam flux received on a given unit area as:
" cos θs 1 % (3.6.16)
R↓
= tsRs 0 $maskshade '
s,dir
# cos θ 0
cos(S) &

where the term in brackets is the correction and maskshade is a

binary variable that is 0 when the pixel is in shade and 1
when in direct light. Note that the TOA flux contained the
cosine of the solar zenith angle which is in the denominator of
the correction term. So the correction removes that angular
dependence and instead multiplies by the cosine of the local F IGURE 3.20 Distribution of the sky-view factor (SVF) of the
illumination (zenith) angle. The last term in the correction is terrain represented by the DEM in Figure 3.16.
a geometric enlargement term that projects the sloped surface

90
a SVF equal to 0. An example of the SVF for the same
topography shown in Figure 3.16 is shown in Figure 3.20. The
ridges, which have a horizontal tangent plane, have a SVF of
1, while some of the valleys have values of 0.7 or lower. The
implication of having SVF less than 1.0 is that some of the
sky that would otherwise contribute to forward scattered
shortwave radiation is obscured. The diffuse flux can be
modified to account for SVF via (Muller and Scherer, 2005):
Rs,dif
↓
= β Rs 0SVF + Rs↑ (1 − SVF) (3.6.17)
where the first term represents the original scattered
contribution reduced by an obscured sky view, while the
second term represents a contribution from the reflected
shortwave radiation from the surrounding terrain (weighted by
the terrain-obscured fraction: (1-SVF)). An equivalent
backscattered term (i.e. Equation (3.6.4)) could then be
constructed. The SVF map can be computed using the MOD-
WET function: compute_shade_lookup_table_and_SVF.
E XAMPLE 3.6.2
For the case shown in Example 3.6.1, how would
the incident surface radiation change if the
surface had: a) a slope of 10 degrees and an
aspect of 0 degrees (i.e. due North) and b) a
slope of 10 degrees and an aspect of 180 degrees
(i.e. due South)? In both cases assume there is
no shade and the sky view factor is equal to 1.0.
E XAMPLE 3.6.2 ( CONTINUED )
a) Note that at solar noon, the solar azimuth angle is
180 degrees (i.e. due South). The cosine of the local
illumination (zenith) angle for this case would be:
cos θs = cos(10.6 )cos(10 ) + sin(10.6 )sin(10 )cos(180 − 0 )
= 0.936 ↔ θs = cos −1(0.936) = 0.360 rad = 20.6
So for this case the topography changes the solar zenith
angle from 10.6 to 20.6 degrees. The direct beam flux is
then given by:
" cos(20.6 ) 1 %
R↓
s,dir
= (0.6)(1300.5 W m )$(1)
-2
'
# cos(10.6 ) cos(10 )&
 
= (780.3 W m -2 )[0.967] = 755 W m -2
so that the direct beam flux is 97% of what it was for
the horizontal plane. Since the sky view factor for this
case is 1.0, the diffuse flux will remain the same. In the
more general case where SVF < 1 the diffuse flux may
be reduced or increased depending on the reflected
radiation from the surrounding terrain.
b) For the second case, the cosine of the local
illumination (zenith) angle for this case would be:
cos θs = cos(10.6 )cos(10 ) + sin(10.6 )sin(10 )cos(180 − 180 )
= 0.999 ↔ θs = cos −1(0.999) = 0.010 rad = 0.6
91
E XAMPLE 3.6.2 ( CONTINUED )

Note that because the slope is facing due south the local
illumination is exactly equal to the difference between
the solar zenith angle and the slope angle. If the slope
had been 10.6 degrees the local zenith angle would be 0.

The direct beam flux is then given by:

" cos(0.6 ) 1 %
R↓
s,dir
= (0.6)(1300.5 W m )$(1)
-2
'
# cos(10.6 
) cos(10 
) &
= (780.3 W m -2 )[1.033] = 806 W m -2

So for this case the horizontal flux is actually increased

by 3%. This is because the sloped surface that is facing
southward is more directly oriented toward the sun. Of
particular importance is that the two surfaces of the
same slope but opposite aspects have a difference of over
50 W m-2 of direct beam flux. This difference will
propagate to other surface hydrologic fluxes (i.e.
evaporation, snowmelt, etc.) which will lead to
heterogeneity in surface states (soil moisture, snow water
equivalent, etc.). Again, the diffuse flux will be the same
as for the horizontal case if SVF = 1.

92
S ECTION 7 Rl↓ = εa,clrσTa4 (3.7.2)
εa,clr ≡ effective clear-sky atmospheric emissivity
Modeling Longwave Fluxes Ta ≡ effective atmospheric temperature

at the Surface While the atmospheric emissivity is dependent on all

greenhouse gas concentrations, the most variable is water
At the surface there are two relevant longwave fluxes:
vapor, so several empirical models have been developed to
that incident at the surface from above (i.e. emitted
estimate the emissivity based on humidity measurements.
downwelling radiation by the atmosphere) and upwelling/
Examples include that by Brunt (1932):
outgoing radiation emitted by the surface. The downwelling
longwave radiation can be written conceptually as: εa,clr = 0.605 + 0.048ea0.5 ; (3.7.3)
ea = reference-level vapor pressure [mb]
Rl↓ = f ⎡⎣ε ([H 2O],[CO2 ],...),T(z), clouds ⎤⎦ (3.7.1)

which is to say that the downwelling flux depends on the by Brutsaert (1975):
atmospheric emissivity (which itself depends on the 0.14
concentrations of radiatively active gases), the temperature εa,clr = 1.24 (ea /Ta ) ; [ea ] = mb; [Ta ] = K (3.7.4)
profile, and the characteristics of any clouds present. To fully
by Satterlund (1979):
model these fluxes at a given point requires the use of a
(T 2016)
radiative transfer model and inputs of all the necessary εa,clr = 1.08(1 − exp(−ea a )); [ea ] = mb; [Ta ] = K (3.7.5)
profiles. Because the atmosphere is rather absorptive of
longwave radiation, most of the downwelling radiation and by Prata (1996):
reaching the surface is that emitted from the lower layers of εa,clr = 1 − (1 +Wp )exp(− 1.2 + 3Wp );[Wp ] = cm (3.7.6)
the atmosphere. So semi-empirical models are often used to
model the downwelling flux in terms of more readily available along with many others (Flerchinger et al., 2009). Again, it is
near-surface meteorological measurements. In particular, the essential to recognize that empirical equations are not
clear-sky flux, using the physically-based bulk flux equation necessarily dimensionally consistent (i.e. it is important to use
introduced above, can be written as: specified units!). Such equations are most valid for the
locations and conditions in which they were developed. This is
in part why there are so many different emissivity models.

93
 The above model is for clear-sky downwelling radiation.
To account for clouds, a similar approach to that used in the
shortwave case can be used, i.e.:
Rl↓ = εaσTa4 (3.7.7)
where the effective atmospheric emissivity contains a cloud
correction. An important note is that while clouds attenuate
shortwave radiation, they actually enhance longwave
radiation. This is because clouds significantly increase the
concentration of water in the overlying atmosphere which
increases the effective emissivity. One example of such an
empirical augmentation factor (in terms of fractional cloud
cover, C) is that by Kustas et al. (1994):
εa = (1 + 0.22C 2 )εa,clr (3.7.8)
which indicates no augmentation for zero cloud cover (C = 0)
and an increase in longwave by 22% for full cloud cover (C =
1). This particular equation makes no effort to model different
types of clouds which will undoubtedly introduce some error.
For example, two conditions might exist with full cloud cover,
but one a very thin cirrus cloud at considerable height above
the surface and the other a thick fog cloud in contact with the
surface. Such a case would be expected to yield significantly
different cloud impacts on longwave flux. Other models
attempt to account for cloud water thickness via a solar index
(s; e.g. Crawford and Duchon, 1999):
εa = (1 − s) + sεa,clr (3.7.9)
which implicitly assumes the cloud emissivity is equal to 1.0.
The solar index is usually calculated based on the ratio
between measured downwelling shortwave radiation and the
expected downwelling shortwave radiation in clear-sky
conditions, i.e.:
s = Rs↓ / Rs,clr
↓
(3.7.10)
where the clear-sky shortwave radiation is usually estimated
based on some simplifying assumptions for the transmissivity
and scattering terms in Equation (3.6.5).
For the upwelling longwave flux from a surface, a similar
bulk emission model is often used, i.e.:
Rl↑ = ε sσTs4 (3.7.11)
ε s ≡ surface broadband emissivity
Ts ≡ surface temperature
The surface upwelling radiation is generally simpler than
the downwelling radiation in that the emissivity is essentially
constant (since it depends on land surface type) or varies at
significantly longer time scales than the atmospheric
emissivity. Typically tabulated values are used depending on
the surface type (Table 3.1).
Strictly speaking, the longwave fluxes described above
are for a flat horizontal plane. While not generally as
important as with shortwave fluxes, the longwave fluxes can
also be impacted by terrain. The primary impact is due to
variable sky view factor (SVF) defined in the previous section.
The implication of having SVF less than 1.0 is that some of
94
the area contributing to downwelling longwave flux at a given
location is due to the emitted radiation of the surrounding
surfaces. This is often modeled using a weighted average of
the flux from the atmosphere itself and the surrounding
terrain, i.e for clear-sky flux.:
Rl↓ = (SVF)εaσTa4 + (1 − SVF) εsσTs4 (3.7.12)
where the brackets on the second term simply denote the
average emitted longwave flux from the surrounding terrain
(which may differ from the locally emitted flux). In the case of
flat terrain (SVF = 1) this reduces to Equation (3.7.2). This
can also be modified to account for cloud effects as described
above.
E XAMPLE 3.7.1
For the air with characteristics described in
Example 2.4.1, estimate the clear-sky
downwelling longwave radiation using the
Brutsaert, Satterlund and Brunt emissivity
models. How do the estimates differ and,
qualitatively, how would they change in cloudy
conditions? Also compute the upwelling longwave
radiation from the surface assuming it is covered
by a short-grass surface with a surface
temperature of 28ºC.
First, note that all of emissivity models are empirical
and therefore not dimensionally consistent. So care needs
to be taken to use the specified units. Also note that the
emissivity should be a fraction between 0 and 1. So any
value outside those bounds is a good indication that
there is a problem with the units being used.
The Brutsaert model predicts the following emissivity:
0.14
! 15 mb $
εa = 1.24 # & = 0.81
" 293.15 K %
The Satterlund model predicts:
εa = 1.08(1 − exp(−(15 mb)(293.15K 2016) )) = 0.84
while the Brunt model predicts:
95
E XAMPLE 3.7.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 3.7.1 ( CONTINUED )

εa = 0.605 + 0.048(15 mb)0.5 = 0.79
so that for these conditions the estimates are reasonably
similar with a percent difference of less than about 5%
across the models. This will directly propagate to the
clear-sky longwave radiation which for each of the
respective models are:
Rl↓ = (0.81)(5.67 × 10 −8 )(293.15 K)4 = 339 W m -2
smallest in cloudy conditions where the effective
atmospheric emissivity will approach 1.0 (as indicated by
Equation (3.7.9)). In winter conditions with snow on the
ground and cold surface temperatures, the incoming
longwave flux may be larger than the outgoing flux,
especially in cloudy conditions.

Rl↓ = (0.84)(5.67 × 10 −8 )(293.15 K)4 = 352 W m -2

Rl↓ = (0.79)(5.67 × 10 −8 )(293.15 K)4 = 331 W m -2

so that across all models there is a difference of up to 17

W m-2. If conditions were cloudy the longwave fluxes
would increase due to increased emission by the clouds.

The upwelling longwave flux depends on the surface

emissivity (0.95 from Table 3.1):

Rl↑ = (0.95)(5.67 × 10 −8 )(301.15 K)4 = 443 W m -2

Note that the upwelling longwave flux is greater than the

downwelling flux. This is very often the case because
even when the overlying atmosphere is warmer than the
surface (i.e. at night or in winter), the surface emissivity
is often much larger than the effective atmospheric
emissivity. The net longwave radiation will generally be

96
S ECTION 8
Net Radiation at the Sur-
face
The previous two sections provided physical descriptions
and relatively simple models for the key shortwave and
longwave fluxes occurring at the land surface. While it is
convenient to model each flux individually based on the
different physical relationships, the key radiative input is the
net (or integrated) radiation absorbed by the surface. It is this
net flux that will drive hydrologic processes at the surface.
The net radiation can be written simply as:
Rn ≡ net radiation ≡ net shortwave + net longwave
The net shortwave radiation is the downwelling shortwave (as
described by Equation (3.6.9) for horizontal terrain) minus the
upwelling shortwave radiation. By definition there is no
emission of shortwave by the land surface, so the only “source”
of upwelling shortwave is simply the amount of incident
radiation that is reflected. The reflectivity is exactly defined
by the albedo so that the net shortwave is given by:
Rs↓ − Rs↑ = Rs↓ − α Rs↓ = Rs↓(1 − α )
(3.8.1)
which simply states that whatever fraction of incident
shortwave radiation is not reflected is being absorbed. The net
longwave radiation is the downwelling minus upwelling
longwave fluxes:
Rl↓ − Rl↑ (3.8.2)
where in most cases the outgoing longwave flux is larger than
the incoming flux since the surface emissivity is generally
higher than the atmospheric emissivity and the temperatures
are comparable. Hence the net longwave radiation is often
negative.
Putting the two together we can write the net radiation
at the surface as:
Rn (x,y,t) = Rs↓(1 − α ) + Rl↓ − Rl↑ (3.8.3)
where the spatial and temporal dependence is shown for
emphasis. The spatial/temporal variability comes through the
various factors that determine the individual fluxes (albedo,
emissivity, near-surface meteorological data, etc.). Since net
radiation is defined as the absorbed radiation by the surface, a
positive quantity denotes a net gain of energy input (that will
cause the surface to warm) and a negative quantity denotes a
net loss of energy (that will cause the surface to cool).
In terms of temporal variability, it is important to keep
in mind two key “periodicities” embedded in Equation (3.8.3).
The seasonal cycle is driven by the Earth’s orbit around the
sun, which yields seasonal variability in the TOA shortwave
flux as a function of latitude (Figure 3.11). This seasonal cycle
generally then imprints itself on the meteorological and
surface states that control the longwave fluxes. Diurnal
variability also plays a key role. The incident solar radiation is
zero at night and varies throughout the day with a peak at
solar noon. The incoming longwave is determined by air
97
temperature, humidity, and clouds, which can also have a magnitude, provide a positive energy input to the surface. At
strong diurnal cycle. Movie 3.2 shows an example of the night (and at high latitudes during winter) radiative cooling
diurnal evolution of downwelling shortwave and longwave generally occurs due to the absence (or limited amount) of
fluxes over the central U.S. during the summer (on a cloudy shortwave radiation inputs.
day). The diurnal cycle is clearly seen and is modulated by
the presence of clouds, which strongly control the patterns.
These patterns will directly propagate to the surface net
radiation. During the day and especially during summer, the
shortwave fluxes generally dominate the net radiation and
since the longwave fluxes are generally comparable in

M OVIE 3.2 Illustration of the diurnal evolution of downwel-

ling shortwave and longwave surface radiation in the presence
of clouds over a region in the Southern Great Plains of the U.S.
(Bart Forman, personal communication).

98
S ECTION 9 Slope and aspect determination for a given DEM:
generate_slope_and_aspect_from_DEM.m

MOD-WET Codes Computation of clear-sky downwelling and upwelling

longwave fluxes:
longwave_flux.m
Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in
this chapter include: Estimation of atmospheric optical depth:
optical_depth.m
Clear-sky emissivity calculation:
clear_sky_emiss.m Calculation of solar geometry (zenith and azimuth):
solar_geometry.m
Clear-sky surface shortwave radiation calculation:
clear_sky_shortwave_radiation.m Calculation of shortwave attenuation due to cloud frac-
tion:
Cloudy-sky emissivity calculation: sw_cloud_attenuation_factor.m
cloudy_sky_emiss.m
Calculation of top-of-atmosphere solar radiation:
Calculation of direct beam shortwave transmissivity: TOA_incoming_solar.m
direct_sw_transmissivity.m
Calculation of shading due to topography:
Calculation of diffuse shortwave scattering coefficient: topo_shade_calc.m
diffuse_sw_scattering_coefficient.m
Generation of a shade lookup table and SVF map from a
Computation of incoming solar radiation over complex DEM:
terrain: compute_shade_lookup_table_and_SVF.m
disaggregate_SW.m
Conversion between lat/lon and UTM coordinates:
Conversion between easting/northing UTM vectors and utm2deg.m
lat/lon vectors:
easting_northing_to_lat_lon.m

99
S ECTION 10
Conceptual Questions
1. Name the respective sources of “shortwave” and “longwave”
radiation fluxes. What part of the spectrum is covered by
each? At what wavelength does the peak for each occur?
2. According to the Planck function, name the physical
variable controls the magnitude (and distribution) of
emitted (blackbody) radiation. Name the additional
physical parameter that describes how close an actual body
is to a blackbody.
3. Name at least two atmospheric radiatively active gases that
absorb solar radiation. Name at least two atmospheric
radiatively active gases that absorb longwave radiation.
4. Define in words what surface albedo represents. What land
surface types generally have the smallest and largest
broadband albedo and what are their typical values?
5. Name the variables are needed to determine the TOA
incoming shortwave flux.
6. Define in words what the declination angle represents.
7. What is the maximum possible value of incoming shortwave
radiation at the TOA? Where on the globe will this
generally occur?
8. Describe in words the processes that attenuate downwelling
solar radiation between the TOA and surface.
9. Name the three components that make up the incoming
shortwave radiation at the surface. At midday during the
summer, which component would you expect to be the
largest? Just before sunset, which component would expect
to be largest? Explain.
10. Describe in words the meaning of aspect.
11. In the northern hemisphere (above 23.5 degrees North),
which aspect (north or south facing) will generally get more
incident solar radiation? Explain. How do things change in
the Southern Hemisphere? Explain.
12. What atmospheric variable is primarily responsible for
determining the effective atmospheric emissivity? What
additional variable is primarily responsible for surface
downwelling longwave flux?
13. What land surface types generally have the smallest and
largest broadband emissivities and what are their typical
values?
14. Name the four components that make up the net radiation
at the surface. What surface and/or atmospheric variables
and parameters are generally needed to compute net
radiation at a given location/time.
15. When/where will net radiation generally be positive?
negative?
100
S ECTION 11
Sample Problems
Problem 3.1. In this problem, you are asked to examine the
influence of the atmosphere on the shortwave radiative flux
incident at the earth’s surface. Incoming solar radiation in the
short-wavelength spectra (shortwave) at the top of the
atmosphere (TOA) is partially absorbed and scattered
(reflected) by atmospheric molecules and particulates. As a
result, only a fraction of the TOA flux actually reaches the
surface. Answer the following questions using the equations
provided in Sections 5 and 6.
a) Compute declination angle, zenith angle, and incoming
top-of-atmosphere (TOA) solar radiative flux for solar noon
on December 21st, 2011 (winter solstice), and June 21st, 2012
(summer solstice) in Hilo, Hawaii (19.73ºN). For this latitude
and days of the year (and time of day), is the sun in the
southern sky, northern sky, or directly overhead? [Hint: You
can answer this by comparing the latitude to the declination
angle]. Is the sun in the same part of the sky throughout the
year? Justify your answer.
b) What is the predicted shortwave direct beam
transmissivity of the atmosphere on June 21st? To estimate
precipitable water assume the surface dewpoint temperature is
25ºC. Assume there is attenuation due to dust using a
reasonable parameter value. Based on your answer,
approximately what fraction of the incoming direct beam solar
radiation is attenuated by the atmosphere? Qualitatively, how
would this change if the amount of water vapor increased? So
if all else is equal, would you expect more direct beam solar
radiation to reach the surface in an area with a dry climate or
one with a humid climate?
c) What is the predicted scattering coefficient of the
atmosphere on June 21st based on the precipitable water
value you estimated in the sample problem in the last
chapter? How do the transmissivity and scattering coefficients
compare, i.e. which is larger/smaller, etc.? Qualitatively, how
would the scattering coefficient change if the amount of water
vapor (i.e. cloud cover) increased?
d) Using Equation (3.6.5) and the coefficients and variables
computed above, compute the incoming shortwave radiation
at the surface in Hilo, at noon on June 21st. Assume a surface
albedo of 0.24.
Problem 3.2.
a) Compute the top of atmosphere (TOA) solar radiation over
a location in the Sierra Nevada (latitude of 36.535 degrees)
for solar noon on October 17th (Day of Year 290). Note: The
TOA flux we use (given by the equation) is that perpendicular
to the TOA. As part of your solution, clearly indicate the
solar zenith angle. What fraction of the solar constant is
coming in perpendicular to the TOA at this time? Explain
(using physical arguments) why the fractions are less than 1.0.
101
b) Assuming that a transmissivity of 0.52 is representative for
this day over the Sierras, what is the magnitude of the direct
beam flux incident on a horizontal plane at the surface?
c) Assuming a scattering coefficient of 0.185, what is the
magnitude of the diffuse flux incident on a horizontal plane at
the surface?
d) Assuming the average surface albedo is 0.25 in this region,
what is the magnitude of the backscattered shortwave flux
incident on a horizontal plane at the surface?
e) What is the total shortwave radiation incident on a
horizontal plane at the surface? How do the three components
compare in magnitude?
f ) What is the net shortwave radiation absorbed by the
surface?
Problem 3.3. The following information are measured over a
vegetated surface during a clear sunny day:
Net solar radiation: 510 Wm-2
Air Temperature at 2 meters: 22.7ºC
Air relative humidity at 2 meters: 80.0%
Ground surface temperature: 25.5ºC
Air pressure: 980 millibars
a) What is the outgoing solar radiation at the surface?
Assume a surface albedo of 15%.
b) What is the outgoing longwave radiation from the surface
(assume a surface thermal emissivity of 0.96)?
c) What is the incoming atmospheric longwave radiation? Use
the Brunt model for atmospheric emissivity.
d) What is the net radiation at the surface?
e) This radiation must be dissipated at the surface. Assuming
half of this net radiation goes into vaporization of water at
the surface, what would the evapotranspiration rate be in
mm/day? If the “latent heat” later condenses in the
atmosphere, how much energy (in W m-2) will be released/
consumed? Specify whether the condensation corresponds to a
release or consumption of energy.
Problem 3.4. In order to plan the day’s irrigation rate, a
farmer needs to estimate the maximum potential water loss
rate by estimating the absorbed radiative energy at the
surface. Over the irrigated field at noon, the ground
temperature is generally 41ºC and the air temperature is
33ºC. The air dew point temperature is 16ºC. Assume a
surface albedo of 30% and surface emissivity of 0.95. Based on
location and day (Day 186), the cosine of the solar zenith
angle at noon is estimated to be 0.974. Assume the
atmospheric direct beam shortwave transmissivity at this time
is 0.6, the diffuse shortwave scattering coefficient is 0.1 and
the sky is cloud-free.
a) Determine the net radiation at the surface.
102
b) Qualitatively, how would cloud presence impact your
estimate? Be specific.
c) Assuming 65% of the net radiation goes into
evapotranspiration (i.e. latent heat flux) at the surface, how
much water should the farmer apply (in mm/day) to balance
the evapotranspiration flux?
Problem 3.5. Some estimates of global warming estimate
that surface air temperatures will increase by 3ºC over the
next 100 years. What would the change in incoming thermal
(longwave) radiation at the surface be under this global
warming scenario if the nominal air temperature before the
warming effect is 20ºC and the relative humidity of the
surface air remains at 60%?
Problem 3.6. To a large degree, the climate of Earth is
controlled by radiative fluxes. Radiative equilibrium consists
of the balance of net solar (shortwave) radiation, which is an
external input to the system, and net terrestrial (longwave)
fluxes, which generally depend on the Earth’s surface and its
atmosphere. A schematic picture of the global radiative energy
balance is shown in the figure below. Radiative equilibrium
refers to the condition where the net radiative energy is equal
to zero (i.e. total energy in minus total energy out equals
zero).
Related to this, and of particular relevance, is the “greenhouse
effect” which is generally used to refer to the impact of
(radiatively active) atmospheric gases on the Earth’s
equilibrium temperature. On the global scale there is generally
only one incoming flux (solar radiation) and two outgoing
fluxes (outgoing (reflected) solar radiation, and emitted
longwave radiation). Here you will examine the impact of the
atmosphere on the radiative equilibrium.
a) First suppose there was no atmosphere overlying the
surface of the Earth. For this case, write the radiative
equilibrium equation at the surface in terms of the solar
constant, the Earth’s surface: temperature, albedo, and
emissivity, and the radius of the Earth. The radiative
equilibrium equation should consider the total energy fluxes
(i.e. in W), not the flux densities (which are in W m-2). In
other words, you will need to consider the area over which
each respective flux occurs. As indicated in the figure shown
above, an area equal to the projected cross-sectional area of
the Earth intercepts the incoming solar radiation, while the
outgoing longwave flux is emitted across the full surface area
of the Earth. The reflected shortwave radiation occurs over
the same area as the intercepted shortwave.
b) Using the above equation, derive an expression for the
Earth’s surface temperature. Your expression should be in
terms of the variables listed above and (and the Stefan-
Boltzmann constant). Given the known value for the solar
constant, and assuming typical values for the Earth’s surface
albedo and emissivity are given by: 0.3 and 0.97 respectively,
what would the predicted surface temperature be for this no-
atmosphere case? How does this compare to the observed
(global average) value of ~290K that exists as a result of
having an atmosphere?
103

Next, you will consider the impact of having atmosphere with
greenhouse gases. For simplicity, suppose the atmosphere can
be conceptualized by one layer characterized by a single
atmospheric temperature and atmospheric emissivity (both of
which are generally different then the surface values). Also, for
simplicity, assume the atmosphere is transparent to shortwave
radiation (i.e. shortwave transmissivity equal to 1.0), but
absorbs longwave radiation (with negligible longwave
scattering). Recall according to Kirchoff’s Law that the
longwave absorptivity is equal to the longwave emissivity.
c) Based on this simplified representation of the atmosphere
layer, write expressions for the upwelling/downwelling
atmospheric longwave radiation atmospheric temperature/
emissivity, and the Stefan-Boltzmann constant) and for the
atmospheric longwave transmissivity (in terms of atmospheric
emissivity). Assume that the downwelling and upwelling
longwave radiation by the atmosphere are the same.
d) Based on the longwave transmissivity of the atmosphere,
what is the expression for the longwave radiation emitted by
the Earth’s surface that makes its way to the top of the
atmosphere?
e) With the presence of the atmosphere, there are radiative
equilibrium equations at both the TOA and the Earth’s
surface. Write both equations in terms of the variables defined
above. You will again need to consider the respective areas
across which the fluxes are intercepted/emitted. You can
assume the atmospheric surface is the same as the earth
surface.
f ) Combining the surface and TOA equations you can
eliminate the dependence on atmospheric temperature. Do so
to derive an expression for the Earth’s surface temperature in
terms of the other parameters in the problem. What is the
predicted surface temperature for an atmosphere with an
emissivity (absorptivity) equal to 0? Equal to 1.0? What must
the atmospheric emissivity equal to match the observed
globally-averaged surface temperature mentioned above?
104
S ECTION 12
MOD-WET Problems
Problem 3.1 The radiative fluxes that drive many hydrologic
processes begin with incoming solar (shortwave) radiation at
the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA). Use the function
TOA_incoming_solar.m, to compute and plot the diurnal
cycle (i.e. for each hour of the day) of the incoming solar
radiation (in W/m2) at the top of atmosphere (TOA) vs. local
time on the winter solstice December 21 (Day of Year or DOY
356) and summer solstice June 21 (DOY 172) for the mean
latitude and longitude of the watershed. Quantitatively
compare the amplitude of the peaks in the TOA radiation
plot. Compute the different lengths of daylight you observe.
Plot the diurnal cycle of the solar zenith angle (in degrees) for
both days. Qualitatively describe how the incoming solar
radiation at TOA varies with zenith angle.
Problem 3.2 In this problem, you will analyze the
seasonality and spatial distribution of incoming shortwave
radiation at the surface in the watershed. You will examine
the impact that physical characteristics such as the slope and
aspect have on the spatial distribution of incoming shortwave
radiation at the surface.
a) Plot the spatially-averaged time series of daily-averaged
incoming shortwave radiation at the surface. The variable
disaggregrated_forcing.maps.Rs contains the daily-
averaged incoming shortwave radiation maps in W/m2.
Describe the seasonality of the shortwave radiation at the
surface. Describe when the maximum shortwave radiation
occurs. How do clouds impact the amount of incoming
radiation at the surface? Is the presence of clouds evident in
the time series that you plotted? Explain.
b) In areas of complex, mountainous terrain, the topographic
effects on the amount of shortwave radiation received at the
surface can be extremely large as the slope/aspect at a given
point in space controls the exposure to direct sunlight.
Using the MATLAB function imagesc, plot the maps of the
slope and aspect vs. easting/northing over the watershed only
(i.e. mask out values outside the watershed). For the aspect
map use the appropriate circular color scheme for your aspect
map: colormap(hsv). This colormap sets the highest and
lowest values to the same color.
c) Based on the figure you generated in part b), describe the
general orientation of the watershed (i.e. in terms of aspect).
Which direction/s (if any) do most slopes face (i.e. northward,
southward, eastward, westward)? Describe where north-facing
slopes, south-facing slopes, etc. are located in the watershed?
In the Northern Hemisphere (above ~23.5 degrees latitude),
what aspect orientation do you expect to be associated with
highest solar direct beam fluxes?
d) Compute the minimum and maximum values of the slope
of the terrain in the watershed. Describe where steeper/
shallower slopes are located in the watershed.
105
e) Plot and compare the spatial maps of incoming shortwave
radiation at the surface (W/m2) on December 21 and June 21
(the winter and summer solstices respectively). For each day,
describe/explain the spatial variability of the incoming
shortwave radiation at the surface within the watershed.
f ) Consider two specific pixels within the watershed of varying
aspect values. (Note: You will use these pixels in other MOD-
WET Problems as well.) What is the aspect (in degrees) of
the pixels at each of these locations? Which compass direction
(i.e. aspect) are the slopes at these two pixels facing?
g) For the two pixels identified in part f), plot the daily-
averaged incoming solar radiation time series. Plot/compare
the two time series. Does one location tend to receive a
greater amount of incoming solar radiation at the surface than
the other? Provide reasoning for this. What are the maximum
daily-averaged incoming solar radiation values of the two
pixels and how do they compare? Compare the daily-averaged
incoming solar radiation time series for each of these pixels
with the basin averaged time series you plotted in part a).
Explain differences among the time series. Does each of the
time series exhibit similar patterns in seasonality, etc.?
Problem 3.3 In this problem, you will analyze the
seasonality, diurnal (daily) cycle, and spatial distribution of
surface net radiation in the watershed.
a) Plot the spatially-averaged time series of daily-averaged net
radiation (in W/m2) at the surface. Describe the seasonality of
the net radiation at the surface. Qualitatively, how does the
net radiation during the winter compare to that of the spring
and summer? What implications does this have in terms of
cooling/warming the land surface/snowpack during the
various seasons? Discuss the seasonality observed in the net
radiation time series. Describe when the maximum and
minimum net radiations occur.
b) Plot the basin-averaged diurnal cycle (vs. UTC) of net
radiation at the surface for the winter and summer solstices
(December 21st and June 21st respectively). The net radiation
is stored in fluxes.time_series.Rn. Compare the diurnal
cycles of the flux on the two days. Describe how the values of
the maximum net radiation change between the two days. At
approximately what time of the day in local solar time does
net radiation provide the largest energy input to the surface?
Describe how the net radiation values during the daytime
compare to those during the nighttime? Explain the impact of
the net shortwave and net longwave radiative fluxes on the
daytime/nighttime net radiation.
c) Plot the spatial maps of daily-averaged net radiation
(fluxes.maps.Rn in W/m2) on December 21st and June 21st.
For each day, describe/explain the spatial variability of the
net radiation across the watershed. How do the slope and
aspect of the watershed impact the spatial patterns observed
on these two days? Describe the relationship between the
daily-averaged net radiation maps on these two days and the
daily-averaged incoming shortwave radiation maps for these
same days.
106
d) Plot the annual cycle of daily-averaged net radiation time
series for the two pixels within the watershed selected above.
The daily-averaged net radiation is stored in fluxes.maps.Rn.
Compare the two time series. Does one location tend to have
a larger energy input at the surface than the other? Does this
vary seasonally? Explain. When do the maximum daily-
averaged net radiation values occur and how do they compare
at the two locations? Compare the daily-averaged net
radiation time series for each of these pixels with the basin-
averaged time series you plotted in part b). Explain
differences among the time series. Does each of the time series
exhibit similar seasonality patterns?

107
Chapter 4

Atmospheric
Circulation
S ECTION 1

Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:

1. Sketch a conceptual picture of the annual average net

radiation absorbed at the TOA by the Earth system

2. Describe how and why the net radiation distribution

causes atmospheric motions

3. Sketch a conceptual picture of the general circulation of

the atmosphere

4. List the key characteristics of the general circulation and

discuss its impact on climate patterns (including
precipitation patterns)

5. Identify how high/low pressure cells are connected to

circulation and vertical motion

6. Identify which circulation feature is primarily responsible

for equator to mid-latitude energy transport

7. Identify which circulation feature is primarily responsible

for mid-latitude to pole energy transport

109
S ECTION 2

Global Distribution of Top-

of-Atmosphere Net Radia-
tion
This chapter focuses on the key aspects of atmospheric
circulation as they relate to other hydrologic concepts covered
in the book. For a more detailed treatment of atmospheric
dynamics the reader is referred to Marshall and Plumb (2007).
M OVIE 4.1 Illustration of monthly evolution of TOA net radia-
tion (from earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/
view.php?d1=CERES_NETFLUX_M).
The net radiation at the TOA is the key driver of the
global atmospheric circulation and hydrologic cycle. Based on
upward by the atmosphere as well as that emitted by the
the definitions and notation from the previous chapter, the
surface and transmitted through the atmosphere. The
TOA net radiation can be written as:
animation in Movie 4.1 shows maps of monthly net radiation
Rn 0 (x,y) = Rs 0 (1 − α 0 ) − Rl↑0 (4.2.1) highlighting the spatial patterns and seasonality. Note both
α 0 ≡ planetary albedo positive and negative values representing a net absorption and
loss respectively.
Rl↑0 ≡ outgoing longwave flux at TOA
It is instructive to average the above equation in various
ways to gain insight into the overall radiation budget and its
where the spatial dependence is shown for emphasis. The
implications. If the above equation is globally averaged one
planetary albedo is the bulk reflectivity and is a composite of
expects the basic conceptual picture shown in Figure 4.1. The
the atmospheric reflectivity and surface reflectivity impacts on
incoming shortwave flux is approximately 340 W m-2, which is
outgoing shortwave flux. Note that there is no incoming
simply the solar constant multiplied by the ratio of the cross-
longwave flux, as there is at the surface, since there is no
sectional area of the disk intercepting the incoming solar beam
atmosphere above the TOA to emit downwelling radiation.
to the Earth’s surface area, i.e.:
The upwelling longwave flux is a composite of that emitted
110
 contribute to the balance, namely downwelling longwave
radiation (labeled “backradiation” in Figure 4.1; already
discussed in Chapter 4) and surface latent and sensible heat
fluxes (“evaporation” and “convection” in Figure 4.1; to be
discussed in Chapters 6 and 8).

Perhaps of more relevance is the insight obtained when

averaging the net radiation across all longitudes at a given
latitude band (i.e. “zonally”-averaged) to get the annual mean
net radiation at the TOA as a function of latitude. Figure 4.2

F IGURE 4.1 Long-term average global radiative energy bal-

ance.

" π R2 %
1367 Wm $$
−2 E
'
2 '
= 342 W m −2

# 4 π RE &

where RE is the radius of the Earth. Of this incoming

shortwave flux, approximately 29% (approximately 99 Wm-2)
gets reflected back to space. When considering the global
average, the TOA net radiation must equal zero for the planet
to be in radiative equilibrium, which is shown in Figure 4.1
where the outgoing longwave flux is equal to 71% of the F IGURE 4.2 Zonally averaged incoming, outgoing, and net
radiative fluxes over the globe.
incoming (approximately 342 W m-2). Note the net energy
must also equal zero at the surface, but additional fluxes
111
shows the incoming and outgoing radiation fluxes, which when
added together provide the net radiation. What is seen is a
relatively symmetric pattern around the equator, with a
surplus of energy being input to the system in the tropics (i.e.
between latitudes of +/- 30º) and a deficit of energy from
midlatitudes to the poles. In other words, the net radiation is
positive near the equator and negative near the poles. This
imbalance is a result of most of the solar input occurring near
the equator and radiative cooling occurring at the poles. The
key question is what does this imply?

For the planet to be in overall equilibrium the

implication is that there must be an underlying set of
mechanisms for the net transport of heat poleward from the
equator. To convince yourself of this, imagine the atmosphere
as three boxes isolated from each other, one centered on the
equator where the surplus exists and one in each hemisphere
F IGURE 4.3 Inferred total latitudinal heat transport resulting
where the deficit exists. If the radiation budget were the whole from global net radiation distribution along with estimated con-
story, the air in the box with a surplus would continuously tribution by the atmosphere and ocean circulation. PW = 1015
warm and the air in the two boxes with a deficit would W (used with permission from Marshall and Plumb, 2007).
continuously cool. This is known not to be the case. While
heat between boxes could be transferred via conduction, this
is a relatively inefficient process. When fluids are involved, a the total transport is shown in Figure 4.3. Some of the
much more efficient mechanism is via heat carried by fluid mechanisms for the transport will be discussed in more detail
motions (and as we will discuss later: latent heating associated below in following sections, but they are driven principally by
with vapor transport/condensation). In other words, warm atmospheric motions and to a lesser extent by oceanic
tropical air must be moved poleward and cool polar air must circulation.
be moved equator-ward.

The heat flux necessary to yield equilibrium can be

inferred from the imbalance in net radiation. An estimate of
112
S ECTION 3

Atmospheric Motions
Driven by Latitudinal En-
ergy Imbalance
Given the implied heat transport discussed in the
previous section, the primary question is how does the
atmospheric transport work? Here we will focus primarily on a
qualitative description of the key characteristics of the
atmospheric motion, i.e. the so-called “general circulation”. It
is important to note that the general circulation we will be F IGURE 4.4 Zonally-averaged distribution of atmospheric
discussing is representative of the long-term average. Hence, temperature as a function of height. Red arrows indicate ex-
pected vertical motions at equator and poles.
the general circulation is responsible for much of the
climatology on Earth, while individual weather events
(including extremes) can be quite different than the mean.
The instantaneous state and motion of the atmosphere can (“warm air rises”) with cold air aloft at the top of the
differ markedly from the general circulation. troposphere generating sinking motion at the poles. If these
were the only factors, they would imply a single circulation
The primary impact of the net radiation distribution cell as shown in Figure 4.5, with surface flows from pole to
shown in Figure 4.2 is that, within the troposphere, warmer equator, upward flow at the equator, return flow aloft, and
air exists in the tropics relative to the poles (Figure 4.4). downward flow near the poles. This simple convection cell
Thermal expansion of the tropical air columns (relative to model would have the desired trait of transporting warm air
those at the poles) leads to a sloping pressure surface aloft toward the pole and cool air to the equator, effectively
(also seen in the temperature isotherms) which would be redistributing the net radiation imbalance. In fact, early
expected to drive air toward the poles aloft. Additionally, air conceptual models of the Earth’s atmospheric flow proposed
near the surface in the tropics would be expected to be this model (Marshall and Plumb, 2007). However, an
warmest, which due to buoyancy would generate an uplift
113
 apparent force associated with the rotating reference frame
that tends to “deflect” air parcels to the right in the Northern
Hemisphere (and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere). As
a result, wind moving toward the equator would be deflected
creating so called “easterly” surface winds (i.e. from the east
moving westward) in the polar and equatorial regions.
Another consequence of rotation is that air parcels moving
poleward are closer to the axis of rotation and tend to

F IGURE 4.5 Schematic of expected single-cell thermally-

driven atmospheric general circulation on a non-rotating
planet. (from http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjps/1400/circulation.html).

important factor is neglected in this model, namely the

rotation of the Earth, which brings angular momentum effects
into the picture.

The impact of angular momentum, and other factors F IGURE 4.6 Schematic of expected three-cell thermally-
driven atmospheric general circulation on a rotating planet.
related to the Earth’s rotation, introduces a more complicated
(from http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjps/1400/circulation.html).
general circulation. One of these key factors is the Coriolis
force (discussed in more detail in Section 5), which is an
114
therefore accelerate in order to attempt to conserve
momentum. The result is a general circulation that features
three overturning circulation cells of varying intensity (rather
than just one) as shown in Figures 4.6 and 4.7. The three cells
are referred to as the Hadley (in the tropics on either side of
the equator), the Ferrel (at midlatitudes) and the Polar (near
the poles) cells. These types of figures attempt to
simultaneously show the circulations occurring in cross-section
in the atmosphere as well as along the surface.
The Hadley cell consists of warm air rising from the
surface at the equator, moving poleward aloft until around
30ºN/S, and descending toward the surface before returning
along the surface. The upwelling limb of the Hadley cell near
the equator is the primary driver of persistent tropical clouds
F IGURE 4.7 Cross-section of northern hemisphere circula-
tion superimposed on net radiation distribution. Arrows on the
surface indicate direction of surface winds.
often referred to as the Intertropical Convergence Zone
(ITCZ). The Ferrel cell has descending air at latitudes around
30ºN/S and poleward movement along the surface before
rising around a latitude of 60ºN/S and returning toward the
midlatitudes aloft. Finally, the Polar cell has the same sense of
circulation as the Hadley cell, but exists between the poles
and latitudes around 60ºN/S. Movement of air from the
surface to aloft (i.e. at the equator and poles) is typically
associated with lower than average surface atmospheric
pressure, while regions of air moving toward the surface from
aloft are typically associated with higher than average surface
pressure. These so-called “lows” and “highs” tend to be
persistent features of the general circulation as seen in Figure
F IGURE 4.8 Mean annual surface pressure distribution show-
ing areas of typically high and low pressure (used with permission
from Marshall and Plumb, 2007).
115
4.8. These areas of high/low pressure are directly associated
with certain climate zones as will be discussed below.
It is very important to note that not all three of the
circulation cells are of equal importance or strength. The
Hadley cell is far and away the most persistent and influential
in terms of the energy transport described above. Evidence of
the circulation cells, with the prominence of the Hadley cell is
shown in Figure 4.9. As can be seen, the Hadley cell in each
hemisphere is consistent with the net transport of energy
poleward (albeit only to the midlatitudes). In fact, the Ferrel
and Polar cells are much less important in terms of energy
F IGURE 4.9 Cross-section of the mean annual meridional
overturning motion showing the clear presence of the Hadley
cells and to a lesser extent the Ferrel cells (used with permission
from Marshall and Plumb, 2007).
transport. Another mechanism is chiefly responsible for the
additional transport between the midlatitudes and the poles
as will be elaborated on below.
The other key features to note in Figures 4.6 and 4.7 are
the surface winds. Due to the Coriolis force, the winds in the
surface branch of the Hadley cell are deflected, becoming
easterly winds (or “easterlies”, i.e. from the east). In the
tropics, the easterlies are often called “trade winds” as their
persistent nature was taken advantage of to construct trade
routes used by sailing ships. As part of the Ferrel cell, the
surface winds are deflected, becoming westerlies. It is these
winds that form the onshore flow seen in the western U.S.
Finally the surface winds associated with the Polar cell consist
of easterlies. Another important point has to do with the
relative speed of the winds. To conserve its angular
momentum, an air parcel at higher latitudes would generally
need to travel at a faster speed (since it is closer to the axis of
rotation) than it does at lower latitudes. Hence the winds at
higher latitudes tend to be faster than the trade winds, which
are persistent but relatively mild.
As mentioned above, the Hadley cell is the chief
mechanism for transport of energy between the equator and
midlatitudes. This leaves the question: What mechanism is
chiefly responsible for transport between midlatitudes and the
poles? Rather than an overturning cell, the transport
generally occurs via eddy mixing in the horizontal plane of the
atmosphere. Due to stark temperature differences, the
midlatitudes are often characterized by cold air masses from
the poles interacting with warmer air masses at midlatitudes
116
and/or the tropics (Figure 4.10). These colliding air masses of differing thermal characteristics are usually referred to as
“fronts”. The result of these interactions are two-fold: i) air
masses tend to circulate around high/low pressure anomalies
forming eddies that stir cold air equator-ward and warm air
poleward, and ii) warm air is driven upward over the cold air
due to buoyancy differences (Figure 4.10). So while this
mechanism does not involve an overturning circulation cell, it
has a similar effect. Warmer air is transported poleward and
upward into the atmosphere while the opposite is true of
cooler air masses. Additionally, these horizontal eddies
(storms) are intermittent in nature in contrast to for example
the Hadley cell which is very persistent. The eddies tend to

F IGURE 4.10 Schematic showing frontal systems at midlati-
tudes that result in mixing of cold and warm air via horizontal
eddies and frontal uplift (used with permission from Marshall and
Plumb, 2007).
M OVIE 4.2 Animation of the wind field over the Northern
Hemisphere and over North America from the NASA MERRA
dataset. Wind vectors are shown at three levels in the atmos-
phere: 300 mb (blue), 500 mb (white), and 850 mb (black)
(from NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio;
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003733/index.html).

117
form and dissipate, with life cycles on the order of days to a
week. These can be seen in Movie 4.2 which shows an
example of the dynamic wind fields over the Northern
Hemisphere (based on a combination of observations and
model output). The general circulation discussed above is
essentially a time average of what is seen in the animation and
is discussed in more detail in the next section.

118
S ECTION 4

Summary of Key Character-

istics of Circulation
To summarize the key aspects of the circulation
(especially those relevant to hydrologic processes) we can
disaggregate the key characteristics into those near the surface
and those higher in the atmosphere (Figure 4.11). It is useful
to remember that in this context the “upper atmospheric”
circulation features are mostly confined to the upper
troposphere.

A summary of the key low-level (near surface)

atmospheric circulation characteristics that exist include:

• Relatively weak (i.e. typically 0-10 m/s) low-level winds (due

to friction) that exhibit a distinct spatial distribution
• Convergence of easterly trade winds toward the equatorial
low pressure zone as part of the near surface branch of the
Hadley cell
F IGURE 4.11 Schematic showing key general circulation fea-
tures aloft (top panel) and at the surface (bottom panel) (used
with permission from Marshall and Plumb, 2007).

• Sub-tropical high pressure zones at approximately 30° N/S

as part of the downward limb of the Hadley cell
• Westerlies, and more importantly, intermittent horizontal
eddies in the mid-latitudes
In the Northern hemisphere, the high surface pressure
zones are associated with anti-cyclonic (clockwise) flow, while
the low surface pressure zones are associated with cyclonic
(counter clockwise) flow (Figure 4.12). All of these features
are relatively persistent throughout the year, but can

119

F IGURE 4.12 Map showing persistent surface pressure field
and the resulting cyclonic and anti-cyclonic flow features.
strengthen/weaken and migrate seasonally. In particular, the
Hadley cells tend to shift following the seasonal cycle of the
sun and hence may not be centered at the equator, but rather
centered around the region of maximum solar input. Similarly,
the position of high and low pressure zones tend to shift. For
example the high off the coast of California tends to move
northward during the summer deflecting storms and
minimizing cloud/rain formation (as will be discussed later)
over the region and moves southward during the winter
allowing for the observed seasonal storm cycles.
A summary of the key upper-level atmospheric
circulation characteristics that exist include:
• Simplification of the flow patterns due to the lessening of
frictional (surface) effects
• Fast (i.e. 30-50 m/s) westerly winds in the subtropics (i.e.
subtropical jet) and midlatitudes (i.e. polar or midlatitude
jet)
These so-called jet streams result from the geostrophic
balance (discussed in more detail in Section 5) between
latitudinal pressure/temperature gradients and the Coriolis
force and generally occur in regions of strong temperature
contrast (i.e. where circulation cells meet; Figure 4.13). These
jet streams circle the globe at fast speeds and are responsible
for much of the advection of storms. The annual average zonal
wind is shown in Figure 4.14. Note that since this is an annual
average and not a snapshot in time, the feature seen near the
top of the troposphere is really indicative of both the
subtropical and midlatitude jets which migrate latitudinally
throughout the year. In particular, the polar (or midlatitude)
F IGURE 4.13 Atmospheric cross section along a longitudinal
line showing the key circulation features including areas of up-
lift, downdraft, overturning and jets (from theairlinepilots.com/
forumarchive/met/atmospherecirculation.jpg).
120
 F IGURE 4.14 Mean annual zonally averaged plot of wind
showing large jet streams (used with permission from Marshall and
Plumb, 2007).
jet migrates significantly (Figure 4.15) and its shift in the
winter to lower latitudes is primarily responsible for storms
(i.e. just the eddies discussed previously) migrating toward
lower latitudes. Since these jet streams are often responsible
for advection of storms they are often referred to as the
“storm track”. It should be noted that they not only migrate
seasonally, but can vary significantly from day-to-day. This is
shown more explicitly in Movie 4.3 which shows an animation
of the atmospheric flow with an emphasis on the jet stream.
The animation shows the large spatial extent of this
F IGURE 4.15 Illustration of typical position and magnitude
of the midlatitude jet stream over the continental U.S. (from
www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjps/1400/circulation.html).
circulation feature which spans the entire globe. It should also
be noted that its position is quite dynamic, the magnitude
varies in time, and there are many cyclonic circulation
features that are generated by and advected by the jet stream.
Figures 4.16, 4.17, and 4.18 further summarize/
conceptualize the key aspects of the general circulation. There
are two main mechanisms responsible for the transport of
energy needed to equilibrate the latitudinal distribution of net
radiation: the Hadley overturning cell that transports energy
between the tropics and midlatitudes and horizontal eddies
121

M OVIE 4.3 Animation of the jet stream (shown in red) over
the Northern Hemisphere and over North America from the
NASA MERRA dataset (from NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scien-
tific Visualization Studio;
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003800/a003864/).
that transport energy between midlatitudes and the poles.
These are mostly a reiteration of what has been stated above,
but it is important that these are the key take-home messages.
While features like the Ferrel and Polar cells are interesting,
they play secondary or indirect roles in the redistribution of
energy. From a hydrological perspective, knowledge of the
general circulation is important as it ends up directly
connecting to key fluxes (i.e. precipitation and evaporation) as
noted in Figure 4.18. As will be discussed in the next chapter,
areas of upward vertical air motions tend to be associated
with cloud and precipitation formation, while areas of
downward vertical motion tend to suppress cloud and
precipitation formation. Hence areas of high precipitation
relative to evaporation tend to occur at the equator where
water vapor is plentiful and the upwelling limb of the Hadley
cells resides (Figure 4.18). Conversely, the downwelling limb of
the Hadley cells corresponds to the location of most of the
great deserts of the world, where evaporation far exceeds
precipitation. For example, this is the primary reason, for the
dry Southern California climate despite its proximity to a
large body of water and an onshore flow.
A point worth reiterating is that the atmosphere is a
highly dynamic fluid and the above discussion has primarily
focused on its mean behavior. Other atmospheric features like
Monsoons, El Nino/La Nina, hurricanes/typhoons, etc. can be
as important as the general circulation, especially in localized
regions. This should be kept in mind. Movie 4.4 shows a
simulation of atmospheric dynamics in an attempt to more
F IGURE 4.16 Conceptual picture showing the key mecha-
nism responsible for global heat and momentum transport
(used with permission from Marshall and Plumb, 2007).
122
 aspect is transport of energy via latent heat fluxes. Water
vapor evaporates via the input of net radiation (occurs most
prevalently in the tropics where net radiation is high). This
energy input is then carried by the atmosphere in the form of
vapor until the vapor condenses (i.e. forms clouds). At that
point the same amount of energy that was consumed in the
vaporization process is released in the condensation process.
This is precisely why the process is called latent heating, as

F IGURE 4.17 Schematic showing the dominant features re-

sponsible for heat transport: the Hadley cell and midlatitude
eddies/frontal systems (used with permission from Marshall and Plumb,
2007).

clearly visualize this point. Clouds are shown in the grey/

white colors, while precipitation is shown in orange. Some
readily visible features of this include (among others): the
persistent Hadley circulation in the form of the ITCZ,
intermittent horizontal eddies at midlatitudes, seasonal effects,
including: the shift of the ITCZ north/south of the equator
and localized features like the Indian monsoon, which shows
offshore flow with little rain half the year and onshore flow
with heavy rain for the other half of the year. F IGURE 4.18 Summary figure of atmospheric circulation
with key features and the implication of these features on pre-
Finally, in the above discussion, the focus has been on cipitation and evaporation distribution with latitude (from
sonoma.edu/users/f/freidel/global/207lec2images.htm).
movement and interchange of warm and cool air as a
mechanism for transport. This is important, but another key

123
 M OVIE 4.4 Animation of model output showing seasonal evo-
lution of precipitable water (white colors) and precipitation (or-
ange) (from vets.ucar.edu/vg/CCM3T170/index.shtml).

latent refers to “hidden”. This latent energy is carried by the

the moving atmospheric fluid to later be released upon
condensation. This mechanism is important largely because of
the high latent heat of vaporization of water and represents
one of the key mechanisms (driven by circulation) for heat
transport between the tropics and midlatitudes.

124
S ECTION 5 where the variables x, y, and z denote the coordinate position
of an air parcel and T represents the transpose operator. As
Fundamental Equations of such typically u, v, and w represent west-east, south-north,
and vertical velocity components.

Atmospheric Motion Before considering any of the conservation (budget)

equations in a moving fluid we first need to consider: i) local
storage changes in the variable and ii) changes caused by the
The general circulation of the atmosphere described air parcel being moved through a variable field. Consider a
qualitatively in the earlier sections is the product of the general property of an individual parcel:
governing equations of motion for the atmosphere. The full set
of governing equations are the coupled set of equations ψ = ψ(x(t),y(t),z(t),t) (6.5.4)
consisting of: 1) the equation of state, 2) conservation of which states that the variable depends on space and time, but
momentum, 3) conservation of air mass, 4) conservation of that the spatial coordinates are also changing with time due
water mass, 5) conservation of energy. The equation of state to position changes. The so-called “total” or “material”
was already defined in Equation (2.3.4). In addition to that derivative is given by:
form, it can be expressed in terms of specific humidity rather
d ∂ψ ∂ψ dx ∂ψ dy ∂ψ dz
than vapor pressure as: (ψ ) = + + + (6.5.5)
dt ∂t ∂x dt ∂y dt ∂z dt
p = ρRdTv ; where Tv = T !"1 + 0.608q #$ (6.5.1) ∂ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ ∂ψ
= +u +v +w
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z
where this form is often used because the conservation of
water vapor equations will also be expressed in terms of q. In
where the first term on the right-hand-side is termed the local
considering the dynamics of a fluid parcel, the key state
storage change and the last three terms are changes via
variable is the parcel velocity. The fluid motions are generally
advection through the fluid. Using vector notation, Equation
defined in terms of a three-dimensional velocity vector:
(6.5.5) can be written as a general total derivative operator:
V = [u,v,w]T (6.5.2) d ∂()
() = + (V i ∇)() (6.5.6)
dt ∂t
where the three components are given by:
dx dy dz
u= ; v= ; w= (6.5.3)
dt dt dt where this notation will show up in the conservation laws to
125
follow. where forces can be in any orthogonal direction due to spatial
pressure variations in those directions. The viscosity term is
The conservation of momentum is simply an expression given by:
of Newton’s 2nd law, i.e.:
" %
$ ∂ u ∂x + ∂ u ∂y + ∂ u ∂z
2 2 2 2 2 2
" du dt % ( ) (6.5.11)
(6.5.7) '
∑ F = a = dV = $$ dv dt '' ∂V $
= ν $ ∂2 v ∂x 2 + ∂2 v ∂y 2 + ∂2 v ∂z 2
( ) '
'
m dt $ ' ∂t visc
$ 2 '
# dw dt & $# ∂ w ∂x + ∂ w ∂y + ∂ w ∂z
2 2 2 2 2
( ) '&
= ν∇2 V; ν ≡ kinematic viscosity
where F is the set of forces acting on the fluid, m is the air
parcel mass, and a is the acceleration. Note that the which represents frictional forces due to fluid viscosity and
derivative in Equation (6.5.7) is the total derivative so that spatial variations in shear stresses. Finally, the gravity term is
using Equation (6.5.6): given by:
dV ∂V ∂V T
(6.5.12)
= + (V i ∇)V (6.5.8) = #$0, 0,−g %& = −g
dt ∂t ∂t grav

where the above is a vector equation which in this case has which acts only in the vertical direction. Hence, in a non-
three components. In a non-rotating reference frame the rotating reference frame the governing momentum equation
relevant forces (per unit mass) are those due to: pressure can be written concisely as:
gradient, viscosity (friction), and gravity effects so that one dV ∂V 1
can write: = + (V i ∇)V = − ∇p + ν∇2 V − g (6.5.13)
dt ∂t ρ
dV ∂V ∂V ∂V ∂V
= + (V i ∇)V = + + (6.5.9)
dt ∂t ∂t press ∂t visc ∂t grav
In a rotating reference frame an additional “apparent” force,
i.e. the so-called Coriolis force, becomes relevant. The rotation
where the pressure gradient term is given by: is characterized by the rotation vector:
T
∂V 1 1 $ ∂p ∂p ∂p ' (6.5.10) Ω; Ω = ω = 2π rad/day (6.5.14)
= − ∇p = − & , , )
∂t press ρ ρ % ∂x ∂y ∂z (
which points in the direction of the axis of rotation. For a thin
126
atmosphere such as on Earth, the Coriolis term acts almost where the subscript refers to geostrophic conditions and the
exclusively in the horizontal plane and is given by: vector Ug contains only the horizontal velocity components (u
$ fv ' and v). The equation can be rearranged to show:
$ v sin λ ' (6.5.14)
∂V &
= −2Ω × V  2ω & −u sin λ
)
2
& ) 1
) = ω & −fu ) Ug = k × ∇h p (6.5.17)
∂t coriolis ρf
&% 0 )( &
% 0 (
)

where k represents the vertical unit vector (i.e. in the z

where f is the Coriolis parameter. Putting this with Equation
direction) and the h subscript denotes that the gradient is in
(6.5.13) yields the full momentum equation:
the horizontal plane. Using the right-hand-rule for cross
∂V 1 products, this shows that the geostrophic flow is orthogonal to
+ (V i ∇)V = − ∇p + ν∇2 V − g − 2Ω × V (6.5.15)
∂t ρ the vertical unit vector and pressure gradient, which means
that the geostrophic flow is parallel to the pressure contours
in the horizontal plane. Hence, based on a map of pressure
which represents the governing equation of the velocity field in
aloft in the atmosphere (where geostrophic balance is
the fluid. It should be kept in mind that this vector equation
generally a good approximation) one can readily diagnose the
has three component equations which can be written out
large-scale flow patterns. Equation (6.5.17) is often recast in
explicitly term-by-term. The importance of each term in the
terms of the so-called geopotential height (Zg), which is
above momentum equation depends on the context.
effectively the height corresponding to a given pressure level,
Before moving to the other conservation laws, some and can be written as:
useful special cases of the momentum equation can provide g
Ug = k × ∇ hZ g (6,5.18)
insight on various flow phenomena. One special case is f
geostrophic flow or geostrophic balance which corresponds to
the case where the acceleration terms (terms on left-hand-
side) and the friction term (second term on right-hand-side) An example is shown in Figure 4.19 in terms of
are very small compared to the other terms. This is often the geopotential height (at 400 mb in the atmosphere) over the
case aloft in the atmosphere. Under these conditions the above U.S. At any given location, the direction of the geostrophic
horizontal momentum equation can be written as: flow can be diagnosed by the cross product. At the sample
point shown in Figure 4.19, the vertical vector is out of the
1
2Ω × U g = − ∇p (6.5.16) page, the geopotential gradient is southward and therefore the
ρ
127
 geostrophic flow is westerly (i.e. toward the east). The
magnitude of the geostrophic flow (at a given latitude) is
determined solely by the magnitude of the geopotential height
(or pressure) gradient. Note that the geopotential height
varies in space and hence the direction and magnitude also
vary spatially. The flow is, as expected, mostly westerly with
some areas of cyclonic flow and will generally follow the
geopotential contours. The areas with highest magnitude
winds will be where the contours are closest, i.e. near
Washington/Oregon.

Another special case of the momentum equation is for

the vertical momentum equation when the acceleration and
friction terms are negligible in which case:
1 ∂p ∂p
− −g = 0 → = − ρg (6.5.19)
ρ ∂z ∂z

This illustrates that under these conditions the vertical

momentum equation can be replaced by the hydrostatic
equation. Note that this does not indicate that the vertical
velocity w is zero, rather just that vertical accelerations are
negligible. Hydrostatic models of the atmosphere generally
make this approximation to aid in the solution of the
governing equations.

F IGURE 4.19 Geopotential height map (in meters) at 400 mb The conservation of air mass equation can be written as
in the atmosphere over the continental U.S. The vertical vector the balance between local mass change and convergence of
(out of the page), geopotential height gradient, and geostrophic
mass flux:
flow vectors (not to scale) are shown at a given point.
∂ρ
= −∇ i (ρ V) = −(V i ∇)ρ − ρ∇ i V (6.5.20)
∂t
128
which can be rearranged in terms of the total derivative to dql Sevap Scond (6.5.25)
get: =− +
dt ρ ρ
dρ
= −ρ∇ i V (6.5.21)
dt Note that aside from the vapor diffusion in Equation (6.5.24)
the two water conservation equations share the same source/
sink terms, but that they are of opposite sign. In other words,
In the atmosphere it is often valid to assume that the left- evaporation from cloud droplets will be a source for vapor,
hand-side is much smaller than the right-hand-side so that the but will be a sink for liquid/ice. Similarly, condensation of
air mass conservation equation could be replaced by: vapor will be a sink for vapor, but a source for liquid/ice.
∇ i V = [∂u ∂x + ∂v ∂y + ∂w ∂z ] = 0 (6.5.22) Finally, based on the 1st Law of Thermodynamics one
which is simply stating the flow is non-divergent. can derive the conservation of energy equation in terms of the
so-called potential temperature:
The conservation of atmospheric water vapor can be
T dθ
written in terms of specific humidity as: ρc p = νθ ∇2θ − ∇Rn − LvSevap + LvScond ; (6.5.26)
θ dt
dq (6.5.23)
−R /c
#p& d p
= ∑ body sources/sinks θ = T %% (( ; p0 = 100000 Pa
dt p
$ 0'
νθ ≡ thermal conductivity of air
where the body source/sink terms typically correspond to
vapor diffusion, an evaporative source from liquid/solid water where the terms on the right-hand-side represent diffusive
(Sevap, [Sevap]= kg m-3 s-1) and condensation sink from liquid/ heat flux, convergence of net radiation, evaporative cooling,
solid water (Scond, [Scond]= kg m-3 s-1) from clouds respectively. and latent heating. Note that the latter two terms are the
This can be written more explicitly as: same sources/sinks in the water conservation equations, but
dq " ∂2q ∂2q ∂2q % Sevap S (6.5.24) converted to equivalent energy fluxes associated with phase
= νq $ 2 + 2 + 2 ' + − cond
dt # ∂x ∂y ∂z & ρ ρ change. The net radiation convergence is essentially related to
the absorption/emission of radiative fluxes across the
atmospheric profile. Hence that term depends on the water
Similarly, a conservation equation for liquid/ice water content
vapor profile (along with other radiatively active gases). The
(ql) can be written:
potential temperature is a scaled temperature that accounts
129
for adiabatic temperature changes, i.e. the potential
temperature is conserved (constant) under adiabatic changes.

We have now defined the full set of governing equations:

Equations (6.5.1), the vector Equation (6.5.15), and Equations
(6.5.20), (6.5.24), (6.5.25), and (6.5.26). This represents eight
equations in terms of eight states (pressure, density,
temperature, three velocity components, specific humidity,
liquid/ice water content). The set of seven partial differential
equations and one diagnostic equation (of state) are, among
other factors, coupled via velocity in the advection terms and
through phase changes in the body source/sink terms and the
impact of humidity and temperature on radiative fluxes.
Additionally, boundary conditions, e.g. fluxes at the surface,
play an important role in forcing the equations. Together
these equations form the basis of most numerical climate and
weather prediction models.

130
S ECTION 6 8. What high-level atmospheric circulation feature consists of
a high velocity westerly wind near the top of the
Conceptual Questions troposphere?

9. At what latitude bands do the persistent low surface

1. Sketch the basic picture of net radiation at the top of
atmosphere as a function of latitude. (Make sure your axes
are labeled.)
2. What part (i.e. latitudes) of the globe absorbs the most net
radiation?
3. If averaged over the whole globe, what is the net radiation
at the TOA?
4. Which is ultimately more responsible for heat
redistribution: atmospheric or oceanic motions?
5. Conceptually, how many circulation cells does the Earth
have? In practice, which cell is far and away the strongest,
most persistent, and therefore most important?
pressure anomalies occur? At what latitude bands do the
persistent high surface pressure anomalies occur?
10. What is the atmospheric circulation sense (i.e. clockwise
or anti-clockwise) around a low surface pressure zone? A
high pressure zone?
11. In what direction does a “westerly” wind blow?
12. What is an order-of-magnitude typical value of a near-
surface wind speed (in m/s)? What is an order-of-
magnitude typical value of a top of troposphere jet stream
wind speed (in m/s)?

6. What atmospheric circulation feature is primarily

responsible for transporting energy between the equator
and midlatitudes?

7. What atmospheric circulation feature is primarily

responsible for transporting energy between the
midlatitudes and poles?

131
S ECTION 7 OUTGOING
PLANETARY LONGWAVE
LATITUDE
Sample Problems ALBEDO (%)
(W M-2)

-90 58.61 148.1

-84 63.39 150.9

Problem 4.1. Model output from a ten-year climate model -76 64.85 160.0
simulation yields the average values for outgoing TOA -68 57.92 186.6
longwave radiative fluxes and planetary albedo shown below.
-60 49.30 201.5

a) Plot the planetary albedo as a function of latitude. Explain -52 43.54 209.9

the physical reason for the latitudinal dependence of planetary -44 38.25 220.6
albedo. Note: Planetary albedo is the bulk (combined effects -36 31.46 235.3
of surface and atmosphere) reflectivity representing what -28 27.62 248.3
fraction of incoming TOA shortwave radiation will be reflected -20 24.79 254.6
back into space.
-12 23.02 254.3

b) Plot the outgoing longwave as a function of latitude. -4 20.50 250.6

Explain the physical reason for the latitudinal dependence of 4 19.39 248.9
outgoing TOA longwave flux. Note: The outgoing TOA 12 21.26 250.5
longwave flux is the combined flux emitted by the atmosphere 20 25.50 254.6
and the flux emitted by the surface that is transmitted to the 28 29.47 249.5
TOA.
36 33.26 235.7

c) Compute the annual mean TOA incident solar radiation for 44 37.75 225.0

all the latitudes tabulated below and plot the annual solar 52 40.63 213.8
incident radiation as a function of latitude. The MOD-WET 60 44.05 206.1
code TOA_incoming_solar.m may be useful. 68 48.04 197.3

76 58.19 191.6
d) Compute and plot the net TOA shortwave as a function of
84 60.92 182.9
latitude. On the same figure plot the net TOA longwave. Also
compute, and plot on the same figure, the total net TOA 90 59.47 192.6

132
radiation as a function of latitude. What are the maximum/ d) In what direction does a “westerly” wind blow? Are the so-
minimum net TOA radiations and where are they occurring? called “trade winds” in the tropics easterlies or westerlies? In
terms of the general circulation of the atmosphere, are the
e) If you were to integrate the total incoming and outgoing
surface winds in southern California typically easterlies or
fluxes over the areas over which they occur (to get the net
westerlies?
energy fluxes at the TOA), how would you expect the
magnitudes of the incoming and outgoing fluxes to compare? e) How does the jet stream shift seasonally, i.e. what is its
Explain your answer. relative position in summer vs. winter in the Northern
Hemisphere and how does this migration impact climate in
Problem 4.2.
this part of the world?
a) The distribution of net radiation is responsible for
atmospheric motions. Explain why motions are initiated as a
result of the distribution. Sketch the Northern Hemisphere
atmospheric general circulation patterns and identify/label the
key features of the circulation. While the general circulation
can exhibit three circulation cells, which one is most
persistent/important?

b) What atmospheric circulation feature is primarily

responsible for transporting energy from the equatorial region
to the midlatitudes? Explain how the transport of water vapor
from the equator toward midlatitudes is related to energy
transport.

c) Based on the figure you sketched in part a), at which

latitude would you expect to find high/low pressure zones?
Explain how this pressure gradient is responsible for the
latitudinal distribution of precipitation (i.e where (what
latitudes) do you find Earth’s biggest deserts/belts of high
precipitation?).

133
Chapter 5

Precipitation
Processes
S ECTION 1 9. Read and understand a typical surface weather map

Learning Objectives 10. Describe and explain the latitudinal dependence of

precipitation

11. List and describe some typical ways of measuring

By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to: precipitation

1. Describe the primary cooling mechanism responsible for 12. List and describe the primary ways of characterizing
condensation of liquid water in air areal average precipitation over a region/watershed

2. Define the dry adiabatic lapse rate and state its value

3. Define the moist adiabatic lapse rate and describe how/

why its typical value corresponds to the dry adiabatic
lapse rate

4. List and describe the two primary growth mechanisms for

water droplets in clouds

5. Use the Marshall-Palmer (or other) size distribution

function to compute the number of droplets in a cloud and
the liquid water content in clouds

6. Draw and label a schematic of the various processes

related to cloud/precipitation physics

7. Compute the precipitation reaching the surface using the

integral relating drop size distribution, uplift and terminal
velocities, and critical drop diameter

8. List and describe the four primary lifting mechanisms

involved in the meteorology of precipitation

135
S ECTION 2
Thermodynamics of Cloud
Formation
Precipitation generally refers to the flux of water
reaching the surface and is a result of a set of processes that
ultimately convert atmospheric water vapor to hydrometeors
(either liquid droplets or ice crystals) that can fall through the
atmosphere. Clouds are just a collection of hydrometeors that
are not large enough to fall to the surface. The processes
required to form clouds (and ultimately precipitation) include
both large scale meteorological phenomena as well as
microphysical processes on the molecular/cloud scale. For a
more detailed discussion of cloud and precipitation processes
the reader is referred to Yau and Rogers (1984) and
Pruppacher and Klett (2010).
The first necessary requirement for cloud formation is a
condensation mechanism whereby water vapor molecules are
converted to liquid or ice. To understand water vapor
transformations it is convenient to use “parcel theory”, which
is simply a conceptual representation used to “follow” parcels
of air as they move through the atmosphere. To a good
approximation, moving air parcels carry vapor around with
them. In other words, the specific humidity of an air parcel (q)
is conserved (i.e. q = constant) as a parcel moves, provided
there is no condensation. Given this fact, vapor will be carried
around by a parcel right up until the parcel becomes
saturated. Recall that the upper limit to specific humidity is
the saturated specific humidity (qs) as described by the
Clausius-Clapeyron equation (Equation (2.4.5)) and that this
water holding capacity is primarily dependent on air
temperature (and on pressure). As air cools the saturated
specific humidity decreases (and vice versa). So for a parcel to
reach saturation, the air parcel must be cooled in some way.
One can imagine different thermodynamic mechanisms
for cooling an air parcel, i.e. radiative cooling, cooling via
conduction, etc. However the most efficient mechanism for
cooling air is so-called adiabatic cooling as a result of vertical
uplift. The basic mechanism is as follows:
1) If an air parcel is lifted, it expands due to a decrease in the
ambient pressure (which the parcel equilibrates with quickly)
as described by the hydrostatic equation:
dp
= − ρpg (5.2.1)
dz
where the p subscript refers to the parcel property and the
density is described by the equation of state (Ideal Gas Law).
2) Expansion without an external heat input (adiabatic
process) causes cooling as described by the 1st Law of
Thermodynamics:
1
Energy input ≡ dQ = c pdTp − dp = 0 (adiabatic) (5.2.2)
ρp
dTp Rd dp (5.2.3)
→ =
Tp cp p
136
3) Combining Equations (5.2.1) and (5.2.2) yields the so-
called dry adiabatic lapse rate, which is defined as:
dTp g 9.8 m s −2 (5.2.4)
Γd = − =  = 9.8 K km −1
dz c p 1004 J kg -1K-1
where the negative sign is used because it is understood that
the air parcel’s temperature cools with height. Here “dry”
refers to the fact that there is no condensation of water in the
adiabatic process (hence no heat input) and “lapse rate” often
refers to a temperature change with height.
What this tells us is that if an air parcel were lifted 1 km
in altitude its temperature would cool by almost 10 K.
Equivalently, if an air parcel is at the surface (with a surface
temperature Ts) and it is lifted upward, the parcel
temperature with height will be:
Tp (z) = Ts − Γd z (5.2.5)
which will be valid over the height of the atmosphere where
the air parcel is sub-saturated. This rapid cooling mechanism
is generally responsible for an air parcel (if lifted) ultimately
becoming saturated (i.e. reaching the state where q = qs(Tp,
p)), which then leads to cloud formation and potentially
precipitation. In parcel theory it is generally assumed that any
condensate is “left behind”, i.e. not carried further by the
moving parcel. The mechanisms responsible for the uplift will
be discussed in the next section. It should be noted that the
dry adiabatic rate also applies to descending air, only in
reverse (i.e. descending air will generally warm by
approximately 10 K/km).
The height at which a rising air parcel becomes
saturated generally corresponds to the cloud base and is
referred to as the lifting condensation level (LCL). Any
additional uplift will continue to cool the air, but at a
different rate. The air parcel will be kept saturated (i.e. q =
qs(Tp, p)), but since the saturated value continues to decrease,
water will be “squeezed” out of the air parcel into the form of
condensate (liquid water). The process of condensation
involves a release of energy, which counteracts some of the
cooling due to expansion. The rate at which air cools as it
ascends in the presence of condensation is referred to as the
saturated (or moist) adiabatic lapse rate and can be shown to
be:
Γd
Γs = (5.2.6)
Lv dq s
1+
c p dT
Note that the last term in the denominator is just an
expression of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation (in the form of
saturated specific humidity), which is a function of
temperature and pressure. So the saturated adiabatic lapse
rate is not constant, but varies with the state of the parcel. In
the limit of dqs/dT = 0 (which would occur at cold
temperatures (high altitude) or when all the vapor is
removed) the saturated lapse rate would equal the dry
adiabatic lapse rate. In the lower to middle troposphere the
saturated adiabatic lapse rate typically is about 6-8 K/km,
137
 3 km. It should be kept in mind that the location of the cloud
base depends on the initial temperature and humidity
contained in the near-surface air parcel. For example if the air
was starting at a warmer temperature at the surface (but had
the same specific humidity), it would take an additional
amount of uplift to reach saturation via adiabatic cooling.
Alternatively, if the air parcel was more moist to start (but
with the same temperature), it would reach saturation at a
lower altitude.

E XAMPLE 5.2.1

Suppose an air parcel near the surface has a

temperature of 25ºC and specific humidity of 10
g/kg. Suppose that the temperature profile of the
ambient air is given by:

T(z) = Tsurf − γ z

with an ambient lapse rate of 5 K/km and the

pressure profile of the ambient air is given by:

F IGURE 5.1 Conceptual picture of an air parcel rising through g

!T(z) $Rdγ
the atmosphere. Prior to condensation it cools at the dry adia- p(z) = psurf # &
batic lapse rate, while after condensation it cools at a moist #T &
" surf %
adiabatic lapse rate (from paos.colorado.edu/~toohey/Fig_10.jpg).

where Tsurf and psurf are the surface temperature

but can vary significantly. A schematic of the lapse rates
involved in air parcel movement and cloud formation is shown
in Figure 5.1. In this example the cloud base (LCL) occurs at
and pressure respectively with a surface pressure
value of 1000 mb. If the air parcel is lifted, what
is the the expected cloud base height (or lifting
138
E XAMPLE 5.2.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 5.2.1 ( CONTINUED )

condensation level (LCL))? Qualitatively, how #L #1 &&

1
will the answer change if the surface air were εes 0 exp % v % − ((
%R %T T − Γ z ((
$ v $ 0 surf d LCL ''
moister? Or colder? What is the saturated = g
adiabatic lapse rate at the LCL? #T − γ z &Rdγ
psurf % surf LCL
(
%
$ Tsurf
(
'
It is commonly assumed that an air parcel will quickly
equilibrate with the ambient air pressure so that the
which simply states that at the LCL the specific
pressure profiles of the parcel and ambient air are the
humidity of the parcel will equal the saturated specific
same. The parcel air temperature profile however may
humidity of the parcel. Any additional lifting will yield
differ from the ambient profile since it is governed by the
condensation and hence clouds. Note that the saturated
dry adiabatic lapse rate. A special case would be where
vapor pressure profile is governed by the parcel (dry
the ambient air has a temperature lapse rate equal to the
adiabatic) lapse rate and the pressure profile is governed
dry adiabatic lapse rate, but this generally may not be
by the ambient pressure profile.
the case. It is also generally assumed that the specific
humidity of the air parcel will be constant until it is The cloud base height or LCL (zLCL) is defined implicitly
lifted to the altitude where saturation occurs. Saturation by q = qs(zLCL) where q is the starting surface specific
occurs due to a decreasing saturated specific humidity humidity and is equal to 10 g/kg. Note that this
with height and is defined by the condition: condition forms a nonlinear equation that cannot be
solved for in closed form. Hence this becomes a
es (Tp (z LCL ))
q = q s (z LCL ) = ε rootfinding problem that must be solved numerically.
p(z LCL ) Doing so, yields an LCL equal to approximately 1740 m.

If the surface air were moister, it would be closer to

saturation and therefore will not need to be lifted as far
to reach saturation. For example, if the surface air had a
specific humidity of 12 g/kg, the LCL would be reduced
to approximately 1310 m. The opposite would be true if

139
E XAMPLE 5.2.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 5.2.1 ( CONTINUED )

the air were drier (i.e. it would have a higher LCL). For (9.8 × 10 −3 K/m)
Γs =
colder air, the parcel will also be closer to saturation and (2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)
therefore have a lower LCL. For example, if the surface 1+ (6.84 × 10 −4 kg/kg/K)
(1004 J/kg/K)
air had a temperature of 20ºC, the LCL would be = 3.6 × 10 −3 K/m = 3.6 K/km
reduced to approximately 950 m.
which shows how the saturated lapse rate is significantly
The saturated adiabatic lapse rate at the LCL can be
reduced relative to the dry adiabatic lapse rate. As
computed by first computing the temperature and
lifting (and cooling) continues, the derivative of the
pressure at the LCL and then the slope of the derivative
saturated specific humidity will approach zero and the
of the saturated specific humidity with temperature:
the saturated adiabatic lapse rate will approach the dry
TLCL = 298.15 K − (9.8K/km)(1.74 km) = 281.1 K adiabatic lapse rate.

9.81 m s -2
! 281.1 K $(287 J/kg/K)(5×10−3 K/m)
pLCL = (100000 Pa) # &
" 298.15 K %
= 66860 Pa

dq s (0.622) 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg

= × ×
dT (66860 Pa) 461 J/kg/K
# 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg # 1 1 &&
(611 Pa)exp % % − ((
$ 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 281.1 K ''
(281.1 K)2
= 6.84 × 10 −4 kg kg -1 K-1

The saturated adiabatic lapse rate is then given by:

140
S ECTION 3

Cloud Microphysics
While cooling via adiabatic uplift is generally necessary
for cloud formation, it is not sufficient. Several microphysical
processes are responsible for the formation, growth, and
ultimate conversion of vapor to precipitation.
F IGURE 5.2 Early in cloud formation “large” particles serve
It turns out that while condensation is generally as nuclei for water vapor to condense on (from
weathergamut.com/wp-content/uploads/2001/10/nuclei.jpg).
observed when an air parcel reaches saturation, water vapor
alone is often insufficient to form hydrometeors. Rather,
particulates that are pervasive in the atmosphere (aerosols,
ash, salt, etc.), which are often referred to as cloud such condensation easier and such droplets more stable. In
condensation nuclei (CCN), are at the heart of the initial cases where the number of CCNs is limiting, the cloud may
conversion of water vapor to hydrometeors. These CCNs are actually be “super-saturated” whereby the relative humidity in
typically on the order of 0.2 micrometers in diameter the cloud is greater than 100% (generally by no more than a
compared to a water molecule which is on the order of 0.3 few percent). This cloud droplet initiation process is the
nanometers (i.e. three orders of magnitude smaller). The theoretical basis for “cloud seeding” where artificial
process of water vapor molecules spontaneously joining particulates (often silver iodide) are introduced into the
together via condensation to form a liquid droplet (or ice atmosphere in an attempt to increase cloud formation with
crystal) is called homogeneous nucleation. While this is the hope of increasing precipitation.
theoretically possible, the small size of a water molecule,
The difference between a precipitating vs. non-
combined with the surface tension effects as a function of
precipitating cloud is simply a reflection of the size of the
radius (i.e. higher surface tension for a smaller radius), makes
hydrometeors in the cloud. Figure 5.3 shows the typical drop
such droplet formation relatively rare and/or inefficient.
sizes in a cloud, ranging from the CCNs (radius of 0.1
Instead, CCNs provide a nucleation site for the water vapor
microns) to a typical droplet of size 10 - 50 microns to a
molecules to condense onto via what is referred to as
typical rain drop of radius 1000 microns (1 mm). For
heterogeneous nucleation (Figure 5.2). The larger nuclei makes
precipitation to occur, cloud hydrometeors must grow to
141
 uplift mechanism is responsible for the cloud existence in the
first place and therefore an updraft (vertical velocity) is
generally present. Small drops will generally be suspended if
their terminal velocity (proportional to their mass) is
comparable to the updraft, but if too small may be blown
upward by the updraft, often causing evaporation of the
droplet and dissipation of the cloud. The magnitude of the
updraft largely depends on the mechanism for uplift and will
be described in more detail below.

Once droplets
F IGURE 5.3 Illustration of typical relative sizes of various hy- of sufficient size exist
drometeors in a warm cloud (from geog.ucbs.edu/~joel/g110_w08/
lecture_notes/precip_processes/agburt07_02.jpg).
in the cloud, some
start to fall relative
to the updraft.
Bigger droplets will
sufficient size to: i) achieve terminal velocities (Vt) that are fall faster than
larger than the updraft velocity (Vup) in the cloud and ii) smaller ones,
survive evaporation between the cloud base and the surface. overtaking them
In warm clouds (i.e. those above freezing and populated (Figure 5.4). There
solely with liquid water and vapor) there are two primary will generally be
growth mechanisms. The first is simply a diffusional some collisions
condensation process. This is where individual water vapor between droplets and
molecules diffuse through the air (as a result of vapor some coalescence.
concentration gradients) and attach to a CCN or existing This collision/
droplet. In terms of speed, this process is slow since effectively coalescence growth
mechanism yields a F IGURE 5.4 Illustration of collision
one vapor molecule is being added at a time to an existing and coalescence process in a cloud
hydrometeor via diffusion. Assuming sufficient CCNs are much faster growth (from cmmap.org/images/learn/clouds/
rate and is generally cc.jpg).
present, this condensation process is a limiting factor early in
a cloud life-cycle. It is important to keep in mind that an responsible for the

142

F IGURE 5.5 Conceptual picture of cloud droplets being lifted
while too small to overcome updraft and ultimately falling once
large enough (from Ackerman and Knox, 2006).
development of large droplets. Ultimately, many of these will
leave the cloud base as precipitation (Figure 5.5).
The combination of these processes leads to a wide
spectrum of droplet sizes in a cloud. To quantify cloud
properties, a drop size distribution (DSD) function (N(D)) is
often used, which simply describes the number of droplets per
unit volume of air per unit diameter bin. Figure 5.3 provides
some indication of this distribution, with small cloud droplets
being in large numbers (e.g., 106 droplets per liter of air in
this example) compared to much fewer large cloud droplets
(e.g., 103 per liter) and even fewer raindrops (e.g., 1 droplet
per liter). These values are just an example and the actual
distribution varies considerably from one cloud to another.
The most common DSD used to describe precipitating (warm)
clouds is the so-called Marshall-Palmer (1948) distribution:
N(D) = N 0 exp(−cD) (5.3.1)
where N0 is generally considered a constant parameter (0.08
cm-4) and c is a parameter dependent on the cloud conditions.
One can think of the DSD as a probability density function
(pdf) describing the distribution of droplet sizes and the
Marshall-Palmer distribution is therefore equivalent to an
exponential pdf. In this context, one can show that the
parameter c is equivalent to the inverse of the average droplet
diameter, i.e.:
1
c= ; D ≡ average drop diameter (5.3.2)
D
Based on the above definition, the dimension of the DSD is
[-]/L3/L=L-4. Like most DSDs, the Marshall-Palmer
distribution implies a higher number of small droplets
compared to large droplets. It is however a simplification of
reality in that it predicts non-zero numbers of zero diameter
droplets (not physically possible). It is used however due to its
analytical tractability and because the erroneous specification
143
zero-sized droplets generally does not introduce significant
error in other characteristics. More realistic DSDs that are
often also used include Lognormal or Gamma distributions.
The primary use of the DSD is that it can then be used
to quantify other properties related to a given cloud. Some
simple examples include the total number of drops in the
cloud, i.e.:
∞
E XAMPLE 5.3.1 ( CONTINUED )
distribution with an average drop diameter of 0.5
mm. a) What is the total number of drops in the
cloud (per cubic meter of air)? and b) What is
the liquid water content (in grams per cubic
meter of air)?

Total # of drops = ∫ N(D)dD (5.3.3) Based on the average drop diameter, the Marshall-
0
Palmer DSD parameter is equal to:

and the total liquid water content (assuming spherical 1 1

c= = = 2 mm -1
droplets), i.e.: D 0.5 mm
∞
D3 a) The total number of drops can be obtained by
LWC = ∫ ρwπ N(D)dD (5.3.4)
0
6 integrating the DSD:

∞
N 0 −cD ∞
which represents the mass of liquid water in the cloud per Total # of drops = ∫ N 0e −cD dD = − c
e
0
0
unit volume. The first part of the integrand is the mass of a
N0 N
droplet of diameter D, which is then multiplied by the number =− [0 − 1] = 0
c c
of drops of that size bin and summed up via the integration
−4 (100 cm)
4
across all sizes. The integration limits used are to cover all (0.08 cm )
= 1 m 4
= 8000 drops m -3
possible sizes although a physical upper limit would be drops 1000 mm
on the order of a few millimeters in diameter. 2 mm −1
1m

b) The liquid water content is obtained assuming

E XAMPLE 5.3.1
spherical water droplets and integrating the product of a
Suppose a cloud has a Marshall-Palmer drop size single drop mass and the DSD over all drop sizes:

144
 diameter corresponding to Vt(D = Dup) = Vup. Alternatively a
E XAMPLE 5.3.1 ( CONTINUED ) precipitation mass flux can be obtained by multiplying by the
density of water. The terminal velocity is usually
∞
D3 ρ πN0 ∞
parameterized in terms of the drop size, with the simplest
LWC = ∫ ρw π N 0e −cD dD = w ∫De 3 −cD
dD
0 6 6 0 (linear) form being given by:
ρw π N 0 3! ρw π N 0
= = Vt = αD (5.3.6)
6 c4 c4
(100 cm)4 The updraft velocity is a complicated function of many
(1000 kg m )π (0.08 cm )
-3 −4

= 1 m 4 1000 g dynamical factors. The simplest models tend to be

-1 4 (1000 mm)
4
1 kg
(2 mm ) proportional to the cloud thickness, e.g.:
1 m4
= 1.57 g m -3 Vup = K ΔZ ; ΔZ = cloud thickness (5.3.7)

which shows that there is less than 2 g of water per where the proportionality constants in Equations (5.3.6) and
cubic meter of air in the cloud. (5.3.7) must be estimated or specified.

To compute the precipitation that reaches the surface

one needs to account for the sub-cloud evaporation from
The DSD can also be used in the calculation of the falling drops. This has two impacts: i) a critical diameter (Dc)
precipitation rate leaving the cloud base by considering the exists below which all drops will evaporate and ii) a fraction
fact that the relative fall velocity of a drop is given by the of mass from the droplets with D > Dc will also be lost (due
difference between the terminal velocity and the updraft to partial evaporation). To account for these, a modified
velocity: (Vt -Vup) and that only drops that have a positive fall integral can be used to get the surface precipitation (P):
velocity (i.e. that can overcome the updraft) will actually
∞
contribute to the flux leaving the cloud base. Given this, the D3 (5.3.8)
precipitation leaving the cloud base can be expressed as:
P= ∫
Dmin
X(D)π
6
N(D)[Vt (D) −Vup ]dD

∞
D3 (5.3.5)
Pb = ∫
Dup
π
6
N(D)[Vt (D) −Vup ]dD
where X(D) is a mass loss factor (Georgakakos and Bras,
1984) that varies between 0 and 1 (and is generally a function
of drop size diameter) and the lower integration limit is given
which will have dimensions of L T-1 and where Dup is the by:
145
Dmin = max[Dc ,Dup ] (5.3.9)
which bounds the integral such that only droplets that
contribute to the precipitation flux reaching the surface are
included. Note that not all water leaving the cloud base will
reach the surface, which is confirmed by the fact that
Equations (5.3.5) and (5.3.8) imply that P is less than or
equal to Pb.
To summarize the sequence of events that produce
precipitation (for warm clouds):
1. Moist air is lifted (q = const.) and cooled at the dry
adiabatic lapse rate
E XAMPLE 5.3.2
Estimate the cloud-base precipitation rate (in
mm/hr) for the cloud described in Example 5.3.1.
First assume the prevailing updraft velocity is
negligible and for simplicity that the terminal
velocity has a linear form as in Equation (5.3.6)
with a multiplicative parameter: 1 x 103 s-1.
Qualitatively, how would the answer change if the
prevailing updraft velocity were 0.5 m/s?
Qualitatively, how would the precipitation rate at
the surface differ from that at the cloud base?

2. Condensation occurs at the cloud base or LCL (q = qs) The precipitation rate for negligible updraft velocity is
given by:
3. Additional uplift by the updraft causes parcel to cool at the
moist adiabatic lapse rate (and maintains q = qs with qs ∞
D3 π ∞
Pb = ∫ π N 0e [αD]dD = N 0α ∫ e −cDD 4 dD
−cD

decreasing) 0 6 6 0

π 4! 1
4. Droplet growth occurs via diffusional condensation = N 0α 5 = 4 π N 0α 5
6 c c
−4 (100 cm)
4
5. Falling drops overcome updraft velocity and grow due to = 4 π (0.08 cm ) (1000 s −1 ) ×
collision/coalescence mechanism 1m 4

1
6. Droplets leave cloud base where they enter a sub-saturated −1 5 (1000 mm)
5
(2 mm )
environment that starts to evaporate water from droplet 1 m5
surface (via diffusional mechanism) 1000 mm 3600 s
= 3.14 × 10 −6 m s −1 = 11.3 mm h -1
1m 1h
7. Those droplets that survive the path to the surface (i.e.
don’t fully evaporate) contribute to the surface precipitation For the case of a non-negligible updraft velocity, both
flux

146

E XAMPLE 5.3.2 ( CONTINUED )
the integrand and lower integration limit will change.
The lower limit is increased in order to not include the
smaller droplets that will be blown upward by the
updraft, i.e.:
Vt (Dup ) −Vup = αDup −Vup = 0
Vup0.5 m s -1
→ Dup = = = 0.5 mm
α 1000 s -1
The cloud base precipitation would then be obtained by:
∞
D3
Pb = ∫ π N 0e −cD [αD −Vup ]dD
Dup 6
The integrand will generally be smaller due to the
subtraction of Vup and the integration range will be less
as well. Both factors will reduce the amount of cloud
base precipitation. Note that this integral cannot be as
easily evaluated as the one where updraft is neglected. It
has to be done via integration by parts or done
numerically, i.e. using the trapezoidal rule.
If sub-cloud evaporation was also included, the integrand
would be further reduced (mass lost to evaporation) so
that the surface precipitation will be even less than the
answers obtained above. In the limit of saturated sub-
cloud air, the evaporation would be negligible and the
surface precipitation would equal that at the cloud base.
It should be noted that the above description strictly
applies to warm cloud processes. In cold clouds (where
temperatures reach freezing) the basic concepts are the same,
with a few modifications. First, a cold cloud generally consists
of (at least initially) a mixture of ice crystals, super-cooled
liquid droplets, and vapor. The ice crystals can take on a
variety of shapes/sizes as discussed in more detail in the next
chapter. The presence of super-cooled liquid occurs as a result
of the inefficiency of homogeneous freezing of existing liquid
droplets that are lifted into the cold region of the cloud. An
additional process occurs in cold clouds as a result of
differences in the saturated vapor pressure over bulk water vs.
bulk ice as given by their respective Clausius-Clapeyron
equations (Equations (2.4.5) and (2.4.6) respectively). Droplet
or crystal growth/decay is driven by gradients in vapor
pressure between the surface of the hydrometeor and the
ambient cloud air. For sub-freezing temperatures the
saturated vapor pressure over liquid water is higher than that
over ice. So for the same ambient vapor pressure (and same
size liquid and ice hydrometeors), the vapor pressure gradient
will often be away from the liquid droplet and toward the ice
crystal. The end-result is that liquid droplets will decay via
diffusion and ice crystals will grow. Depending on the time
scale, this will ultimately lead to growth of ice crystals at the
expense of supercooled liquid droplets. For cold clouds, falling
crystals will collide and form conglomerated crystals (e.g.
snowflakes), and will melt and/or sublimate in the sub-
saturated cloud layers.
147
S ECTION 4
Meteorology of Precipita-
tion
The previous two sections highlighted the need for an
uplift mechanism to initiate cloud/precipitation processes.
These mechanisms are generally the result of large-scale
meteorological processes, some of which are directly connected
to the general circulation features discussed in Chapter 4.
Here we will focus on the qualitative description of the four
main mechanisms that provide vertical uplift in the
atmosphere.
The first mechanism involves large-scale horizontal
convergence (Figure 5.6). This consists of large-scale air
masses of similar thermal characteristics coming together at
the surface and being forced upward as a result of mass
conservation. The best example of this is the ITCZ which is
the coming together of the surface branches of the Hadley
cells. As mentioned in Chapter 5, the Hadley cells are a strong
and persistent feature of the atmospheric general circulation.
This uplift is the chief mechanism of tropical clouds near the
equator, is global in extent, and occurs throughout the year
(with seasonal shifts north/south of the equator). Of
particular note is the fact that water vapor is plentiful in the
tropics due to the large amount of net radiation near the
equator that drives evaporation. This combined with the
F IGURE 5.6 Schematic showing large-scale horizontal conver-
gence leading to uplift. This mechanism is most likely to occur
at the ITCZ and/or in tropical low-pressure systems (copyright
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005).
uplift results in persistent clouds and precipitation (Movie
4.4).
Another form of relatively large-scale convergence in the
tropics can occur in conjunction with a so-called tropical
depression. A tropical depression simply refers to an area of
relatively low atmospheric pressure. While there are persistent
highs and lows associated with the general circulation
described above (Figure 4.12), they also occur intermittently
in space and time simply due to semi-random motions and
waves in the atmospheric fluid. At latitudes of +/- 5-20º
latitude the Coriolis force is strong enough that cyclonic flow
patterns can form around these lows (counterclockwise in the
148
 F IGURE 5.7 Satellite image of a hurricane from space (from
hurricane-facts.com/hurricane-facts.jpg).
Northern hemisphere) with surface winds converging toward
the low pressure center. The convergence is similar to that at
the ITCZ in the sense that the air masses converging are of
similar thermal characteristics. Depending on the prevailing
conditions, these cyclonic storms may quickly dissipate or
grow in strength to ultimately form hurricanes (Figure 5.7).
Unlike the ITCZ, these cyclones generally migrate significantly
over the course of the life-cycle of the storm, often moving to
higher latitudes and gaining in strength over the relatively
warm ocean. Many of the largest storms and extreme events
that occur in such places as the Southeastern U.S. are due to
F IGURE 5.8 Traces of all Northern Atlantic hurricane tracks
from 1851-2005 (from upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/
Atlantic_hurricane_tracks.jpg).
these storms that are initiated via convergence in the tropics.
For example, the tracks of all classified hurricanes in the
North Atlantic between 1851-2005 are shown in Figure 5.8.
The largest storms tend to be seasonal with “hurricane season”
in the Northern Atlantic occurring between July and
November, with a strong maximum in August/September
when oceanic temperatures are at their peak. Note that the
peak in sea surface temperature occurs after the peak in solar
radiation input due to the thermal inertia of the oceans
(resulting from the high heat capacity of water). Tropical
149
storms (or those that form hurricanes) tend to dissipate on
the order of several days to a week depending on the
prevailing conditions.
A second uplift mechanism, that occurs mostly in
midlatitude regions, is that associated with frontal
convergence. As the name suggests, it too involves the
convergence of air masses, but with the converging air masses
having different thermal characteristics (temperatures). Colder
air masses originate at high latitudes, while warmer air masses
originate at lower latitudes. They often come together in
midlatitudes as a result of the horizontal eddies described in
F IGURE 5.9 Schematic showing frontal convergence leading
to uplift. This mechanism is most likely to occur in midlatitude
regions and is associated with horizontal eddies (copyright Pear-
son Prentice Hall, 2005).
F IGURE 5.10 Schematic showing typical horizontal and verti-
cal scales of a warm front (from sci.uidaho.edu/scripter/geog100/lect/
05-atmos-water-wx/05-part-7-atmos-lifting-fronts/05-30-front-warm-diag.j
pg).
relation to the general circulation in Chapter 4. Their
occurrence is highest in the winter season when the thermal
contrast between polar and tropical/midlatitude air is largest.
A “front” is simply an interface (actually a strong temperature
gradient) between the two converging air masses (Figure 5.9).
While both air masses are generally moving, one usually
overtakes the other (i.e. has a higher velocity). A front is
labeled a cold front when the cold air is overtaking the warm
or vice versa for a warm front. The uplift mechanism is driven
by buoyancy. Warm air is less dense than cold air. Hence
when they come together the warm air will rise over the cold.
It is this deflection of air upward that initiates cloud and
precipitation formation.
The differences between cold and warm fronts are not
trivial as they can lead to significantly different cloud and
150

F IGURE 5.11 Schematic showing typical horizontal and verti-
cal scales of a cold front.
Frontal systems are often shown schematically on surface
weather maps (Figures 5.12 and 5.13), where different colors/
symbols are used to denote the type of front. Note that the
systems tend to form via “cyclogenesis” where cyclonic/anti-
cyclonic motions centered around highs or lows initiate
movement of air masses. In addition to warm and cold fronts,
stationary fronts (where there is no relative motion of one air
mass to the other) or occluded fronts (where one front is
overtaken by another) often occur before the frontal storm

precipitation characteristics. Figures 5.10 and 5.11 show

schematics of a typical warm and cold front respectively. In a
warm front, the overtaking warm air tends to rise above the
cold air mass with a gentle slope in the vertical interface
between the two air masses (i.e. on the order of 1:150). This
tends to lead to relatively small uplift velocities and interfaces
that can stretch over more than 1000 km (Figure 5.10). To
first order, weaker uplift velocities lead to less droplet growth
and therefore weaker precipitation intensities. Hence, warm
fronts are expected to have potentially wide spread cloud
formation, often ahead of the location of the front at the
surface, but with lower intensity precipitation. In the case of
cold fronts, the overtaking cold air “backs up” as warm air is F IGURE 5.12 An example weather map showing frontal sys-
forced to rise. This generally leads to a more abrupt interface tems leading to cyclongenesis. Letters on map refer to different
(i.e. a slope on the order of 1:75) with higher uplift velocities. types of air masses (c/m = continental/maritime; P/T = polar/
The result is generally more localized cloud formation of more tropical (from sci.uidaho.edu/scripter/geog100/lect/05-atmos-water-wx
/05-part-8-midlat-cyclones/05-31-midlatitude-wave-cyclone.jpg).
significant vertical extent, behind the location of the front at
the surface, and with higher intensity precipitation.
151

F IGURE 5.13 Surface weather map showing cold/warm
fronts and high/low pressure zones.
dissipates (Figure 5.12). These frontal systems or storms
typically occur over the course of several days to a week and
provide the primary mechanism for winter-time precipitation
in many of the midlatitude regions of the globe.
A third mechanism of vertical uplift is the result of air
masses flowing over topography of significant relief, called
orographic uplift (Figure 5.14). The mechanism is simply
mechanical. Either due to local or large-scale atmospheric flow
patterns, air parcels near the surface are forced to rise due to
the solid lower boundary condition. Once lifted, the typical
thermodynamical processes occur, i.e. adiabatic cooling,
followed by potential condensation, cloud formation and
F IGURE 5.14 Schematic showing orographic uplift (copyright
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005).
precipitation. Typically, the air parcels that are lifted up the
“windward” side of the mountain are forced down the
“leeward” side back to the surface. An important point is that
the adiabatic process is reversible, i.e. while it provides a
cooling mechanism on the way upward, it provides a warming
mechanism on the way downward. Also, the downward motion
(which warms the parcel) will not involve condensation and
therefore will occur at the dry adiabatic rate over the entire
descent. Whether or not clouds or rain will actually form
depends on three factors: i) the humidity of the surface air, ii)
the temperature of the surface air, and iii) the amount of
elevation change associated with the topography. If there is
little to no water vapor in the surface air, then no amount of
lifting will cool the parcel sufficiently to be able to squeeze out
enough water to generate clouds and/or precipitation.
Depending on the specific humidity and temperature of the air
and the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, one can easily
152
determine how much cooling would be required to cause the globe including Hawaii, the Sierra Nevada, Rocky
condensation. Given the surface air characteristics, the Mountains, Himalayas, Andes, etc. experience orographic
magnitude of the elevation change (in combination with the precipitation as a large portion of their annual totals.
dry adiabatic lapse rate) will exactly determine whether
An example of orographic effects and rain shadow can
condensation will occur. In the case of small topographic
easily be seen in Figure 5.15 which shows estimates of the
relief, the cooling may not be enough to cause condensation.
annual precipitation totals for the Hawaiian islands. The
If conditions are favorable (i.e. humid air combined with latitude of Hawaii puts it in the trajectory of the trade winds
large topographic features), then condensation will occur at which blow consistently throughout the year in an easterly
some height above the surface (generally below the direction. The Hawaiian islands are surrounded by moist
topographic peak). Cooling up to that level (the LCL) will be
at the dry adiabatic lapse rate, while lifting to the top of the
mountain will cause cooling at the moist (saturated) adiabatic
lapse rate. In cases where the prevailing wind is in a given
direction for most of the year, a particular “rain shadow” effect
is typically seen where the windward side of the mountain
experiences a relatively humid climate, while the leeward side
experiences a much drier climate. The mechanism for this is
caused by two factors: i) water is left behind on the windward
side in the form of clouds/precipitation and ii) while the
ascending air cooled at the dry adiabatic rate for only a
portion of the ascent, the descending air will warm at the dry
adiabatic rate for the whole descent. In the special case of no
condensation, then one would expect the windward and
leeward surface air to have the exact same temperature and
specific humidity. But in the more general case where
condensation occurs, the leeward side surface air will have less
F IGURE 5.15 Mean annual precipitation over the Hawaiian
specific humidity (due to condensate left behind) and will be islands showing the clear signature of orographically-induced
warmer. Both of these factors cause a decrease in relative precipitation.
humidity on the leeward side. Many mountainous regions of

153
tropical ocean air year-round and exhibit significant
topographic relief. The persistent trade winds move the moist
air up and over the islands showing a distinct rain shadow
effect. For example, in the big island of Hawaii, areas of the
windward (in this case eastern) side experience over 8 meters
of rainfall per year, while some of the coastal regions on the
leeward side experience less than 25 cm of rainfall (less than
the mean annual rainfall in Los Angeles). As one would
expect, this stark difference in rainfall has significant
implications on other aspects of the climate and surface
hydrology. Most notably one can see the differences in the

F IGURE 5.17 Photo of the Kohala coast on the leeward side of

Hawaii showing the arid climate as indicated by the lack of
vegetation. This region is in relatively close proximity to the lo-
cation shown in Figure 5.16.

vegetation patterns. Figure 5.16 shows a picture looking down

F IGURE 5.16 Photo of Waipio Valley on the windward side of
Hawaii showing the humid climate as indicated by the lush
vegetation.
into a valley situated on the north eastern coast, while Figure
5.17 is looking down toward the north western coast. The
differences in vegetation, which occur over a relatively short
geographic distance, are the direct consequence of orographic
precipitation patterns which are responsible for producing
significantly different climates.
The fourth and final mechanism responsible for uplift is
usually referred to as thermal convection. This mechanism
154
starts with differential heating of the surface, where solar
radiation (during the day) heats the surface much more
quickly than the overlying air (Figure 5.18). This is because
the air is relatively transparent to solar radiation, while the
surface is essentially opaque with a high absorptivity. The air
in direct contact with the surface (which is heated via
conduction with the surface) is thereby generally warmer than
the overlying air, which sets up an instability. Warmer air has
a positive buoyancy that will cause it to rise as part of a so-
called thermal. This phenomenon can often be seen on a hot
summer day where thermal “bubbles” of air can be seen in the
distance rising from the surface. Evaporation is often
F IGURE 5.18 Schematic showing thermal convection uplift
mechanism (copyright Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005).
associated with the heating of the surface so that the uplift
combined with the water vapor leads to cloud formation.
Thermal convection is often relatively localized in space and
has a strong diurnal cycle. The surface has thermal inertia so
that it takes several hours of heating to generate a large
instability which explains why convection often takes place in
the early or late afternoon. Additionally, the instability
generally causes convective events to have significantly higher
uplift velocities than the other mechanisms discussed above.
These strong updrafts often lead to tall cumulus clouds
(Figure 5.19; sometimes extending to the top of the
troposphere) that lead to relatively short-duration high-
intensity storms (often associated with thunder and lightning).
A final point that is important to remember is that the
mechanisms have been described here in isolation, but real
storms, especially those related to extreme events, may be
combinations of several mechanisms. For example it is not
uncommon for thermal convection events to occur in
mountainous areas during summer-time, where slope/aspect
may dictate spatial patterns with areas of increased solar
radiative heating of the surface (which will cause thermal
convection) combined with a background uplift due to
orographic effects. Another example would be winter-time
frontal events which then interact with surface terrain to
enhance cloud formation and precipitation. So while it is
convenient to conceptualize these mechanisms independently,
it is often the interaction between them that leads to
significant cloud formation and precipitation events.
155

F IGURE 5.19 Photo of a tall cumulus (convective) cloud.
E XAMPLE 5.4.1
Three islands have peak altitudes of 510 m, 1020
m, and 1530 m corresponding respectively to
pressures of 950, 900, and 850 mb. Each island
experiences a prevailing wind with surface air
having a temperature of 28ºC and specific
humidity of 12 g/kg. The air is lifted up and over
the peak of the island before returning to sea
level on the leeward side. Which, if any, of the
three islands would be expected to have
orographic clouds?
The key point to examine is whether air when lifted to
the peak will have saturated yet as a result of adiabatic
cooling. If so, then clouds will have formed at some
altitude on the windward side. If not, then no clouds will
form anywhere on the windward side. The dry adiabatic
temperature changes from sea-level to the peak for each
island is easily obtained from the dry adiabatic lapse
rate and are: 4.98 K, 9.97 K, and 14.95 K for the
shortest to tallest island respectively. Hence the
respective temperatures at the top of each island are:
296.2 K, 291.2 K, and 286.2 K respectively. The
saturated specific humidity can be evaluated at each
peak as:
156
E XAMPLE 5.4.1 ( CONTINUED )

es (Tpeak1 )
q s,peak1 = ε
p peak1
# 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg # 1 1 &&
(611 Pa)exp % % − ((
$ 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 296.2 K ''
= 0.622
95000 Pa
= 18.7 g/kg
es (Tpeak 2 )
q s,peak 2 = ε
p peak 2
# 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg # 1 1 &&
(611 Pa)exp % % − ((
$ 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 291.2 K ''
= 0.622
90000 Pa
= 14.5 g/kg
es (Tpeak 3 )
q s,peak 3 = ε
p peak 3
# 2.5 × 10 6 J/kg # 1 1 &&
(611 Pa)exp % % − ((
$ 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 286.2 K ''
= 0.622
85000 Pa
= 11.0 g/kg

From these calculations it is clear that only the highest

peak has a saturated specific humidity lower than the
surface value. Hence as the surface air parcel is lifted
over either of the first two islands, no condensation will
occur. Only the tallest island would be expected to have
orographically generated clouds.

157
S ECTION 5
Precipitation Climatology
and Extremes
Of particular interest to hydrologists is the expected
(climatological) precipitation, which relates directly to water
supply issues, and extreme precipitation (both positive and
negative), which relates directly to flooding or drought. Here
we focus on a brief summary of climatology and extremes.
The climatology of precipitation is simply the long-term
average. As such it tends to simply be an expression of the
typical mechanisms described above that occur over a given
region. Movie 5.1 shows an animation of global monthly
average water vapor (left panel) and precipitation (right
panel) from 2002-2012 from various data sources. First and
foremost, precipitation requires the presence of water vapor as
a source of condensate. This is clearly shown as there is a high
correlation between the two maps. However, precipitation also
requires the presence of an uplift mechanism (described in the
previous section) and other microphysical processes. Some of
these large-scale mechanisms can clearly be seen, most
notably in the form of the ITCZ. It should be noted that the
animation and other climatologies described below, especially
at global scales, rely on models and remote sensing data for
many areas since the in-situ network is sparse.
Figure 5.20 shows a 30-year climatology for annual
average precipitation based on satellite-borne measurements
M OVIE 5.1 Monthly global water vapor and precipitation
(from earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/).
(this will be discussed further in Section 6). According to
these results, the average annual global mean precipitation is
approximately 2.7 mm/day (975 mm/year), which is relatively
consistent with the global average of 1 meter/year described
in Chapter 1. Of particular note is the clear signature of the
ITCZ as a result of the Hadley cells (large-scale convergence)
centered around the equator, where annual mean rates of up
to 10 mm/day are seen. Localized areas of peak rainfall are
seen over India and the Indian Ocean (monsoon system), the
Amazon, and other places. The signature of the high-pressure
zones is seen in the map around +/- 30º latitude (i.e. see
correlation between Figure 4.12 and Figure 5.20), with a
secondary peak at higher latitudes.
These large-scale climatological features can also be seen
by taking the zonal average, which is show in Figure 5.21, and
158

F IGURE 5.20 Global precipitation climatology as diagnosed
from satellite data from 1979-2010 (from NASA).
illustrates the average precipitation as a function of latitude.
The peak zonal average is almost 6 mm/day centered around
the equator. In the areas of high-pressure zone, the
precipitation dips significantly below the global average. It
rises above the global average at higher latitudes before
dropping off considerably above +/- 60º latitude. The
latitudinal pattern is roughly symmetric, with asymmetry
primarily a result of the asymmetric distribution of land
masses across the globe (and between northern and southern
hemispheres). The pattern is essentially a composite of where
water is available, combined with where persistent uplift
mechanisms exist.
To zoom in from the global scale, Figure 5.22 shows a
30-year climatology for the annual average precipitation over
F IGURE 5.21 Zonal average of satellite-derived global precipi-
tation estimates shown in Figure 5.20 showing precipitation
distribution as a function of latitude (from NASA).
the continental U.S. Again, this climatology is a reflection of
the meteorological processes that occur with regularity in a
given region. For example, in the Western U.S. there is the
clear signature of orographic effects (Sierra Nevada, Cascade,
and Rocky Mountain ranges). Much of this precipitation falls
as snow as a result of frontal winter-time storms that result
from cold systems moving southwesterly from the northern
Pacific. In the non-mountainous regions, precipitation is
generally suppressed due to the persistent presence of a high-
pressure cell off the coast of the Western U.S. during the
summer. The midwestern region tends to have higher
precipitation due to a combination of winter-time frontal
systems along with summer-time thunderstorms as a result of
convective activity. The Eastern U.S. precipitation patterns
159

F IGURE 5.22 Mean annual precipitation climatology over the
continental U.S.
tend to be the result of frontal systems in the winter,
combined with convection and tropical storms (and sometimes
hurricanes) in the summer.
Extreme precipitation is of interest primarily with
respect to flooding and droughts. Flooding generally needs to
be mitigated via the the design of structures like levees,
detention basins or reservoirs, etc. Droughts are generally
mitigated by building supply reservoirs that can store and
supply water over multiple years to buffer against the
possibility of dry years. In terms of extreme precipitation (i.e.
large precipitation events), the physics are the same, but often
involve some rare set of circumstances leading to above
average water vapor, uplift velocities, and hydrometeor
growth. In the case of droughts, the mechanisms are less well
known. In some cases they can be simply the result of the
natural variability in the system, but are also thought to be
related to feedbacks in the climate system, where a given state
(i.e. dry) is self-sustaining. A simple example of a proposed
feedback is that if there is initially a negative soil moisture
anomaly (i.e. below average conditions), this will lead to less
available water for evaporation. The reduced evaporation will
lead to reduced water vapor, which will lead to less
precipitation. Finally, the reduced precipitation will lead to
less soil moisture. Such a “positive feedback” mechanism is one
hypothesis for such sustained drought events. In general,
extreme events (both flood and drought) are much less
predictable than climatology.
In describing extreme precipitation events, three
parameters are generally of interest: precipitation intensity,
storm duration, and frequency of recurrence. It should also be
noted that “extreme” implies some relative comparison to
climatology (which varies in space/time), i.e. what might be
an extreme event at one location may not be at another.
Analysis of extreme events is therefore generally tied to a
particular region.
To put extreme events into some context, Figure 5.23
shows an example of extreme precipitation events from across
the globe in terms of varying duration and intensity. In
particular, the data points are those events with the
160
 and Cherrapunji is associated with monsoon rainfall and
orography. What is interesting is that the data points fall
roughly along an empirical envelope of the form:

R = 425D 0.47 (5.5.1)

where R is in mm and D is the storm duration in hours.

For design purposes, most local codes specify a particular

hypothetical “design storm” with a characteristic duration
and frequency (return period). For a given region, these
specifications define a particular intensity for which to use in
the design. Example maps can be found in Dingman (2005)
which provides so-called intensity-duration-frequency (IDF)
F IGURE 5.23 Maximum amounts of recorded rainfall vs. du- maps of intensities and durations for different return period
ration (adapted from Dingman, 2008). Blue dots indicate actual data (frequency) storms. The return period (i.e. T = 100-year
points from locations across the globe and the red line is based storm) indicates the average recurrence interval (i.e. once
on Equation (5.5.1).
every T years). Such design storms can then be used in
rainfall-runoff models (Chapter 10) for predictions of design
runoff hydrographs or peak flows resulting from these design
maximum recorded rainfall for a given duration. The duration events.
scale ranges from minutes to months (up to two years).
Examples include: 305 mm in 42 minutes (in Holt, Missouri
(USA) on June 22, 1947), 1.87 m in 24 hours (in Cilaos,
Reunion on March 15-16, 1952), and 22.5 m in six months (in
Cherrapunji, India in 1861). Because these are extreme events,
they are rare. Also, different storms are often associated with
different physical mechanisms. For example, the Holt,
Missouri storm was a supercell thunderstorm (i.e. thermal
convection) combined with a frontal system, the Reunion
storm was a hurricane combined with the island’s orography,

161
S ECTION 6

Precipitation Measurement
Climatology maps and IDF curves used for design
mentioned in the previous section are ultimately determined
via measurements of precipitation. The traditional method of
measuring precipitation is via a rain gauge, which is simply a
vessel open to the atmosphere that periodically or
continuously records the quantity of water it collects. Figure
5.24 shows an example of a rain gauge. Gauges come in a
variety of forms including: i) non-recording gauges (i.e.
collects cumulative amount that must be measured manually),
ii) weighing-recording gauges (vessel sits on a scale that
F IGURE 5.24 Photo of an all-weather precipitation gauge.
measures the cumulative amount of water via its weight), iii)
tipping-bucket gauges (water is routed to a small vessel of
known volume that tips when filled and records each tipping),
iv) optical gauges (measures disturbance of an infrared beam (Figure 5.24).
as a result of passing drops), as well as other varieties. These
A key aspect to remember is that a rain gauge is a point-
gauges are of varying complexity (and therefore cost) and
scale measurement. What is generally of most interest is the
provide varying information. The first two gauge types listed
spatial field, i.e. the spatial distribution of precipitation, or
above provide cumulative amounts (one manual and one
the spatial average (mean areal precipitation). If a network of
automated), but do not provide rainfall intensities (i.e. rain
gauges are deployed with sufficient spatial density, then it
per unit time), while the tipping bucket, optical, and other
would be expected to provide an accurate representation of
types provide the actual rainfall intensities. In using an in-situ
the spatial field, or at least its mean. Sufficient density in this
gauge one does not want the gauge to interfere with the
context is not an independent variable, but is tightly coupled
variable it is trying to measure. For this reason, many gauges
to the variability of the underlying field. For example, if a
have wind shields in order to minimize the prevention of
field has no spatial variability (i.e. is constant in space) then
raindrop collection due to turbulent flow around the gage
162
one gauge measurement would be sufficient to characterize it.
Precipitation however is a variable with a high degree of
spatial variability, thus requiring a high density network to
characterize it. However the number of gauges deployed is
limited due to both instrumentation and operating and
maintenance costs.
Figure 5.25 shows the global rain gauge network. The
key point is that the vast majority of gauges are in developed
countries (U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia) due to costs. So
when large-scale hydrology problems are of interest, this lack
of in-situ gauges can be a factor in characterizing
precipitation. While the U.S. has far and away the largest
network, what is not obvious from the figure is that even in
the U.S. the gage network is insufficient to fully characterize
precipitation. Note for example that the number of gauges in
F IGURE 5.25 Map showing global distribution of location
(yellow dots) of precipitation gauges.
mountainous regions, where a significant amount of
precipitation falls as snow (i.e. in the Western U.S.), is much
more limited than in other areas. The source of rain gauge
data is most commonly government agencies, examples of
which in the U.S. include the National Weather Service
(NWS), National Climate Data Center (NCDC), etc.
A classical problem in hydrology is the calculation of
mean areal precipitation (MAP), i.e. over a watershed, from a
set of discrete gauge measurements (Figure 5.26). This can be
defined mathematically as:
F IGURE 5.26 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con-
struction -- basin with gauge locations.
163
 1 (5.6.1) While an arithmetic average is very easy to compute, it is
A ∫∫
P̂(t) = p(x,y,t)dx dy
A often inaccurate for representing MAP. One would expect it to
be accurate if the gauges are relatively evenly distributed over
where A is the area of the region over which the averaging is the domain. But in many cases, often for practical reasons
taking place (i.e. the watershed area), p(x,y) is the true (i.e. accessibility), gauges are unevenly distributed. In such
precipitation field and x and y are spatial coordinates. It cases it is best to use a weighted average that takes this into
should be noted that the true precipitation field is never account.
known, instead it is only sampled at select (gauge) locations: In hydrology, one method often used to do this is a
pg=p(xi, yi, t). The primary methodologies used to estimate graphical method called the Thiessen polygon method. The
the MAP from the gauge data most commonly use a weighted graphical version aims to sketch out the area closest to each
average. A general weighted average equation can be written
as:
G
P̂(t) = ∑ wg pg (t) (5.6.2)
g =1

where respectively pg is the precipitation and wg is the weight

associated with gauge g and G is the total number of gages.
The weights must generally satisfy (assuming unbiased
inputs):
G

∑w = 1 and wg ≤ 1 (5.6.3)
g
g=1

The simplest form of a weighted average is an arithmetic

average, in which case: wg=1/G (i.e. each gauge is weighted
equally). In this case:
F IGURE 5.27 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con-
1 G
P̂(t) =
G
∑ p (t)g
(5.6.4) struction -- TIN construction.
g =1

164
gauge and use those sub-areas in the weighted average. In this
way the method can be thought of as a nearest-neighbor
method which can also be easily automated via a simple
program (as will be described in more detail below). The
Thiessen polygon method uses a weighting scheme with:
wg=ag/A, where ag is the subregion centered around each
gauge g that is closest to that gauge. The sub-areas can be
2. Perpendicular bisectors (i.e. at the midpoint) are drawn for
constructed via a simple algorithm:
1. Adjacent gauges are connected to form a network of
triangles (Figures 5.27 and 5.28). These triangles are often
F IGURE 5.28 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con-
struction -- final TIN.
called a triangular irregular network (TIN). In general the
border connectors between adjacent gauges are
straightforward, but some interior connectors may seem
ambiguous at first. The shorter distanced connectors are
generally those that should be used in the construction of
the TIN (Figure 5.27, 5.28).
each connector in the TIN. If being done graphically, it is
important to make sure to carefully draw the perpendicular
F IGURE 5.29 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con-
struction -- perpendicular bisector construction.
165
 bisectors. When the TIN and perpendicular bisectors are each gage and convincing yourself that it is within the
properly constructed, the bisectors will meet in the interior appropriate area for the closest gauge.
of each TIN (Figure 5.29).
5. Finally, determine the area surrounding each gage. When
3. The bisectors need to be connected and cleaned-up to form done graphically, this is most commonly done using a
the irregular (Thiessen) polygons surrounding each gage transparent graph paper overlay which allows for counting
(Figure 5.30). squares within each polygon (Figure 5.31). The weighted
average is then given by:
4. Check the constructed polygons to make sure they indeed
G ag 1 G
map out the nearest neighborhood areas. A simple check P̂(t) = ∑ pg (t) = ∑ a g pg (t) (5.6.5)
can be done by randomly selecting a few points surrounding g =1 A A g =1

F IGURE 5.30 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con- F IGURE 5.31 Illustrative example of Thiessen polygon con-
struction -- final Thiessen polygons. struction -- polygon area computation.

166
Rather than determining the total area and sub-areas in
Equation (5.6.5), they can simply be replaced by the total
number of squares and number of squares in each sub-area
respectively.

Note that it is common to only account for the sub-areas

within the overall domain and include gauges that fall outside
the domain (provided they map to some nearby portion of the
domain). For example, in Figure 5.31, two of the gauges are
outside the watershed, but map to sub-areas a1 and a3. It
should also be noted that the Thiessen method only need be
done once. Given a time series of precipitation at the gages
(pg(t)) the time series of MAP uses the same weights at each F IGURE 5.32 Illustrative example of automated Thiessen
time step. Hence the Thiessen polygon can be thought of as a polygon construction over a large basin.
pre-processing step to get MAP from gauge data. The method
may then be used to get storm-scale MAP, annual average
MAP, etc. That said, one can imagine for large domains with
watershed mask) and computes the distance from each point
a large number of gauges, the graphical method leaves much
to each gauge and finally assigns the nearest gauge to each
to be desired. Even if the TIN and bisectors are drawn
pixel. This has been done in the MOD-WET code:
accurately, the “counting squares” method is highly tedious
thiessen.m. A simple synthetic example is shown in Figure
and prone to error.
5.32 for the Colorado River basin and a set of nearby gauges
You should be able to convince yourself (as mentioned (left panel). The above described algorithm is applied and
earlier) when looking at Figure 5.31 that the Thiessen polygon yields the set of Thiessen polygons shown in the right panel.
method is nothing more than assigning a nearest-neighbor Beyond visualizing the polygons, the algorithm outputs the
gage to each point in space. The weighting scheme is the same number of pixels associated with each gauge and therefore can
as assigning the gauge value to each point within the easily be used to apply Equation (5.6.5) to compute the MAP.
surrounding sub-area and then averaging all pixels. One can Such an automated approach is most commonly used in
take advantage of this by creating a simple algorithm that realistic problems, but the graphical method is useful to
takes as inputs: geographic coordinates of a set of gauges and conceptualize how the method works. It should be noted that
geographic coordinates of the domain of interest (i.e. a other methods are often used to estimate MAP, which can

167
include isohyetal, kriging, inverse distance weighting (IDW),
and other methods (Dingman, 2008).
E XAMPLE 5.6.1
For the basin and gage distribution shown in
Figure 5.26, assume the measured rainfall for a
given storm at gauges 1-5 was: 15 mm, 10 mm,
14 mm, 11 mm, and 10 mm respectively.
Estimate the mean areal precipitation for the
storm using the Theissen polygon approach.
Compare the answer to that obtained from an
arithmetic average estimate.
The first step in the Thiessen polygon approach is the
construction of the polygons themselves. This has been
done in Figures 5.27-5.31. The relative areas can be
determined by counting the squares in Figure 5.31. A
graphical estimate generally will contain some error due
to partial squares. The number of squares associated
with each gage is approximately (rounded to nearest
square): 18, 63, 29, 61, and 52, for a total of 223 squares.
Hence the mean areal precipitation estimate is:
1 !
P̂ = "(18)(15) + (63)(10) + (29)(14) + (61)(11) + (52)(10)#$
223
= 11.2 mm
The arithmetic average is instead:
E XAMPLE 5.6.1 ( CONTINUED )
1
P̂ = !"(15) + (10) + (14) + (11) + (10)#$
5
= 12. mm
In this case there is about a 7% difference between the
two estimates. One would expect the Thiessen polygon
method to be a better one as it accounts for the relative
contribution of rainfall measured at each gage. In the
case where the Thiessen polygons have the same areas,
the two estimates would be the same.
So far the discussion of the measurement of precipitation
has been limited to in-situ measurements via gauges and
estimation of MAP using the Thiessen polygon method. As
alluded to above, the high degree of spatial variability in
precipitation fields makes it difficult for a sparse gauge
network to accurately sample the fields (even using the
Thiessen polygon method). A lack of representativeness in
gauge measurements will end up propagating to the MAP
estimates via Thiessen polygon or other methods. This has led
to a significant amount of research into how to better estimate
precipitation and its spatial structure.
Chief among these newer methods are those under the
category of “remote sensing”. Remote sensing is becoming
pervasive in hydrology as an enabling technology beyond just
precipitation estimation. It refers to methods used to measure
168
(sense) a process without sampling it in-situ. This is most
commonly done via the measurement of electromagnetic
radiation (and its implicit interactions with media) from
ground-based or satellite-based platforms. The primary benefit
of these techniques is that they explicitly map variables, thus
avoiding the point-sampling issues associated with in-situ
measurement. That said, there are generally other tradeoffs,
chief among them that in-situ provides a direct measurement,
F IGURE 5.33 Schematic of a RADAR station sending out a
microwave pulse and sensing the return signal.
while remote sensing invariably provides an indirect
measurement that must be used to infer the process of
interest.
One commonly used remote sensing technique for
precipitation estimation is ground-based RADAR (radio
detection and ranging). This method uses pulses of microwave
radiation emitted by a transmitter to probe the atmosphere
for clouds and precipitation (Figure 5.33). The basic idea is
that relatively large particles (or in this case hydrometeors) in
the atmosphere will significantly scatter the radiation, with a
measurable component backscattered to a receiver on the
platform. In simple terms, clear sky conditions will have little
to no backscatter, while an atmosphere populated by a
significant amount of hydrometeors will generate backscatter.
From this signal the precipitation can be inferred. The
M OVIE 5.2 Animation showing the typical scanning behavior
of a single RADAR.
169
RADAR rotates, sending out pulses and receiving
backscattered radiation in all directions, thus mapping out
precipitation patterns of the region. Movie 5.2 provides an
animation of the RADAR scanning process.

The measured quantity by the RADAR is the reflectivity

(Z), which can theoretically be related to the cloud properties
(specifically the drop size distribution as):
∞

Z = ∫ D 6N(D)dD (5.6.6)
0

which has dimensions of L3, but is commonly expressed with

units of mm6 m-3. As shown in Equation (5.3.5), the
precipitation rate (leaving the cloud base) can also be related F IGURE 5.34 NEXRAD RADAR network over the U.S. Dark
directly to the DSD so that generally a power law brown areas are those with missing coverage.
relationships of the following form can be derived:

Z(x,y) = aP(x,y)b (5.6.7)

where the parameters a and b depend on the type of rain
cloud and other factors, but are such that reflectivity is an
increasing function of precipitation rate. In this context, the
reflectivity is often converted to a log-scale as decibels of Z
(dbZ) where dBZ=10 log10(Z), with Z in units of mm6 m-3.
The log-scale is useful since reflectivity can vary over many
orders of magnitude.
In the U.S., a network of RADAR (called “NEXRAD”)
stations have been installed to measure precipitation in real-
time (Figure 5.34). Typically, a single NEXRAD station scans
the atmosphere within a couple hundred kilometers of the
station. Together, reflectivity fields from many stations can be
mosaicked together. Coverage is pretty complete over the U.S.,
with the main holes being in mountain regions (Figure 5.34)
where the RADAR returns are not useful due to topographic
interference (referred to as “ground clutter”).
An example of a reflectivity snapshot from one of the
stations shown in Figure 5.34 is shown in Figure 5.35 (i.e.
Minot AFB in North Dakota). The station location is at the
center of the image and the scan provides a reflectivity map
centered on the station. In this particular case a storm system
is clearly seen. Areas of high reflectivity (up to 28 dBZ) occur
to the south east of the station where the storm is centered.
170
These high dBZ values are generally associated with high
rainfall rates. The reflectivity map also illustrates the
underlying heterogeneity in the precipitation field and the
potential problems associated with MAP estimation from a
low density rain gauge network. RADAR provides a relatively
high resolution map of reflectivity (approximately 4-8 km
resolution). In the U.S., the NEXRAD network is becoming
more commonly used for real-time weather and flooding
characterization. An example of a composite image over the
U.S. from the RADAR network is shown in Figure 5.36.
However, much like the global rain gauge network, RADAR is

F IGURE 5.36 Illustrative map of precipitation over the U.S.

from composite mosaic of NEXRAD data.

primarily limited to the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other

developed countries.

To overcome the issues associated with ground-based

F IGURE 5.35 Illustration of measured reflectivity (in dBZ)
from a single RADAR station (from wunderground.com).
sensors (either gauge or RADAR) another method becoming
more common to hydrology is the use of satellite-based remote
sensing. Satellite-based sensors measure electromagnetic
radiation (either emitted by or reflected by the atmosphere
and surface) in various wavelengths. In principle, the same
concept used in NEXRAD can be used by mounting a
RADAR on a satellite, but to date only one such research
satellite (the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission
[TRMM]) exists. Instead, more common sensors are those
measuring passive microwave or infrared radiation emitted by
171
the surface and/or atmosphere. These sensors are deployed on
a variety of platforms including polar-orbiting satellites (with
passive microwave sensors), which sample a given region on
average once or twice a day, and geostationary satellites (with
visible and infrared sensors) that look down at a given region
more or less continuously. Many algorithms have been
developed to attempt to relate these measurements to
precipitation. One such product (the Global Precipitation
Climatology Project; Adler et al., 2003) is shown for a given
month in Figure 5.37. Based on the sensors used, the spatial
resolution can be quite coarse (tens to hundreds of kilometers)
and the temporal resolution is at best hourly. While these
methods can have a significant amount of uncertainty, they
are capable of capturing some of the key modes of variability
F IGURE 5.37 Example of daily precipitation map from
satellite-based remote sensing.
seen in precipitation, and most importantly provide global
coverage. Figure 5.37 shows the expected patterns of high
precipitation near the equator, low precipitation regions in the
areas of high-pressure zones near +/- 30 degrees and
secondary precipitation peaks at higher latitudes, with
notably absent precipitation in areas where high-pressure
zones are located.
In summary it is important to keep in mind that while
we may be interested in getting the same variable (i.e. MAP),
different sensors are really seeing different things (often at
different spatial and temporal resolutions) as illustrated in
F IGURE 5.38 Illustration of differing scale and methods of
sensing precipitation.
172
Figure 5.38. Estimates from different sensors will also have
their own error characteristics. Future operational estimates of E XAMPLE 5.6.2 ( CONTINUED )
precipitation will likely be a combination of all these sensors
to take advantage of their strengths while minimizing their
∞
6!
Z= ∫D N e
6
0
−cD
dD = N 0
weaknesses. 0 c7

Substituting the expression for c into the reflectivity

E XAMPLE 5.6.2 equation yields:

If a cloud is characterized by the Marshall- 6! 720N 0

Z = N0 7 5
= 7 5
P 7 5

Palmer (MP) drop size distribution, derive a 4 π N 0α P −7 5

( ) (4π N α )
0
reflectivity vs. precipitation relationship in the
form of Equation (5.6.7) in terms of the i.e. where:
Marshall-Palmer parameters. In the derivation
6!
use the cloud-base precipitation (which is what is Z = N0 7 5
= aP b
typically measured by the RADAR) and assume (4π N α ) 0
P −7 5
updraft velocities are relatively small.
with:
The cloud base precipitation under the assumptions
mentioned above is given by (from Example 5.3.2): 720N 0 7
a= ; b=
7 5
5
1 (4π N α ) 0
P = Pb = 4 π N 0α 5
c

which can be rearranged in terms of the MP parameter:

15
! 1$ 15
c = # 4 π N 0α & = 4 π N 0α
( ) P −1 5
" P%

The reflectivity for the MP distribution is given by (from

Equation (5.6.6)):

173
S ECTION 7

MOD-WET Codes
Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in
this chapter include:

Computation of mean areal precipitation using the Thies-

sen polygons:
compute_mean_precip_from_thiessen.m

Computation of saturated adiabatic lapse rate:

sat_adiabatic_lapse_rate.m

Automated Thiessen polygon construction:

thiessen.m

174
S ECTION 8
Conceptual Questions
1. If an air parcel is lifted upward by 1 km (without
condensation), by how much will its temperature change?
Will it be cooler or warmer? What is the rate at which it
changes temperature with height called?
2. Is the moist adiabatic lapse rate generally larger or smaller
than the dry adiabatic lapse rate?
3. What type of surface air parcel characteristics (in terms of
humidity and temperature) will be expected to have the
highest cloud base when lifted?
4. What is a CCN and describe its relevance to cloud
formation?
5. What mechanism is responsible for cloud droplet growth
early in a cloud life-cycle?
6. What mechanism is responsible for cloud droplet growth
later in a cloud life-cycle?
7. What is a “warm cloud” vs. a “cold cloud”?
8. What are the typical sizes (order of magnitude) of a CCN,
a cloud droplet, and a rain drop?
9. Describe what the drop size distribution of a cloud
represents and how it can be used to determine various
characteristics of the cloud.
10. Describe the four basic mechanisms responsible for vertical
uplift in the atmosphere related to cloud formation/
precipitation.
11. Name the vertical uplift mechanism primarily responsible
for the precipitation climatology in the Sierra Nevada.
12. What mechanism/s are primarily responsible for uplift
(and hence cloud formation and precipitation) in the
midwestern U.S. Be specific in terms of season.
13. Where on the globe (latitudinally) is precipitation
generally largest? Explain why.
14. Where on the globe (latitudinally) are the world’s major
desert bands located? Explain why.
15. Name two commonly used weighted average methods for
estimating mean areal precipitation from gages.
16. Describe the basic principle behind the remote sensing of
precipitation by RADAR.
175
S ECTION 9 Problem 5.2. Assuming spherical droplets, the total amount
of precipitation (volume of water per unit ground area per
Sample Problems unit time) reaching the surface from a cloud is:
∞
πD3
P= ∫
Dmin
X(D)N(D)
6
[VT (D) −Vup ]dD

Problem 5.1. Clouds typically contain a spectrum of drops

of varying diameters as a result of condensation and droplet
where X(D) represents a mass-loss function, N(D) is the drop
growth processes. The distribution of the number of droplets
size distribution, the third term is the volume of a drop of
within clouds as a function of drop size (diameter) is often
diameter D, VT(D) is the terminal velocity (which is generally
described by the Marshall-Palmer drop size distribution
a function of drop size), and Vup is the updraft velocity.
(DSD).
a) Write the full expression for the precipitation flux for the
a) Derive an expression for the total liquid water content in a
simplified case of no sub-cloud evaporation, negligible updraft
cloud (i.e. mass of liquid water per volume of air) assuming
velocity and a Marshall-Palmer DSD.
spherical cloud droplets. This requires writing down the total
mass of drops of a given size, which is the product of the drop b) Using your expression, compute the rainfall (in both kg m-2
size distribution and the mass of a single drop and then s-1 and mm hr-1) with a Marshall-Palmer DSD at the cloud
integrating across all possible drop sizes. Hint: A useful base with a parameter value: c = 22 cm-1. For the terminal
integral is: ∞ velocity, assume the proportionality constant is 3050 s-1.
n!
∫0 x e dx
n −α x
=
α n+1 c) For the case of non-negligible updraft velocity (but still
negligible sub-cloud evaporation), what does the precipitation
b) Plot the liquid water content (in g water m-3 air) over the
rate equal? Assume the cloud is 1000 m thick and the updraft
range of average drop diameter values: [0, 3 mm]. You can use
velocity proportionality coefficient is equal to 6.8 km1/2 hr-1.
a logarithmic scale for the y-axis. Describe how the liquid
Qualitatively explain your result and how it compares to your
water content varies as a function of the average drop
answer above. [Note: First, you will need to determine the
diameter. Compute the total liquid water content (g water m-3
lower limit of the integral for this case. You can think about it
air) for a particular cloud with an average drop diameter of
by analyzing the equation (it will be a function of the model
0.4 mm.
parameters) or by plotting the integrand and identifying
which diameter corresponds to the case where the integrand

176
goes from negative (updraft bigger than terminal velocity) to
positive (terminal velocity bigger than updraft velocity).
Second, while the equation with the non-zero lower integration
limit can be solved analytically (via integration by parts), you
can (much) more easily evaluate it numerically, i.e. using
numerical integration, e.g. with the ”trapezoidal method”
being one approach. In MATLAB, you can use the trapz
function to perform this numerical integration].
d) For the most realistic case where sub-cloud evaporation
occurs, explain (qualitatively only) how you would expect the
precipitation rate to compare to the values above.
Problem 5.3. Cloud formation associated with orographic
uplift depends on the initial temperature/humidity
characteristics of surface air and the cooling it experiences
upon being lifted up and over topographic relief. The cooling
leads to a reduction in saturated specific humidity, which will
determine when/if condensation (leading to clouds) occurs.
a) Saturated specific humidity as a function of parcel
temperature (which will implicitly depend on elevation) and
surface temperature (Tsurf) can be determined using equations
we have discussed previously. Namely for a linear temperature
profile (with any specified lapse rate), the pressure profile can
be derived from the hydrostatic law and the equation of state
(Ideal Gas law) as:
g
⎛T(z) ⎞ Rd Γd
p(z) = p0 ⎜⎜ ⎟ c) Qualitatively, how would the cloud base altitude change if
⎝ Tsurf ⎠
⎟
where p0 refers to the surface pressure, and the exponent term
includes the acceleration of gravity, dry air gas constant and a
relevant linear lapse rate respectively. In the case of a rising
parcel, the lapse rate is given by the dry adiabatic lapse rate.
The saturated specific humidity is simply a function of
temperature (which varies linearly with height) and pressure
(which varies with height as shown above) so that the
saturated specific humidity as a function of altitude (of the
lifted air parcel) is given by:
εe (T(z))
q s (z) = s
p(z)
Generate a plot showing the saturated specific humidity in as
a function of temperature under adiabatic uplift (cooling), i.e.
from the surface up to a specified height. Assume the surface
air temperature on the windward side of the mountain range
is 295 K with a surface air pressure of 980 mb. Note: air
cools/warms according to the dry adiabatic lapse rate of 9.8 K
km-1 as long as there is no condensation (latent heating)
associated with the lifting process.
b) What condition must be met for condensation (i.e. cloud
formation) to occur? Assuming surface air parcels have a
surface specific humidity of 10 g/kg, which is conserved during
adiabatic ascent, estimate the expected altitude of the cloud
base under these conditions?
the surface air parcels were more humid? How would it change
if the surface air parcels were warmer?
177
Problem 5.4. The figure shown below illustrates a basin with
an established set of precipitation gages in the region. The
annual observed precipitation for each gage is listed in the
following table.
b) Compute the areal average annual precipitation using a
Thiessen polygon approach by constructing the polygons by
hand and “counting squares” for each polygon area. Make sure
to be very precise in the construction of the polygons.
Consider only the area inside the basin for the weights.

c) Calculate the percent difference between the two estimates.

d) Discuss the difference in the two annual averages you find

for the watershed. Which method do you think provides the
most representative mean areal precipitation estimate over the
basin? Why? So which method should generally be employed
for estimating mean areal precipitation?

Problem 5.5. Ground-based RADAR is commonly used in

STATION ANNUAL PRECIP. (CM)
A 16.8
B 13.3
C 10.6
D 22.2
a) Compute the areal average annual precipitation using an
arithmetic average approach.
the U.S. to estimate precipitation. The basis for this remote
sensing technology is that microwave pulses can be sent out
into the atmosphere and are then backscattered based on how
many cloud/rain drops there are in the field of view. From
this backscattered power the rain rate can be estimated. In
this problem you will explore how to estimate precipitation
from RADAR backscatter.
For a RADAR system, the reflectivity Z (expressed in units L3
(i.e. often as mm6 m-3)) is a measurable quantity that if
related to precipitation can be used to estimate it remotely.
a) Using the Marshall-Palmer distribution, integrate the
RADAR reflectivity Equation (5.6.6) to express Z in terms of
c and N0.

178
b) Using the Marshall-Palmer distribution and a linear model
for terminal velocity along with a simplifying assumption that
terminal velocity is much larger than updraft velocity (VT>>
Vup), integrate Equation (5.3.5) to express precipitation
leaving the cloud base (Pb) in terms of the Marshall-Palmer
and terminal velocity parameters. Rewrite the equation to
express the Marshall-Palmer c parameter as a function of all
other variables.
longer dimensionally consistent so units must be used as
defined.) Based on this newly defined unit, invert the dBZ
equation to get an equation for precipitation (in units of mm
hr-1) in terms of dBZ. For a measured reflectivity of 30 dBZ,
what is the estimated precipitation in units of mm hr-1?

c) Substitute your expression for c into your answer to part a)

to express Z in terms of P and other parameters in the
following form, where the equation should be dimensionally
consistent:
Z = aP b

d) What is the theoretical value of the coefficient b? What

terms make up the coefficient a? For a cloud droplet terminal
velocity parameter of 3000 s-1, determine the constant a in
units of mm8/5 hr7/5. You should use the standard value for
the Marshall-Palmer distribution parameter N0.

e) If the units for Z are converted to mm6 m-3 and the input
units of P are converted to mm hr-1, the above power law
relationship yields:
Z[mm 6 m -3 ] = 325(P[mm hr -1 ])7 5

Because the reflectivity can vary over many orders of

magnitude, it is often expressed on a log scale in units of
“decibels” of Z (dBZ), where dBZ=10 log10(Z), with Z in units
of mm6 m-3. (Note: This transformation is empirical (i.e. no

179
Chapter 6

Snow
Processes
S ECTION 1 10. Estimate the phase and snow water equivalent state
based on the peak snow water equivalent and the amount
Learning Objectives of cumulative energy that has been absorbed by the
snowpack

11. Understand and describe how variations in energy inputs

By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define the surface energy balance and name and define the
various fluxes involved
2. Define and be able to compute snow porosity, liquid water
content, snow density, and snow water equivalent
(especially due to topography) impact patterns of snow
and snowmelt over a basin
12. Understand and describe how vegetation impacts
snowpack evolution

3. Recall the order of magnitude density of new fallen snow

4. Describe and sketch the key components of the water and

energy balance of a snowpack (at a point in space) over
the accumulation and melt seasons

5. Name and describe the primary snowpack metamorphism

processes

6. Name and describe the three phases of snowmelt and

why/when they occur

7. Estimate the energy input needed to complete the

warming phase

8. Estimate the energy input needed to complete the

ripening phase

9. Estimate the energy input needed to complete the output

phase
181
S ECTION 2

Surface Energy & Mass Bal-

ance
In moving from the previous chapters to the remaining
ones, we are shifting from the atmosphere to the surface and
sub-surface. One can think of the focus of the previous
chapters being largely on global hydrometeorology and the
primary “forcing” variables of surface hydrologic processes.
These are the net radiation, which drives the surface energy
budget, and precipitation, which drives the surface water
budget. The surface water and energy budgets are not only F IGURE 6.1 Schematic of surface energy balance (SEB) for an
relevant to snow processes, they are simply introduced here as idealized surface. Direction of arrows shown represent a posi-
this is the first chapter dealing with the land surface. We will tive flux. The opposite direction would be indicated by a nega-
tive flux.
see these again when discussing evaporation.

Net radiation at the surface is a continuous input in time

that can be either positive (i.e. a net energy input) or
negative (i.e. a net energy output). When it is positive, this
means the surface (either snow or vegetation/soil) is gaining
heat. The surface responds by dissipating this heat via several
mechanisms. If we consider an idealized surface (i.e flat/
homogeneous/infinitesimally thin with no heat storage; Figure
6.1) with net radiation input (Rn), the dissipation of energy is
accomplished via three primary mechanisms: a latent heat flux
(LE), which represents the energy associated with
vaporization of water/snow into vapor that is returned to the
atmosphere, sensible heat flux (H), which represents the
energy conducted/convected between the surface to the
atmosphere, and ground (or surface) heat flux (G), which
represents energy conducted into the surface of the soil or
snow. For these fluxes to be in balance at the surface, we can
write:
Rn = LE + H + G (6.2.1)
It is often said that the net radiation gets “partitioned”
into the other three fluxes on the right-hand-side. How it gets
partitioned is very much a function of the surface conditions
182
(i.e. wet/dry, warm/cool, etc.) The sign convention used in
this equation is that LE and H are positive when away from
the surface (into the atmosphere) and G is positive when away
from the surface (into the ground/snow). The sensible heat
flux is proportional to the difference in temperature between
the surface and overlying air (will be discussed in more detail
in Chapter 8) and is positive when the surface is warmer than
the overlying air. For snow, especially in the melt season, the
overlying air temperatures can be greater than the snow
temperature, meaning that H is negative (provides a source of
energy that ultimately partly contributes to melting of the
snowpack). Recall that the net radiation is itself made up of
shortwave and longwave fluxes (Equation (3.8.3)), where the
outgoing longwave flux depends on the temperature of the
surface. In this way, one can think of the net solar input and
incoming longwave as the real energy inputs to the system
and the outgoing longwave, latent, sensible, and ground heat
fluxes as the surface “response” to this input. One should also
keep in mind that implicit in the surface energy balance (SEB;
Equation (6.2.1)) is a time and space dependence of each
term. We saw previously that the incoming radiation can be
greatly impacted by terrain, albedo, and other factors that
vary in space and vary diurnally and seasonally in time. These
variabilities will propagate to the other terms in the SEB.
The latent heat flux notation (LE) is actually shorthand
for the latent heat of vaporization (or sublimation in the case
of ice/snow) multiplying the evaporation/sublimation flux, i.e.
LE = LvE or LE = LsE (6.2.2)
where E is the surface evaporation/sublimation in mass flux
density units (kg m-2 s-1). When multiplied by the units of the
latent heat of vaporization/fusion/sublimation (J kg-1), this
yields the appropriate units of W m-2. One can think of the
latent and sensible heat fluxes (as well as the outgoing
longwave flux) as cooling terms, as all three will act to reduce
the temperature of the surface. It turns out that evaporative
cooling (LE) is in fact the most efficient of these cooling
mechanisms so that if liquid water is prevalent at the surface,
a large fraction of the net radiation will go into vaporizing
water. The ground/surface heat flux (G), will conversely act
as a warming term that will conduct energy into the
underlying media (i.e. snow or soil) and warm it. It is
generally driven by temperature gradients between the surface
and sub-surface in the media. The temperature change of the
surface will depend directly on the magnitude of G and the
thermal heat capacity of the media. The ground heat flux is
generally into the surface media during the day (and summer)
when net radiation is high, and toward the surface during the
night (and in winter) when the net radiation is low.
In contrast to radiation, precipitation inputs are
inherently intermittent, i.e. they are positive for relatively
short durations (storms) and zero most of the time (inter-
storm periods). If one again considers an idealized surface, the
precipitation input gets partitioned into infiltration into the
soil and/or accumulation in the form of snow, evaporation/
sublimation from the surface, and runoff. Writing equations
for mass balance can be done using consideration of the
relevant fluxes and Equation (1.5.2) as will be shown below.
183
In general, a precipitation event will directly lead to snow
accumulation (assuming solid precipitation), runoff, and/or
infiltration into the soil depending on the state of the surface.
Evaporation/sublimation tends to be small during the
precipitation event (due to reduced net radiation), but may
play a large role during inter-storm periods. Mass balance will
be discussed in more detail in the context of snow
accumulation and unsaturated soil processes.

184
S ECTION 3

Snowpack Characteristics
In areas with sub-freezing temperatures, the processes
described in Chapter 5 can lead to solid-phase precipitation.
Such snowfall events generally require cold cloud processes
aloft along with sub-freezing air that extends all the way
down to the surface. Exceptions to this include hail storms
where there are cold cloud processes aloft (often due to
towering cumulus clouds), but above-freezing air in the sub- F IGURE 6.2 Examples of different shapes of solid precipita-
cloud layer. In such cases, the hail stones are generally large tion hydrometeors.
enough (and fall fast enough) that the above-freezing sub-
cloud temperatures are not sufficient to fully melt them before
they reach the surface. In the context of this chapter we will crystal nature of snow makes it such that the density of new
mostly be discussing the former case of snowfall leading to a fallen snow is not that of solid ice, but considerably less (this
variety of snowpack processes. For a more detailed discussion is most obvious in a dendritic snowflake where there are many
of snow processes, the reader is referred to Male and Gray open spaces that will form pores in the snow volume). The
(1981) and Armstrong and Brun (2010). relative density of new fallen snow compared to liquid water
can range from less than 5% to upward of 30% and varies
Snowfall generally consists of snow grains (or
based on the meteorological conditions (Figure 6.4). A
snowflakes), rather than droplets, that are often made up of a
common assumption is that new fallen snow has a density of
large collection of tiny ice crystals (Figure 6.2). A snowpack is
approximately 100 kg m-3 (i.e. approximately 10% that of
simply an accumulation of snow grains on the ground. These
liquid water). This is useful rule-of-thumb, but is most
grains come in various sizes and morphologies depending on
certainly a generalization that can be erroneous.
the atmospheric conditions in which they were generated.
Figure 6.3 shows some typical types (“habits”) of snow grain As a result of its constituents, snowpack is a granular
crystals as a function of atmospheric temperature. Unlike rain porous media (i.e. one that contains pores that can be filled
droplets which are essentially the density of liquid water, the with air/liquid water). Its porous nature, leads to the
185
 that we are considering a unit area on the ground. The
snowpack volume (Vs) can be considered to be simply the sum
of the volumes of solid ice (Vi), liquid water (Vw), and air
(Va):

Vs = Vi +Vw +Va = dsA (6.3.1)

where ds is the snow depth above ground and A is the unit

area. When the snowpack is cold (i.e. T < 0ºC) it is by
definition dry (Vw = 0) so that the snowpack is made up of ice
and air only. When the snowpack is melting (T = 0ºC), then
the pores will contain some liquid water. Based on the porous

F IGURE 6.3 Typical crystal shapes as a function of cloud tem-

perature.

development of several definitions used to characterize

snowpacks. It should be noted that soil (which will be
discussed in Chapter 7) is also a porous media and hence
shares some of the same definitions. The key difference is that
a snowpack is a highly dynamic media that evolves seasonally,
whereas soil is a relatively static porous media.

It is often convenient to think of a snowpack on a per

unit ground area basis when defining various characteristics.
So at a given moment in time, the volume of a snowpack is
often expressed in terms of its depth with the understanding
F IGURE 6.4 Illustration of varying snowfall (i.e. density/
grain size) as a function of meteorological differences.
186
structure, several snowpack characteristics are used and are
defined below. It should be kept in mind that for a snowpack
these properties change throughout the accumulation and
melt season. Moreover, they are usually a function of depth in
the snowpack (i.e. the properties vary with height).
The snow porosity is a measure of the volume of pore
space (some of which may be filled with liquid water) to the
total snow volume and is given by:
Va +Vw
θs = (6.3.2)
Vs
which is a dimensionless quantity. A snowpack made up of
new fallen snow may have a porosity as high as 90%, while a
ρi ≡ density of ice = 917 kg m -3
ρw ≡ density of liquid water = 1000 kg m -3
which can simply be thought of as a weighted average of ice
and liquid water densities by their respective volume fractions.
While mathematically the liquid water content could vary up
to the porosity, typically a snowpack cannot hold more than
5-10% of its pore space filled with liquid water. This upper
limit (i.e. liquid water retention capacity) is actually a
complicated function of the individual snowpack pore
morphology. Simple empirical expressions have been developed
in terms of snowpack density, e.g. (Eagleson, 1970):
⎛ ρs ⎞ ⎛ ρs2 ⎞ (6.3.5)
θret = −0.0735 ⎜ ⎟ + 2.67 × 10 ⎜ ⎟ ;
−4

⎝ ρw ⎠ ⎝ ρw ⎠
solid icepack would have a porosity approaching 0%. The
liquid water content of a snowpack is given by: [ ρ ] = kg m -3

Vw
θ= (6.3.3)
Vs Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we can define the
variable that is typically of most interest to hydrologists,
namely the snow water equivalent (SWE). This is simply
where the liquid water content is zero for a dry snowpack and defined as the equivalent amount of liquid water mass that
positive for a wet snowpack. would result if the entire snowpack were melted and is given
The snow density is given by the ratio of mass of solid by:
ice and liquid water (where air mass is neglected) to the total (θ )Vs + (1 − θs )Vs ρi ρw
SWE = (6.3.6)
volume of snow, i.e.: A
M i + M w ρiVi + ρwVw
ρs = = = ρi (1 − θs ) + ρwθ (6.3.4)
Vs Vs where the numerator represents the liquid water in the
snowpack (first term) plus the equivalent liquid water bound

187
up in ice (second term) and is normalized per unit area to
give dimensions of depth of equivalent water. The above can
be rewritten using the previous definitions as:
⎛ ρs ⎞ (6.3.7)
SWE = ⎣θ + (1 − θs ) ρi ρw ⎦ ds = ⎜ ⎟ ds
⎡ ⎤
⎝ ρw ⎠
which shows that the SWE is the snow depth multiplied by
the ratio of snow density to liquid water density. By construct,
this shows that in general SWE is less than or equal to the
snow depth.
As mentioned above, it is important to keep in mind that
F IGURE 6.5 Examples of variation in snow profiles as a func-
tion of location and time of season. Each panel corresponds to
a different site. Bars correspond to density on the top axis and
dotted lines correspond to temperature on the bottom axis.
Black and grey correspond to March and April conditions re-
spectively (from Filippa et al, 2010).
snow tends to be a stratified media, especially when deep,
such that all of the above properties may vary with depth in
the snowpack. An example is shown for illustrative purposes
in Figure 6.5, where snow at three different sites (at two
different times: March and April) is characterized in terms of
density and temperature profiles. Mechanisms for some of the
trends (i.e. densification and warming between March and
April) will be discussed in more detail in the next section. In
such layered snowpack cases, the SWE may instead be
determined via the summation of the water equivalent of each
layer in the snowpack, i.e.:
SWE = ∑ ( ρs ρw )dz n (6.3.8)
n
n
where the n index simply corresponds to the property of a
given layer n, and dzn corresponds to the thickness of layer n.
E XAMPLE 6.3.1
The following snow measurements from a
homogeneous snowpack were taken: average snow
temperature of -15ºC, snow depth of 2 meters,
and an average snow density of 200 kg m-3. What
is the snow water equivalent (in units of cm),
liquid water content, and snow porosity of the
snowpack at the measurement time?
The snow water equivalent is given by:
188
E XAMPLE 6.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

! 200 kg m -3 $
SWE = # &(2 m) = 0.4 m = 40 cm
" 1000 kg m %
-3

The liquid water content is known to be equal to 0 since

the snowpack is sub-freezing. Liquid water only exists in
a snowpack when it is at freezing. The snow porosity is
given by (rearranging Equation (6.3.4)):

ρs 200 kg m -3
θs = 1 − = 1 − = 0.78
ρi 917 kg m -3

Hence the snowpack at the measurement time is 78%

pore space and 22% solid ice.

189
S ECTION 4

Snowpack Accumulation &

Metamorphism
Many seasonal snowpacks have two relatively distinct
“seasons”: the accumulation season (where SWE is increasing
with time) and the melt (or ablation) season (where SWE is F IGURE 6.6 Typical SWE time series during accumulation
season for a high-elevation location with seasonal snowpack (in
decreasing with time). While processes that occur in one
this case in the Sierra Nevada).
season can occur in the other, here we will separate the two
for conceptual purposes, highlighting the key processes that
occur primarily in each. Here we also first ignore the impacts
of vegetation, focusing on snowpack processes only and then storage, where in this case the water is stored in the
discuss how vegetation impacts these processes. snowpack. During the accumulation season E and M are
generally small and P is intermittent, so that SWE is mostly a
During the (winter) accumulation season, precipitation is monotonically increasing function, which is relatively constant
generally high, air temperatures are cold and decreasing, and between storms, and has sharp increases during a storm
net radiation is small or even negative. The bulk mass balance (Figure 6.6). So to the extent that precipitation can be
for a snowpack (i.e. with the entire snowpack as the control accurately characterized (not very easy in mountainous
volume) can be written as follows (i.e. from Equation (1.5.4)): terrain), the accumulation season SWE is closely coupled to
d(SWE) the cumulative precipitation.
= P −E −M (6.4.1)
dt
E XAMPLE 6.4.1
where P, E, and M are the precipitation (in this case mostly
Suppose a region has a clear accumulation season
snowfall but can also include wind-blown snow redistribution),
with negligible melt and sublimation and three
evaporation/sublimation, and melt output/runoff respectively.
storms each of which had cumulative precipita-
Simply put, as is always the case with mass balance, a surplus
of mass input (i.e. P > E + M) will lead to an increase in
190
 2. Destructive metamorphism: This mechanism is the result of
E XAMPLE 6.4.1 ( CONTINUED ) relative instability of water at very high curvatures (in
grains). The saturated (equilibrium) vapor pressure for a
tion amounts of 10 cm, 15 cm, and 25 cm. What
bulk surface (either liquid or ice) is given by the
is the SWE at the end of the accumulation appropriate Clausius-Clapeyron equation, but for curved
season? (ice) surfaces (of radius r) is given by:
The mass balance (assuming negligible sublimation and ⎛ 2σ ⎞ (6.4.2)
melt) can be written as (from Equation (6.4.1)): ei (r) = ei (∞)exp ⎜ ⎟
⎝ rRv ρwT ⎠
d(SWE) σ ≡ surface tension of water (  7 × 10 −2 Nm -1 )
= P → SWE = ∫ P dt
dt

Hence the SWE is simply the integral of the

precipitation events. During inter-storm periods the
precipitation is by definition zero, so the integral is
simply the summation of the three storm events. The
SWE is thus equal to 50 cm.

Density however is not as straightforward as SWE. New

fallen snow generally has a relatively low density (100-200 kg
m-3). As soon as snow begins to accumulate, gravity and other
metamorphism factors begin to take hold with the end result
being a densification (i.e. increase in density) over time
(Figure 6.7). The primary mechanisms at work include:

1. Gravitational settling: This mechanism causes a
densification of the snowpack as a result of the weight of
overlying snow, which compacts the snowpack, reducing the
porosity.
F IGURE 6.7 Typical snow depth (upper panel) and snow den-
sity (lower panel) time series during accumulation season for a
high-elevation location with seasonal snowpack (in this case in
the Sierra Nevada).

191
where the first term on the right-hand-side is just short-hand
notation for the saturated vapor pressure over a bulk surface
(i.e. the Clausius-Clapeyron Equation (2.4.6)). The second
term can be thought of as a correction for curvature (surface
tension) effects, with a small temperature (T) effect. The
result is a very high saturated vapor pressure for small radius
particles. This effect is the same one that prevents
homogeneous nucleation from occurring in clouds. A high
saturated vapor pressure drives vaporization, so that water
vapor molecules evaporate from these high curvature locations
and end up depositing on areas of less curvature. The end
result is a loss of small “pointy” grains and an increase in
larger more spherical grains, both of which tend to increase
the density of the snowpack. Because the mechanism occurs as
a result of small crystals, it typically only occurs in relatively
new snowpacks (i.e. with densities less than 250 kg m-3) or
near the top of snowpacks after new snow falls.

3. Constructive metamorphism: This mechanism is also the

result of vapor movement and deposition, but is instead
associated with temperature gradients. As shown in Figure
6.8, temperature profiles are seldom uniform in the F IGURE 6.8 Schematic illustration of diurnal variation in
snowpack during the accumulation season, where cold air snowpack temperature profile.
above the snowpack causes large fluctuations near the
surface, while the insulating capacity of the snow often
keeps the snow in contact with the ground near freezing. If
the snowpack the actual vapor pressure is to a good
one neglects radius effects (i.e. after destructive
approximation given by:
metamorphism has taken place) the presence of solid ice
leads to a vapor pressure which is saturated and given by ⎛L ⎡1 1 ⎤⎞ (6.4.3)
e(z) = ei (T(z)) = es 0 exp ⎜ s ⎢ − ⎥⎟
the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Hence at each depth in ⎝ Rv ⎣T0 T(z) ⎦⎠

192
where since ei is solely dependent on temperature, the
existence of a temperature gradient implies a gradient in
vapor pressure. As we will see in Chapter 8, a gradient in
vapor pressure implies an evaporative (vapor) flux, where the
flux goes from areas of higher vapor pressure to lower vapor
pressure. For a typical temperature profile (Figure 6.8), there
is generally a decreasing trend in temperature from the base
to the surface of the snowpack (with superimposed variability
due to diurnal forcings) that drive vapor from lower in the
pack to higher in the pack, or in general toward colder regions
of the pack. This process tends to drive grain growth and is
often the dominant densification mechanism in the
F IGURE 6.9 Example photographs of snow grains that have
undergone dry metamorphism. Most of the “pointy” ends have
disappeared due to vapor flux.
accumulation season. An example of grain metamorphism as a
result of constructive and destructive mechanisms is shown in
Figure 6.9. The net result is a rounding of grains over time.
4. Melt metamorphism: This mechanism does not take place
in the accumulation season (aside from intermittent events),
but typically during melt. Liquid water can be introduced
into the snowpack via melt near the surface or rain on
snow. This liquid water will often migrate downward into
the snowpack, re-freezing at a given depth where the
snowpack is sub-freezing. The water moves through the
open pores and so when it freezes it generally binds existing
grains together into a single larger aggregated grain. Small
grains are generally quickly merged into larger ones as a
result of this mechanism (Figure 6.10). Upon a re-freeze,
latent heat is released which goes into warming of the pack,
which can then accelerate constructive metamorphism.
In cases where a snowpack has distinct accumulation and
melt seasons, different mechanisms play more or less
important roles in different parts of the season. Gravitational
settling is ever-present, while destructive metamorphism plays
a role early in the accumulation season and near the snowpack
surface after snow events. Constructive metamorphism is most
important during the bulk of the accumulation season (when
temperature gradients are largest). During melt, the
temperature gradients tend to disappear as the snowpack
becomes isothermal, leaving melt metamorphism as the
dominant mechanism.
193
 E XAMPLE 6.4.2

Suppose that during the accumulation season a 2

meter snowpack has a linear temperature profile
of: T(z) = mz; z ≥ 0

where m is the temperature lapse rate in the

snowpack, with a value of -2 K/m. Derive an
expression for the vapor pressure profile in the
snowpack and describe the implied vapor flux.

The vapor pressure is, to a good approximation, equal to

the saturated vapor pressure (with respect to ice) since
the air is in equilibrium with the solid ice matrix. The
vapor pressure gradient can thus be written using the
chain rule in terms of the temperature gradient:

de dei dei dT
= =
dz dz dT dz

The first term on the right-hand-side is simply equal to

the Clausius-Clapeyron equation (Equation (2.4.4), but
for bulk ice) and the second term is equal to the
temperature gradient from the temperature profile, so
that the vapor pressure gradient is equal to:

de Ls ei ∂T Ls #L #1 1 && ∂T
F IGURE 6.10 Example of photograph of snow grain that has = = e exp %% s %% − ((((
dz Rv T ∂z RvT(z)
2 2 s0
$ Rv $T0 T(z) '' ∂z
undergone wet metamorphism. The larger grain is clearly made
up of what had been several smaller grains.

194
 example of the evolution of albedo as a function of age of
E XAMPLE 6.4.2 ( CONTINUED ) snow. Typically new fallen snow has the highest albedo as
small grains increase volume scattering. As the grains increase
which when substituting the specific profile is given by:
in size, the reflectivity tends to decay. As such, albedo is often
modeled as a decaying function of time, where the time
de Ls ei mLs "L "1 1 %%
= m= e exp $$ s $$ − '''' variable is number of days since the last snowfall (Figure
dz Rv T 2
Rv (mz)2 s0
# Rv #T0 mz &&
6.11). Alternatively, physically-based models predict albedo
Given the negative temperature gradient (i.e. negative directly from grain size growth equations. When a new
value for m) the vapor pressure is largest at the soil- snowfall occurs, the albedo generally jumps back up to the
snow interface and smallest at the snow surface. The maximum value before decaying again. The decay rate can
vapor flux will generally be from areas of high vapor
concentration to low vapor concentration. In this case,
the vapor flux will be from lower in the snowpack to
higher in the snowpack. This vapor flux will drive the
constructive growth mechanism of grains due to vapor
flux. Note: Once the snowpack becomes isothermal
during the melt season (i.e. m = 0) the vapor gradient
will also be zero.

Another key snow property related to metamorphism is

snow albedo. In general, snow has a very high reflectivity (in
the visible part of the spectrum) compared to almost all other
media, with albedos as high as 90% in some cases. Since
downwelling shortwave is the largest energy flux in many
cases, the albedo can strongly regulate the overall heat
absorption by the snowpack. For snow however, the albedo is F IGURE 6.11 Typical models for snow surface albedo as a
not a constant, but evolves, primarily due to grain size function of time since last snowfall. General decay corresponds
to grain growth mechanisms.
evolution in the snowpack and addition of lower albedo
contaminants (i.e. dirt). Figure 6.11 shows an illustrative

195
also be a function of liquid water content of the snowpack.
Another factor that is sometimes accounted for in albedo
models (albeit often in a simplistic way) is the effect of
contamination of the snow. Things like dust, soot, and other
aerosols, tend to all add low albedo constituents into the snow
as the snow ages and tend to produce a decrease in the
albedo.
As described above, the metamorphism in the snowpack
is to a large extent driven by temperature profiles (and
specifically gradients). Since most of the transport of energy
(and vapor) occur in the vertical, the energy budget for the
snowpack can be written schematically (i.e. for a given layer)
as:
Change in energy storage = Convergence of energy flux +
source/sink
which can also be formally derived from Reynolds Transport
Theorem (Equation (1.5.1)). The energy storage in a
snowpack is related primarily to the specific heat capacity of
the medium (in this case ice, ci):
Stored Energy = ρiciT
where T is the temperature of the snowpack (a function of
depth z and time t). The conductive energy flux in many
media is given by a Fickian (diffusion) type of behavior, where
the flux is proportional to the gradient in the state variable,
which in the vertical direction is:
Heat flux = −ki (∂T ∂z)
where ki is the thermal conductivity (in this case for ice). The
energy balance can then be written as:
∂(ρiciT )
= −∇(Heat flux) + q (6.4.4)
∂t
where the second term on the right-hand-side is simply using
the divergence operator (in general in three dimensions) and q
represents a source/sink (which also varies with z and t) and
is associated with melt (sink) and re-freeze (source) events
that consume or release energy respectively. If one only
considers the vertical flux convergence then this equation
simplifies to the well-known one-dimensional (1D) heat flow
equation:
∂(ρiciT ) ∂2(kiT )
= +q (6.4.5)
∂t ∂z 2
which is a second-order partial differential equation for T(z,t)
that, provided initial and boundary conditions, can be solved
for the evolution of snowpack temperature. Of particular
importance are the boundary conditions, which at the surface
is given by the SEB, i.e. flux of energy being conducted into
the surface is given by:
G = Rn − LE − H = Rs↓(1 − α ) + Rl↓ − Rl↑ − LE − H (6.4.6)
while the boundary condition at the bottom of the snowpack
is the conduction of heat between the underlying soil and
snow.
196
 From Equation (6.4.6), it becomes clear that the primary
heating terms of the snowpack are the net shortwave radiation
(where albedo plays a significant role), the downwelling
longwave radiation, and in cases where the air temperature is
warmer than the snowpack surface, the sensible heat flux. The
primary cooling mechanisms are the outgoing longwave
radiation, the latent heat flux, and in cases where the
snowpack temperature is warmer than the overlying air, the
sensible heat flux. These fluxes drive the energy balance of the
snowpack, which in turn drives the various metamorphism
processes described above (Figure 6.12). During the
accumulation season the net radiation is often negative (i.e.
F IGURE 6.12 Schematic showing some of the key inter-storm
processes in a snowpack.
the snowpack surface is emitting more radiation than it is
receiving). The net result is a sink of energy at the surface
and a general cooling of the snowpack (i.e. sometimes
significantly below freezing). Once spring arrives and the net
radiation becomes positive, there is a source of energy at the
surface, and the snowpack begins to warm. In the case of no
melt and no introduction of rain into the snowpack, q = 0 in
Equation (6.4.5). During the melt season, however the source/
sink term becomes important. The melt processes are
discussed in more detail in the next section.
197
S ECTION 5
Snowmelt
In an idealized snowpack, the snowmelt season is that
period generally following the accumulation season. In truth,
the two seasons are generally not completely distinct and
depend on the climatology of the region. At certain elevations,
snowpack is quite transient, where many accumulation and
melt events can occur throughout the winter and spring. In
any case, the melt period generally begins when the surface
net radiation transitions from negative to positive (Rn > 0).
Melt itself will not occur immediately when this transition in
net radiation occurs due to the thermal inertia of the
snowpack. At the time net radiation becomes positive, the
snowpack will generally be at sub-freezing temperatures. The
positive net radiation implies an energy input to the
snowpack. The specific impact this energy input has defines
three commonly described “phases” of the snowmelt season.
The first phase is the so-called “warming phase”. This
phase consists of the period of time when the positive net
radiation goes into increasing the temperature of the
snowpack toward the melting point of water. At any given
time, the amount of energy required to raise the average snow
temperature to the melting point is generally referred to as
the “cold content” of the snowpack, which can be defined as:
Qcc = −ci ρwSWE(Tsnow −Tm ) (6.5.1)
where ci is the specific heat capacity of ice (2102 J kg-1 K-1),
Tsnow is the average snow temperature and Tm is the melting
point of water (273.16 K or 0ºC). Keep in mind that by
definition during this period the snowpack is generally dry (no
liquid water content) except for transient rain-on-snow or
surface melt (which then percolates and re-freezes lower in the
snowpack).
Note that both SWE and Tsnow are time varying
quantities that describe the mass and energy state of the
snowpack at a given time. The temperature and SWE of the
snowpack are generally at a minimum and maximum at the
end of the accumulation season/beginning of the melt season
(i.e. warming phase) respectively. Keep in mind that in this
context the beginning of the “melt” season may be long before
the snow actually begins to change phase. The amount of
energy required to complete the warming phase is simply the
cold content at the beginning of the melt season which is
notationally referred to as: Qm1 for the energy input required
for melt Phase 1 (i.e. the warming phase). It is primarily
dictated by the specific heat capacity of the snowpack, which
by definition tells how much energy is required to raise the
temperature of the snowpack by 1 degree per unit mass.
Multiplying by mass and the total temperature change
required to reach the melting point provides the required
cumulative warming phase energy. In cases where the
snowpack properties (i.e. SWE and temperature) vary with
depth, the cold content can be computed for each layer and
summed up to get the total cold content. The length of Phase
198
1 is dictated by Qm1 and the amount of energy input to the
snowpack (driven primarily by net radiation).
The second and third phases of melt have to do with the
actual conversion of solid ice to liquid water. Keep in mind
that phase transition of a bulk media occurs at an isothermal
temperature (0°C for water) so that during the last two
phases the temperature of the snowpack is constant
(isothermal) and at the melting point. By definition, the
snowpack is wet during these phases. The second phase is
referred to as the “ripening” phase and begins when the
snowpack becomes isothermal. Any cumulative energy input
beyond Qm1 will start to melt the snow. However early on in
the process, water is retained in the pores (i.e. none leaves the
snowpack as runoff). The amount of water retained is that
given by Equation (6.3.5). The net energy input required to
complete the ripening phase (Phase 2) is simply:
Qm 2 = θretds ρwLf (6.5.2)
which is simply the mass of (retained) melted liquid water
multiplied by the latent heat of fusion (Lf = 3.34×105 J kg-1).
Since the liquid water retention capacity is generally relatively
small (5% maximum), the length of Phase 2 is often relatively
short, depending on the net radiation being input to the
snowpack.
The third and final phase is the melt output phase. It is
simply the extension of actual melt once the snowpack is
“ripe”, and corresponds to the period where any additional
melt will actually flow through and leave the pack since no
additional water can be retained in the pores. The net energy
required to complete the output phase is given by:
Qm 3 = (SWE − θretds )ρwLf (6.5.3)
where the first term on the right-hand-side is simply the
remaining amount of water that needs to be melted (after
ripening). Note that as expected, the total amount of energy
required for the second and third phases where melt is
actually occurring is given by:
Qm 2 + Qm 3 = SWE ρwLf (6.5.4)
where SWE corresponds to the amount at the beginning of
melt (neglecting sublimation losses to SWE). The above
expressions are most easily understood in the context of a
single-layer snowpack. However when modeling a multi-layer
snowpack energy balance (i.e. Equation (6.4.5)) the picture
becomes more complicated. The snowpack can have melt in
the upper surface layers that then flows downward in the
snowpack where it re-freezes. The re-freezing releases latent
heat energy that warms the snowpack in that location. The
process of surface melt, percolation, re-freezing with latent
heating, will continue until the entire pack is isothermal at the
freezing point. At that point ripening and melt output will
occur with the addition of any more energy.
All of the above has been in reference to processes at a
given point in space. When considering basin-scale processes,
it is important to keep in mind how things vary. In particular,
SWE accumulation will vary depending on orographic and
other effects so that the distribution of SWE at the beginning
199
of the melt season will vary considerably across the basin.
Moreover, as discussed in Chapter 3, radiation inputs can vary
widely in complex terrain due to slope, aspect, sky view
factor, etc. Hence the length of the melt phase at different
locations in the basin will vary considerably. The end result of
these factors is that snowpack melt-out itself will vary
considerably across a basin.
It is important to keep in mind that the above described
accumulation and melt of snow is highly seasonal over much of
the globe. Movie 6.1 shows a monthly time series of images of
snow cover over the northern hemisphere over North America
(from January 2004-December 2004). Accumulation and melt
M OVIE 6.1 Illustration of seasonal (monthly) snow cover
over the northern hemisphere based on satellite measurements
over the period January 2004-December 2004 (from
sos.noaa.gov/videos/seasonal_blue_marble_400.mov).
are clearly shown to be a strong function of both month and
latitude, with snow accumulating first and melting out last at
higher latitudes. Elevation also is shown to play a key role in
both accumulation and melt.
E XAMPLE 6.5.1
Suppose the snowpack properties described in
Example 6.3.1 are at the end of the accumulation
season. Compute the energy input requirements
for the warming, ripening, and melt output
phases. For simplicity, assume that the amount of
volumetric (liquid) water content that can be
held in the pores without drainage (i.e.
associated with ripening) is 0.02.
The required energy input for the warming phase is
equal to the cold content of the snowpack at the end of
the accumulation season, i.e.:
Qm1 = −(2102 J/kg/K)(1000 kg/m 3 )(0.4 m)(−15 K)
= 12.6 × 10 6 J/m 2
The required energy input for the ripening phase is given
by:
Qm 2 = (0.02)(2 m)(1000 kg/m 3 )(3.34 × 10 5 J/kg)
= 13.4 × 10 6 J/m 2
The required energy input for the melting phase is given
200
E XAMPLE 6.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

by:

Qm 3 = (0.4 m − (0.02)(2 m))(1000 kg/m 3 )(3.34 × 10 5 J/kg)

= 1.2 × 10 8 J/m 2

From these calculations we can see that the bulk of the

energy input requirements are associated with the actual
melt and less so for the warming/ripening. It is
important to note that these are the required energy
inputs. The actual source of the energy is the cumulative
energy inputs into the snowpack over the melt season.
The melt energy fluxes are typically expressed in units of
W m-2, which when integrated over time yields the same
units of J/m2. The energy inputs are mainly driven by
net radiation and sensible heating of the snowpack,
which are both typically increasing functions of time
moving forward into the melt season.

201
S ECTION 6
Impact of Vegetation
The impacts of vegetation on snow processes (and land
surface processes in general) are, among others, those related
to energy balance at the surface and those related to mass
balance. Each is discussed briefly below.
In terms of radiative energy balance at the snow surface,
the primary impact of vegetation is the attenuation and/or
augmentation of radiative energy fluxes. The clear- and
cloudy-sky shortwave fluxes discussed in Chapter 3 dealt with
those fluxes reaching the surface. In the case of bare soil/snow
these fluxes would directly contribute to the SEB. When
vegetation is present, those fluxes would correspond to those
reaching the surface just above the canopy. The downwelling
above-canopy shortwave radiation will interact with the
vegetation canopy, with the vegetation having media
properties as defined in Chapter 3 including transmissivity,
absorptivity, and reflectivity. The vegetation reflectivity
(albedo) is generally much lower than for snow. In the case of
a dense vegetation canopy (i.e. forest), the transmissivity will
also be relatively low. Together this means that much of the
above-canopy radiation will be attenuated (absorbed) by the
vegetation.
The interaction of solar radiation with canopy is
relatively complicated. To avoid complex radiative transfer
calculations, simple empirical expressions have been developed
to model the attenuation of downwelling solar radiation due to
vegetation canopy. In such models, the attenuation is modeled
as an additional correction factor in the downwelling
shortwave flux equation shown in Equation (3.6.9) so that the
downwelling flux reaching the snow surface would be:
Rs↓ = fsv fsc "#ts + β + βαts + β 2α $% Rs 0 (6.6.1)
where fsv is an attenuation function for shortwave radiation by
vegetation that depends on some vegetation characteristic. A
simple example of such a function is (Dunne and Leopold,
1978):
fsv = exp(−3.91F) (6.6.2)
where F is the forest cover fraction, which was specifically fit
to a lodgepole pine forest canopy a function of vegetation.
Note that this type of equation makes no attempt to account
for differences in density/type of vegetation canopy, only
fractional cover. Other examples of such attenuation factors
use metrics such as the so-called leaf area index (discussed in
more detail in Chapter 8) to better capture the differences in
attenuation by different kinds of canopies. Note that Equation
(6.6.1) is general in that if there is no forest cover (F = 0), it
reduces to the cloudy-sky case (which itself reduces to the
clear-sky case if there is no cloud cover).
The longwave radiation reaching the surface can also be
impacted by vegetation. Namely the longwave flux can
typically be augmented (increased) as a result of: i) a larger
202
emissivity relative to the effective atmospheric emissivity and
ii) a larger vegetation temperature as a result of absorption of
the atmospheric shortwave radiation. For the latter case, a
separate energy balance for the vegetation canopy must be
employed. Alternatively, an often-used simplifying assumption
is that the canopy has a negligible heat capacity which would
result in the canopy temperature being in approximate
equilibrium with the air temperature. In this case, only the
emissivity impacts would play a role in the longwave
augmentation. In such cases, the downwelling longwave flux
reaching the surface is often modified by using an emissivity
that is a weighted average of the atmospheric emissivity and
the vegetation canopy emissivity, i.e.:
The impact of vegetation on mass balance of the
snowpack on the ground (or the surface in general) primarily
has to do with the so-called interception of precipitation by
the canopy. The leaves of a dense canopy can hold a non-
negligible amount of snow (or rain) that is at least initially
removed from the snow/soil surface mass balance. An example
of this in the case of snow in an evergreen forest is shown in
Figure 6.13. The interception is most often treated as a small
reservoir that captures any precipitation coming in contact
with the canopy and can hold up to a specified volume (or

εd = (1 − F)[flc (cloud)εa ] + (F)[εv ] (6.6.3)

where the d subscript refers to downwelling and the v

subscript refers to vegetation and the weighting is simply done
by the fraction of forest cover. Note that a common
simplifying assumption is that the emissivity of a forest
canopy is equal to 1.0 so that Equation (6.6.3) becomes:

εd = (1 − F)flc (cloud)εa + F (6.6.4)

Using such an approach, the downwelling longwave at the

surface is then given by:

Rl↓ = εdσTa4 (6.6.5)

F IGURE 6.13 Photograph of intercepted snow by an ever-
which is a generalized equation that reduces to the original green forest canopy (from twdef.usu.edu/photos/TWDEF%20Choice/
equations in Chapter 3 for the special case of no vegetation images/canopy_interception.jpg).

cover and/or no cloud cover.

203
depth, i.e. volume per unit area) of water before the water
begins to drain or slough off (in the case of snow) the canopy
onto the surface. The amount of precipitation that falls
through the spaces in the canopy combined with the drainage
from the canopy is usually referred to as throughfall. The
primary impact of the intercepted water is that it can then
evaporate/sublimate back into the atmosphere before ever
reaching the surface. Hence, some of the water that would
have contributed to the snowpack and/or soil mass balance in
a bare surface case, will be removed from the surface mass
balance when vegetation is present. The evaporation (or
interception) loss from the canopy is discussed in more detail
in Chapter 8.

Both of the energy and mass balance implications

associated with vegetation cover discussed above play a
significant role in the spatial and temporal variability seen in
snowpacks. Moreover, they extend to non-snow covered
regimes, where the impact on energy/mass budgets are
equally important. This includes a significant impact on
evapotranspiration at the surface, which is discussed in more
detail in Chapter 8.

204
S ECTION 7

Snow Climatology
The climatology of snow is largely just a climatology of
precipitation, which drives snow accumulation, and a
climatology of radiation, which drives snow melt. Together
these will determine various climatological factors related to
snow including: average SWE, duration of accumulation and
melt seasons, types of snow, etc. Snowfall occurrence is largely
a product of latitudinal and elevational dependence. Areas at
high latitudes and/or at high elevation will experience air
temperatures cold enough to turn any appreciable
precipitation into snowfall.
F IGURE 6.14 Maps showing locations of major mountain
Figure 6.14 shows the major mountain ranges across the ranges across the globe.
globe which experience significant seasonal snowfall and
accumulation as a result of elevational lapse rate effects
(despite being at midlatitudes). Much of the remaining • Taiga: Thin to moderately deep, low-density snowpack found
portions of snow covered areas of the globe are a result of less in forests in cold climates
radiation at higher latitudes. The combination of varying
elevation, latitude, and other factors leads to varying • Alpine: Intermediate to cold, deep snowpacks, typically low
climatological classification of snow types. A common density
classification involves six different types of snow (Sturm et al.,
• Maritime: Warm, deep snowpack with coarse-grained snow
1995):
due to wetting
• Tundra: Thin, cold, wind-blown snow usually found above or
• Prairie: Thin (except in drifts) moderately cold snow with
poleward of tree line
substantial wind drifting

205
• Ephemeral (or no snow): Thin, extremely warm snow that
melts soon after deposition
F IGURE 6.15 Map of Sturm snow classification of snow types
over the Northern Hemisphere.
Figure 6.15 illustrate the spatial distribution and defined
types of snow across the Northern Hemisphere. The
classifications include factors like snow depth, density,
temperature, grain size, and vegetation presence/absence. For
example, in the continental U.S., Europe, and central Asia the
snowpacks are generally maritime, alpine, and prairie, while at
higher latitudes they transition to taiga and tundra. Based on
the snow processes described above, these varying snowpack
characteristics will impact the climatology of albedo and other
surface energy and mass balance processes.
The climatology of snow accumulation is tied mostly to
snowfall patterns. These climatologies are quite difficult to
determine quantitatively based on the relatively sparse
F IGURE 6.16 Map of mean annual total snowfall over the con-
tinental U.S. (in inches).
206
 patterns in this map are highly correlated with the snowfall
map shown in Figure 6.16 with both latitudinal and
elevational dependence. The map shows general areas in the
mountainous regions with snow cover presence greater than 60
days, up to values higher than 150 days. In localized areas
with north-facing aspects and/or with significant vegetation
cover snow may persist even longer. Differences are also due to
radiation (and other energy) inputs, as those at lower
latitudes and nearer coastlines may be subject to less heating
during the melt season or more abrupt transitions between
snow and rain season, where rain-on-snow events can often
lead to rapid melt-out.

F IGURE 6.17 Contour map showing the average annual num-

ber of days with snow cover.

availability of in situ data in many regions of the globe.

Figure 6.16 shows the annual snowfall climatology estimate
from NOAA over the continental U.S. The patterns seen are
essentially a superposition of the two effects described above:
a general increase in amounts of snowfall at higher latitudes
(most recognizable in the eastern U.S.) combined with areas
of high snowfall localized in mountainous regions (most
recognizable in the western U.S.).

The snowfall amounts combined with radiation inputs

during the melt season will, to first-order, determine how long
seasonal snowpacks last on the ground. Figure 6.17 shows a
map of snow cover duration over the continental U.S. The

207
S ECTION 8 be spherical hydrometeors, such an assumption in the case of
solid precipitation can be quite erroneous. Moreover, the
Snow Measurement disparity of the habits of snow crystals (Figure 6.3), means
that the uncertainty in the relationships between hydrometeor
size/shape and reflectivity is much larger. Similarly high
In describing snow measurement one must distinguish uncertainties plague relationships in satellite-based estimates
between snowfall measurement and snowpack measurement. of snowfall.
The former attempts to measure precipitation in the form of The other type of measurement of snow is the amount of
snow. Hence, the same techniques discussed in Chapter 5 can snow on the ground at a given location or time. In some sense,
theoretically be used to measure snowfall, including snowfall this is generally what is of most interest and is essentially, at
gauges, RADAR, and satellite-based techniques. The primary least in the accumulation season, an integrated measure of
complication with snowfall gauges have to do with the fact
that wind effects can be more amplified for low density
snowflakes (compared to raindrops) in the sense that the
turbulence caused by the presence of the gauge itself can
much more easily deflect snow such that it is not captured by
the gauge. Hence gauge under-catch, which is prevalent in the
case of rain, is generally exaggerated in the case of snowfall
measurement. It is not uncommon for a gauge to catch only
50% of the snowfall that might actually be falling, which can
lead to large (negative) biases in snowfall estimates.
Additionally, snow can freeze or block the gauge opening, so
often gauges designed to measure snowfall are equipped with a
heating unit to melt the snow which can then flow into the
tipping bucket or water reservoir.

The RADAR-based techniques used for snowfall

estimation also have difficulty, mainly caused by the much F IGURE 6.18 Example of snow depth measurement (from Na-
tional Weather Service, Wilmington Ohio).
more complicated relationship between snow hydrometeors
and reflectivity. While liquid raindrops are usually assumed to

208
how much snowfall occurred. Several techniques are used to
measure snow in situ, some of which are manual. These
manual measurements include snow courses, where snow
depth is measured using a snow stake (Figure 6.18) or SWE is
measured using a cylindrical probe that removes a column of
snow that is then weighed (Figure 6.19). Such snow courses
often require trekking into remote mountainous regions. As
such, they are often performed only monthly near the peak of
the snow accumulation season and during the melt season.
Such networks of long-term sampling often form the basis for
spring snowmelt and runoff planning in many snow-dominated
regions, including California which has had the California
F IGURE 6.19 Example of SWE measurement via weighing
snow cores (from nationalatlas.gov/articles/climate/a_snow.html).
Cooperative Snow Survey (http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/) in
place dating back to the early 1900s.
In order to increase the temporal resolution of SWE
measurements and avoid the manual labor required for snow
surveys, more recently snow pillows have become popular for
essentially continuous (daily) measurement of SWE. A
schematic of such a snow pillow station is shown in Figure
6.20 with a picture from a real site shown in Figure 6.21. A
snow pillow is a sealed envelope filled with a non-freezing
liquid that rests on the ground and is connected to pressure
transducers. The basic idea is that accumulated snow on top
of the pillow will impart a compressive force on the snow
pillow that will produce a measurable change in pressure in
the fluid. These sites often have some meteorological sensors
at the site to measure air temperature, precipitation and other
variables. A standardized network of snow pillow sites referred
to as snow telemetry (SNOTEL) sites is coordinated across
the western U.S. by the Natural Resources Conservation
Service (of the USDA).
Figure 6.22 shows a map of the SNOTEL sensor network.
The telemetry aspect of a SNOTEL site has to do with the
sending of the logged data to a remote receiver, which
alleviates the need to go to the site for data collection. Other
state agencies have additional snow pillow sites that are also
often telemetered, but not part of the official SNOTEL
network. The end result is a daily time series of SWE during
the snow season. Because of their cost, snow pillow sensors are
generally less abundant that the number of snow course
measurements, but they nevertheless provide a useful
209

F IGURE 6.20 Schematic illustration of a snow pillow site
(from nationalatlas.gov/articles/climate/a_snow.html).
complement to the other measurements. It is very important
to keep in mind that these and the other standard
measurements described above are all point-scale
measurements of variables that have a high degree of
F IGURE 6.21 Photo of a snow pillow site prior during the dry
season.
variability in space. Given this level of heterogeneity, the
current networks generally under-sample the SWE fields,
especially in mountainous terrain.
Another in situ point-scale measurement that is
impractical for operational implementation, but often used for
more detailed measurement of snowpack stratigraphy is the
digging of snow pits. This technique involves digging a pit to
ground level to expose a face of the snowpack (Figure 6.23).
Once exposed, various profile measurements including
temperature, density, SWE, hardness, grain size, etc. at a
210
 F IGURE 6.23 Example of snowpack characterization via a
snow pit where measurements of temperature, density, hard-
F IGURE 6.22 Locations of SNOTEL sites in the Western U.S. ness, grain size profiles are made.

211
regular interval across the entire profile are taken from the
face of the snow pit.
While the remote sensing of snowfall is difficult as
described above, other aspects of snow are routinely measured
via satellite-based remote sensing. Satellite-based remote
sensing generally measures electromagnetic radiation in a
particular and relevant part of the spectrum. Snow generally
has two relevant wavelength bands that provide useful
information: visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) and microwave.
In the Vis/NIR (i.e. shortwave) part of the spectrum
snow is highly reflective compared to other media (Table 3.2).
Satellite sensors measuring in this part of the spectrum are
F IGURE 6.24 Satellite-derived snow covered area.
essentially measuring the reflected solar radiation from the
surface and can therefore identify the presence or absence of
snow relatively easily (except for the case of snow under dense
vegetation canopies). Figure 6.24 shows a map of snow cover
over the globe for a particular day during Northern
Hemisphere winter obtained from polar orbiting satellites. The
data on sensors measuring in visible/near-infrared is often
F IGURE 6.25 Example of satellite-derived SWE estimate
over the northern hemisphere from passive microwave meas-
urements.
212
available at spatial resolutions ranging from tens to hundreds
of meters with varying temporal resolution (daily to every
couple weeks).

In the microwave spectrum, satellite sensors measure the

emitted (passive) microwave radiation from the surface, which
is sensitive to the amount of snow mass on the ground. So
microwave measurements are more directly connected to SWE
than Vis/NIR and retrieval algorithms have been developed to
estimate SWE from space-borne microwave sensors (Figure
6.25). However, the spatial resolution of microwave
measurements are on the order of tens of kilometers (i.e. much
coarser than Vis/NIR). At these coarse scales, there can be
significant sub-grid heterogeneity within a single remote
sensing footprint. This can often pose problems for the
retrieval of SWE in mountainous terrain.

213
S ECTION 9

MOD-WET Codes
Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in
this chapter include:

Disaggregation of meteorological station forcings:

distribute_met_forcings.m

Computation of surface pressure over complex terrain:

disaggregate_press.m

Computation of near-surface specific humidity over com-

plex terrain:
disaggregate_qair.m

Computation of air temperature over complex terrain:

disaggregate_Tair.m

A simple 1-layer snow model with mass/energy balance:

snow_model.m

A snow albedo model based on the USACE formulation:

albedo_usace.m

214
S ECTION 10
Conceptual Questions
1. Name the four fluxes in the surface energy balance
equation. What are the units on the fluxes?
2. Describe what the porosity of the snowpack represent.
3. What is the liquid water content of a dry snowpack. What
(order of magnitude) is the maximum liquid water content
of snowpack?
4. Describe the meaning of the liquid water retention capacity
of a snowpack.
10. Describe the key ways in which vegetation impacts
snowpack processes (and surface processes in general).
11. Name and describe the types of snowpack used in the
Sturm classification system. What are the primary types of
snowpack in the Western U.S.
12. Name the commonly used in situ techniques for
characterizing snowpack properties and clearly note what
properties are provided by each.
13. Describe the basic principle behind a snow pillow for
characterizing SWE.
14. In what ways can snowpacks be characterized from remote
sensing?

5. What is the order of magnitude density of new fallen snow

to solid ice?

6. Write the basic mass balance equation of a snowpack. Be

careful to define each term.

7. Name and describe the primary snowpack metamorphism

mechanisms. What impact do they generally have on
snowpack density?

8. How does snowpack albedo generally change with time?

What is responsible for this change?

9. Name and describe the three main phases of the snowmelt

process. What snowpack properties are chiefly responsible
for the amount of energy required for each phase?
215
S ECTION 11
Sample Problems
Problem 6.1.
a) Write down the surface energy balance equation and define
each of the four fluxes in the equation. Draw a simple
schematic that illustrates the sign convention associated with
these fluxes (i.e. use arrows to indicate the direction of a
positive flux). What are the units associated with the fluxes?
b) A meteorological station in the Sierra Nevada measures the
net radiation and the sensible heat flux at the surface to be
100 W m-2 and -50 W m-2 respectively on a particular day
during snow ablation (i.e. melt season). It is estimated that
5% of the net radiation is partitioned into latent heat
(sublimation) at the surface. Compute the “ground” heat flux,
which in this case is just that conducted into the (snow)
surface. Is this energy flux toward or away from the surface?
Problem 6.2.: Suppose a snowpack at the end of
accumulation has a SWE of 1.38 m, a snow temperature of
-7ºC, and snow depth of 3 meters. What is the density of the
snowpack, liquid water content, and snow porosity of the
snowpack at the time of peak SWE.
Problem 6.3. For a specific location in a watershed the peak
SWE of 0.22 m occurred on February 24th (DOWY 147). On
that day the temperature of the snowpack was 270.7 K.
a) Compute the cold content energy at the time of peak SWE
(in J m–2). Below you may assume this cold content
corresponds to the energy required to complete the warming
phase.
b) Compute the energy input required to complete both the
ripening and melt output phases (i.e. both phases combined).
c) For this specific location, the observed melt-out date was
May 6th (DOWY 218). Estimate the average daily melt input
that occurred over the three phases.
Problem 6.4. The temperature profile in a snowpack is
measured as follows:
DEPTH ABOVE SOIL TEMPERATURE
(CM) (ºC)
0 -1
30 -3
80 -2
a) For a snowpack, air in the pore space is in contact with
bulk ice. Hence the vapor pressure in the pore space is
essentially equal to the saturated vapor pressure for ice.
Compute the saturated vapor pressure (in Pa) in the pore
space at each level in the snowpack. You can reasonably
assume curvature effects are negligible so that you can use the
bulk Clausius-Clapeyron equation for ice.
216
b) During the accumulation season, snow grain size evolution temperature and density of -1.5ºC and 465 kg m-3
is largely driven by vertical temperature gradients which are respectively. Suppose meltwater drains into the lower layer of
responsible for vertical vapor gradients (since vapor pressure the snowpack.
is equal to saturated vapor pressure in the snowpack).
a) What is the maximum depth of meltwater flux (i.e. in cm)
Compute the vapor pressure gradients (in Pa cm-1) between
from the upper layer that could re-freeze in the lower (i.e. to
the first and second and second and third levels in the
just exactly warm the lower layer to the melting point)? Hint:
snowpack.
What is the amount of energy required to warm the layer to
c) Assuming vapor transport will be from areas of higher the melting point?
vapor concentration to areas of lower vapor concentration,
b) Suppose that surface layer melting yields 1 cm of melt
describe the expected transport direction of vapor in the
water that percolates downward from the surface to the lower
snowpack. In other words, which level will vapor be
layer in the snowpack. Based on your answer to part a), what
transported to and what levels will vapor be transported away
will the temperature of the lower layer be after any re-freezing
from? What is the expected impact on grain size in the three
occurs? Will all of the water re-freeze? If not, what will
layers? Explain why there would be not expected grain size
happen to the excess water?
growth from this mechanism during melt season after the
snow becomes isothermal.

Problem 6.5. A snowpack will generally begin to first melt

at the surface where the net radiative forcing is largest. This
initial melt may lead to a percolation flux that then refreezes
lower in the snowpack. Essentially, the cold-content of the
lower layer/s will go into re-freezing the liquid water. As you
know, when a substance undergoes a phase change the
associated latent heat describes the amount of energy required
for the change to take occur. The energy released during re-
freeze will warm the surrounding snowpack (i.e. reduce the
cold content).

Consider a two-layer snowpack where the lower layer has a

depth of 0.25 m. The lower layer is characterized by a

217
S ECTION 12
MOD-WET Problems
Problem 6.1. In this problem, you will analyze the snow
water equivalent (SWE) daily time series and maps in the
watershed from your simulation.
a) On a single figure, plot the daily SWE time series (in
meters) for the two selected pixels of varying aspect (from
Chapter 3) using the variable states.maps.SWE. Plot the
basin-averaged time series of daily SWE on the same figure.
Compare the three time series by considering the following
questions: i) What are the peak SWE values?, ii) When (what
date) do the peak SWE values occur?, iii) When (what date)
does melt-out occur? (Assume that a 1 cm threshold of SWE
can be used to signify the end of the snow season after peak
SWE has been reached.). Neglect any snow accumulation/
melt after this threshold is met. Answers for each pixel and
the basin-average should be tabulated.
b) Which of the two pixels considered in part a) has a
snowpack that persists for a longer duration? What factors
(e.g. elevation, slope, aspect, etc.) likely explain the
differences between the SWE curves for the two pixels?
c) On a single figure, plot the daily albedo time series for the
two pixels using the variable
disaggregated_forcing.maps.albedo. Plot the basin-
averaged time series of daily-averaged albedo on the same
figure. Using this figure and the SWE time series plot from
part a), describe how the snow albedo responds (i.e. increase,
decrease, no impact) to the following: i) Large snowfall events
(i.e. increases in SWE)?, ii) An aging snowpack?
d) Plot the daily-averaged spatial maps of SWE on December
21 (DOWY 82), the day of basin-averaged peak SWE, and
April 21 (DOWY 203). Compare the spatial variability of
SWE across the watershed by answering the following
questions: i) Which day has the greatest variability in SWE?
What is the range in SWE observed on this day? What is the
mean SWE on this day?, ii) How are the spatial patterns
observed on these days related to physical watershed
characteristics? For instance, does snow tend to accumulate/
melt first at higher or lower elevations in the watershed?
Problem 6.2. In this problem, you will analyze the snow
temperature, snow melt, and surface energy balance in the
watershed from your simulation. Since you will only consider
the states and fluxes of interest during the snow season, you
should set state/fluxes to NaN values when snow is not
present at a given pixel/time (i.e. when SWE = 0 m). For
instance, this means that the variable containing daily-
averaged surface temperatures should be modified for plotting
such that it will only contain the snow temperature.
a) On a single figure, plot the daily-averaged snow
temperature (in Kelvin) time series for the two pixels chosen
above, and the basin-average. Describe differences in the snow
temperatures during the accumulation and the melt seasons.
This can be described in terms of general seasonal trends (i.e.
218
accumulation vs. melt season) as they relate to variability in
the SWE time series.

b) Plot the daily-averaged spatial maps of snow temperature

(in Kelvin) and the daily-averaged snow melt flux
(fluxes.maps.snowmelt in meters) on December 21 (DOWY
82), the day of basin-averaged peak SWE, and April 21
(DOWY 203). Describe the spatial patterns across the three
days for each of the variables. How do the patterns observed
in these two variables relate to one another and to the SWE
maps?

c) On a single figure, plot the daily-averaged time series of net

radiation, latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, and surface heat
flux for one of the pixels chosen above. Describe and explain
differences in net radiation, latent heat, and sensible heat
between the accumulation season and melt season. For
instance, does the net radiation tend to correspond to a net
input or release of energy when the snowpack is melting?

219
Chapter 7

Unsaturated
Flow and
Infiltration
S ECTION 1
Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define the meaning of a porous media
2. Use the soil triangle to define a particular soil type/
texture
3. Define the volumetric water content and relative soil
saturation and how they are related to each other
4. Describe what factors (i.e. pressure head, elevation head,
velocity head) control flow in porous media
5. Define matric head and hydraulic conductivity and how
they depend on soil moisture and soil type
6. Define and explain Darcy’s Law for flow in unsaturated
conditions
7. Understand and describe the two terms that in particular
control vertical flow in unsaturated soils
8. Write down Richards equation for one-dimensional
(vertical) flow in unsaturated soils
9. Understand and describe what drives infiltration rate
10. Sketch a picture of how the soil moisture profile in the
unsaturated zone evolves during an infiltration event
11. Sketch a picture of how the infiltration rate evolves in
time during a storm for the general case of switching
boundary conditions
12. Sketch a picture of how the infiltration rate evolves in
time for the limiting cases of very intense storms (i.e.
precipitation rate very high relative to saturated
conductivity) and low intensity storms (i.e. precipitation
rate lower than saturated hydraulic conductivity)
13. Understand the primary assumptions used in models for
infiltration capacity (e.g. Philip, Green-Ampt)
14. Understand and describe the difference between actual
infiltration and infiltration capacity (or potential
infiltration)
15. Convert between infiltration rate and cumulative
infiltration
16. Apply the time-compression approximation to compute
the actual infiltration under non-ponded conditions (i.e.
the general case)
221
S ECTION 2

Unsaturated Zone Charac-

teristics
Soil is a porous medium consisting of a matrix of
individual solid grains and interconnected pores that can be
filled with water and/or air. The unsaturated (or vadose) zone
is the region of soil found between the land surface and the
saturated zone (water table) that lies at some depth beneath
the surface (Figure 7.1). The main distinguishing feature
between the saturated and unsaturated zones simply have to
do with whether the pore space in the soil is partially or fully
filled with water. The unsaturated zone is actually more
complex in that the pores are filled with both water and air.
The thickness of the vadose zone is variable throughout a
basin, where generally speaking the water table depth is
deepest at higher elevation regions and shallowest along F IGURE 7.1 Schematic illustration of porous media including
unsaturated and saturated zones (from quizlet.com/4706106).
streams in the basin. If a particular basin is vegetated, the
rootzone of the soil is primarily contained within the vadose
zone. For a more detailed description of vadose zone processes
the reader is referred to Parlange and Hopmans (1999). leaving the vadose zone and entering the groundwater system.
Another distinguishing feature of the vadose zone is that the
In terms of fluxes, the primary source of water to the water movements are mostly vertical, which is in contrast to
vadose zone is infiltration, which by definition is the flux at the groundwater system where fluxes are mostly horizontal.
the surface (associated with precipitation events), while water As such, flow dynamics in the unsaturated zone are often
can also move upward from the water table below via treated as simply one-dimensional (1D) in the vertical.
capillary rise. In general, percolation is the flux of water Unsaturated flow dynamics consist not only of water moving
moving down through the vadose zone and recharge is the flux downward through the vadose zone, but also upward via
222
redistribution and evaporation from the soil surface. or relative saturation:
Additionally, root uptake (and subsequent transpiration from θ
the leaves of the vegetation) constitutes a sink of moisture s= (7.2.5)
θs
that can be distributed throughout the rootzone.

In terms of characterizing porous soil media, many of the both of which are dimensionless. The former is a
same or analogous definitions that were used for snow are representation of the fraction of total soil volume filled with
used for soil. The mineral particle density is given by: water and therefore can theoretically vary between zero and
Mass of minerals the soil porosity. The s subscript is used to denote saturated
ρm = (7.2.1)
Volume of minerals (i.e. all pores are filled with water). The relative saturation is
a normalized metric that represents the fraction of pores filled
with water and therefore varies between 0 and 1. When
and is relatively invariant for soils with a value around 2650 discussing “soil moisture” it is crucial to know which of these
kg m-3. The bulk density is given by: two metrics are being used as they are approximately a factor
Mass of minerals (7.2.2) of two different due to the porosity. In reality, the lower limit
ρb =
Volume of soil of soil moisture is not generally zero, but a residual amount
that is bound to the soil grains, which is dependent on the
type of soil.
and varies depending on the soil type and porosity. The soil
porosity has the analogous definition used in snow (in this Most of the above defined properties depend on soil
case volume of pore space per unit volume of soil) and can be “type”. However this has not yet been rigorously defined. The
related to the above densities: common way of defining soil type (or “texture”) is via a grain
θs = 1 − ρb ρm size distribution. This involves taking a soil sample and
(7.2.3)
sorting it with progressively smaller sieve openings to
The water content in the unsaturated zone is usually characterize the distribution of soil grains in various size bins.
characterized by the volumetric water content: For the types of soil commonly found in the vadose zone,
three end-member types are defined: sand (size range between
Volume of water (7.2.4)
θ≡ 0.06 and 2 mm), silt (size range between 0.002 and 0.06 mm)
Volume of soil
and clay (sizes less than 0.002 mm). For a given soil sample
one can determine the fractional weight in each of these end-

223
 silty clay loam. The important aspect of this is that many
experiments have been done to correlate these defined soil
types with specific properties (including those defined above)
that are useful for characterizing the storage and/or flow
properties of a given soil.

Table 7.1 shows the typical porosity for the various soil
types as determined via analysis of over 1000 soil samples by
Clapp and Hornberger (1978). The general trend is that sandy
soils have the lowest porosities, while clay soils have the
highest. This may be counterintuitive at first, as larger

T ABLE 7.1. A VERAGE POROSITY AS A FUNCTION OF

SOIL TYPE (C LAPP & H ORNBERGER , 1978). V ALUE
SHOWN IN PARENTHESES IS THE STANDARD
DEVIATION .
SOIL TYPE POROSITY

Sand 0.395 (0.056)

Loamy sand 0.410 (0.068)
F IGURE 7.2 USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) soil tex- Sandy Loam 0.435 (0.086)
ture triangle for determining soil type from fraction of clay, silt,
and sand. Silt Loam 0.485 (0.059)
Loam 0.451 (0.078)
Sandy clay loam 0.420 (0.059)
members. Based on this classification, one then typically uses Silty clay loam 0.477 (0.057)
the so-called soil texture triangle (Figure 7.2) to identify the
Clay loam 0.476 (0.053)
particular soil type, which are arbitrarily defined names
Sandy clay 0.426 (0.057)
indicating the combination of constituents (silt loam, sandy
loam, sandy clay, silty clay, etc.). For example a soil sample Silty clay 0.492 (0.064)
with 30% clay, 10% sand, and 60% silt would be classified as a Clay 0.482 (0.050)
224
grained soils generally have larger pores. However, clay tends
to have smaller but many more pores due to the configuration
of the particles (Figure 7.3). The implication of this is that
while clays theoretically have more water storage capacity, the
ability for water to actually flow is much higher in sandy soils.
This will be seen more explicitly in following sections.

In terms of connections between porosity and soil

moisture, Figure 7.4 shows the range of soil moisture
conditions one may expect to find in a soil. During and after a
storm, the soil may be near-saturated, in which case it is easy
for water to drain from the soil due to gravity. After the
immediate gravitational drainage, the state where most of the

F IGURE 7.4 Illustration of soil moisture content in a porous

media.

pores are still filled is called the field capacity. The typical
situation is shown where a mix of air and water is stored in
the pores, where water may be held up against gravity due to
capillary forces (discussed more below). Finally, if additional
drying is experienced (i.e. by evaporation or root uptake), the
soil moisture condition will eventually reach the wilting point.
In this case, only immobile water that is essentially adhered to
grains is left behind. In this condition, a plant’s system will
not be able to uptake moisture and may wilt. The amount of
water corresponding to each of these states is dependent upon
F IGURE 7.3 Illustration of porosity for sand vs. clay soil.
the soil type as shown in Figure 7.5. The reason for this has

225
 E XAMPLE 7.2.1

A soil sample taken from the field with a 10 cm

long by 5 cm diameter cylindrical tube has a field
weight of 306 g and an oven-dried weight of 245
g. For the soil sample, calculate the: a) bulk
density and porosity and b) volumetric soil
moisture and relative saturation.

a) The volume of the (cylindrical) soil sample is given

by:

π
Vsoil = (5 cm)2(10 cm) = 196.4 cm 3
4

The bulk density is given by the ratio of the dry soil

mass to the soil volume:
F IGURE 7.5 Estimates of field capacity and wilting point soil 245 g
moisture values as a function of soil type. ρb = = 1.25 g cm 3
196.4 cm 3

The soil porosity is given by:

to do mostly with flow through soils rather than storage and
θs = 1 − (1.25 g cm 3 ) (2.65 g cm 3 ) = 0.53
is discussed in the next section.
b) The volumetric soil moisture and relative saturation
depend on the amount of water in the soil. The mass of
water in the sample is 306 g - 245 g = 61 g. Based on
the density of liquid water this amounts to 61 cm3. The
volumetric soil moisture is then:

226
E XAMPLE 7.2.1 ( CONTINUED )

61 cm 3
θ= = 0.31
196.4 cm 3
The relative saturation is then given by:
0.31
s= = 0.59
0.53

227
S ECTION 3
Flow in Unsaturated Po-
rous Media
Here we introduce the basics of flow in porous media.
The principles apply to both unsaturated and saturated flow,
but will be applied for unsaturated flow first. The key point
with respect to flow is that water flows down the prevailing
energy gradient. The total energy at a given point in a flow
field (neglecting internal energy) consists of the sum of
potential energy, kinetic energy, and work done by the
pressure force, and can be written as:
1 WV 2 pW (7.3.1)
Total Energy = Wz + +
2 g ρw g
In the case of water flow, the density corresponds to that of
liquid water. It is then common to divide the above by weight
(W) and define the hydraulic head, which is simply the total
energy per unit weight:
V2 p (7.3.2)
H =z+ +
2g ρw g
where the terms on the right-hand-side are referred to as the
elevation head, velocity head, and pressure head. The
elevation head is defined relative to a datum. It should be
noted that in the context of flow problems, the pressure p
used here is gauge pressure, which means pressure above
atmospheric pressure. In general this energy (per unit weight)
has dimensions of length, can vary with space and time, and
will dictate flow direction and magnitudes. In general for
subsurface soil flow, the velocity (V) is small making the
kinetic energy term negligible:
p
H z+ = h(x,y,z,t) (7.3.3)
ρw g
where h is the piezometric head and the spatial and temporal
dependence is shown for emphasis. As will be discussed below,
spatial gradients in h are what drive flow, where in particular
water will flow from areas of higher h to areas of lower h. It
should be noted that implicitly each term is representative of
the average state of the system over some small representative
elemental volume (REV). The REV can be thought of as a
small differential volume of soil (containing soil particles, air,
and water). So for example, the pressure is the average water
pressure over the REV.
The above principles apply to either saturated or
unsaturated flow, however the pressure head term in the case
of unsaturated flow has unique connotations. In saturated
soils one can envision water being “pushed” by pressure
gradient forces, where the pressure is higher than atmospheric
surface pressure. In unsaturated soils the water is being held
up against gravity, or “pulled” by pressure gradient forces that
are less than atmospheric surface pressure. Because pressure
in this context is defined as gauge pressure, this means that
228
pressure in the unsaturated zone is negative. Such negative
pressures are often referred to as suction or tension. The
reason for the suction forces have to do with capillarity and
surface tension in the soil.
One can envision soil as containing several different pore
sizes that could be conceptualized as capillary tubes of
varying diameter. If different capillary tubes are placed in a
beaker of water that is open to the air (Figure 7.6), the water
level inside the capillary tubes will rise above the water level
outside the tubes. Moreover, the smaller the tubes, the higher
the water level will rise. The difference in height between the
water inside and outside of the tubes is due to suction
(negative pressure associated with surface tension) where the
pressure at the water surface outside the tubes is by construct
F IGURE 7.6 Illustration of capillary rise as a function of capil-
lary tube diameter. Capillary rise is proportional to suction in
water. Soil suction in soil pores act analogously with smaller
pores holding water at higher suction pressures. The capillary
rise is marked by a curved meniscus due to surface tension.
atmospheric (zero gauge pressure). When a soil is
unsaturated, water will be held more tightly against gravity in
the smaller pores in the same way that water is pulled higher
in the tubes with smaller diameters (Figure 7.6). The result is
that water in smaller pores will have higher (more negative)
suction pressures. Since smaller pores have higher suction,
these pores will tend to hold water longest. Furthermore, since
the pressure p in Equation (7.3.3) refers to the average over
an REV of soil, high (i.e. more negative) suction pressures are
generally associated with dry soils and vice versa. In the limit
of a soil becoming completely dry, the suction pressure will
approach minus infinity. In the limit of a soil becoming
saturated, the suction pressure will approach zero. This is
generally the case at the water table interface between the
unsaturated and saturated zones.
Since the density of liquid water is essentially constant,
the pressure head term is often redefined as the matric head
(or suction head):
p
ψ = (< 0) (7.3.4)
ρw g
so that the piezometric head for unsaturated flow can be
written as:
h =ψ +z (7.3.5)
The flow (flux of water) in porous media is often
described by the volumetric flow (Q; [Q]=L3/T) per unit
cross-sectional area (A; [A]=L2) and is given by Darcy’s
229
(1856) Law:
Q therefore:
q= = −K∇h (7.3.6)
A h(z,t) = ψ (z,t) + z
where the “del” operator is given by:
∂() ∂() ∂()
∇() = + +
∂x ∂y ∂z
and represents a gradient when operating on a scalar field or a
divergence when operating on a vector field. The Darcy flux
(or specific discharge) q has dimensions of velocity [L T-1], K
is the hydraulic conductivity [L T-1], and the last term is the
gradient in piezometric head h(x, y, z). The head is a scalar
field so that the del operator is the gradient and represents a
vector quantity. As such q is itself a vector quantity (i.e. has
directionality). A gradient is a vector in the steepest ascent
direction (i.e. slope is defined as positive in the increasing
direction). Since flow is always in the steepest descent
direction, there is a negative sign in Darcy’s Law (Equation
(7.3.6)). In general q can be a three-dimensional quantity (i.e.
with three components in the x-, y-, and z-directions). Since
unsaturated flow is mainly in the z-direction only, the relevant
Darcy flux is given by:
∂h (7.3.7)
q z = −K z
∂z
If this is the only component of the Darcy flux, then it implies
that h is only a function of z (and time) i.e. h(z, t) and
(7.3.8)
The key point is that the flow is proportional to both the
hydraulic conductivity and to the head gradient:
∂h ∂ψ
= +1 (7.3.9)
∂z ∂z
Based on Equations (7.3.7) and (7.3.9), flow in the
unsaturated zone depends on the hydraulic conductivity of the
soil and matric head of the soil. In particular these two
variables depend on two factors: i) Soil type (which is fixed in
time, but varies in space) and ii) soil moisture (which varies in
both space and time). To quantify these relationships,
experiments have been performed to develop constitutive
relationships between the soil type, moisture and conductivity
and matric head.
Several models exist, but a commonly used one is the
Brooks-Corey model (1966). The water retention curve (i.e.
soil matric head vs. soil moisture) is given by:
−b
⎛θ⎞ (7.3.10)
ψ (θ ) = ψ s ⎜ ⎟
⎝ θs ⎠
ψ s ≡ saturated matric head
b ≡ Brooks-Corey parameter
and the hydraulic conductivity curve is given by:
230
 c
⎛θ⎞ T ABLE 7.2. A VERAGE B ROOKS -C OREY P ARAMETERS
K(θ ) = K s ⎜ ⎟
⎝ θs ⎠ AS A FUNCTION OF SOIL TYPE (C LAPP &
(7.3.11)
K s ≡ saturated hydraulic conductivity H ORNBERGER , 1978). V ALUE SHOWN IN
PARENTHESES IS THE STANDARD DEVIATION .
c = 2b + 3
SAT.
SAT.
HYDRAULIC BROOKS-
SOIL MATRIC
where the parameters in the model are functions of soil type CONDUC- COREY
TYPE HEAD
(Table 7.2). TIVITY PARAMETER
[cm]
[cm/hr]
It is important to keep in mind that the saturated matric
head (sometimes referred to as the air-entry bubbling Sand 63.36 -12.1 (14.3) 4.05 (1.78)
pressure) is negative. The Brooks-Corey b parameter is a Loamy sand 56.16 -9.0 (12.4) 4.38 (1.47)
positive number that is generally greater than 1, meaning that
the retention curve is nonlinear. For a given soil type at Sandy Loam 12.49 -21.8 (31.0) 4.90 (1.75)

saturation, the matric head is equal to the saturated matric Silt Loam 2.59 -78.6 (51.2) 5.30 (1.96)
head and the hydraulic conductivity is equal to the saturated
Loam 2.50 -47.8 (51.2) 5.39 (1.87)
hydraulic conductivity. As soil moisture becomes smaller, the
matric head becomes larger in magnitude (more negative), Sandy clay
2.27 -29.9 (37.8) 7.12 (2.43)
loam
while the hydraulic conductivity becomes smaller
(approaching zero). Figure 7.7 shows a schematic of the water Silty clay
0.61 -35.6 (37.8) 7.75 (2.77)
retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. Table 7.2 shows loam
that as a soil goes from sand to clay the saturated hydraulic Clay loam 0.88 -63.0 (51.0) 8.52 (3.44)
conductivity becomes less. Note that this is in contrast to the
Sandy clay 0.78 -15.3 (17.3) 10.4 (1.64)
trend in porosity (Table 7.1) indicating that while fine-grained
soils can actually store more water, the flow in such soils is Silty clay 0.37 -49.0 (62.1) 10.4 (4.45)
generally lower. Additionally, the relationships become more Clay 0.46 -40.5 (39.7) 11.4 (3.7)
nonlinear as soils become more fine-grained. It should be
clearly noted that these parameters are in general highly Given these relationships, they can be used in Darcy’s
uncertain and the tabulated values shown in Table 7.2 are Law to express flux in terms of the soil moisture, i.e.:
estimates from one dataset.
231
 −(b+1) (7.3.13)
dψ b "θ %
= − ψs $$ ''
dθ θs # θs &

where while the magnitude can vary with soil moisture, the
sign of Equation (7.3.13) is always positive (Figure 7.7).

The key point illustrated by Equation (7.3.12) is that the

flux at any depth in the soil is driven by two factors: i)
capillary forces driven by soil moisture gradients (first term)
and ii) gravity drainage (second term). The gravity term is
always acting downward (negative). The matric head term,
however, can act either upward or downward, depending on
the sign of the soil moisture gradient. If the soil moisture
gradient is positive (i.e. increasing soil moisture as you go up
in the soil column), then the matric head term is negative and
reinforces the gravity term. If the soil moisture gradient is
negative (i.e. decreasing soil moisture as z increases upward
in the soil profile), then the matric head term is positive and
acts against gravity. In both cases, the matric head gradient
F IGURE 7.7 Plot of matric head (blue curve/left axis) and hy-
draulic conductivity (green curve/right axis) as a function of term acts to drive flow from wetter soil locations to drier soil
volumetric soil moisture content. locations. Depending on the conditions, if the gradient is
negative and large in magnitude, the first term may be larger
than the second so that flow will actually be upward in the
⎡ ∂ψ ⎤ dψ ∂θ soil. The relative magnitude of the terms and the sign of the
q z = −K(θ ) ⎢ + 1⎥ = −K(θ ) − K(θ ) (7.3.12)
∂z dθ ∂z matric head term will vary (significantly) in time. During
⎣ ⎦
infiltration events, the soil moisture in the surface layer will
become moister than the soil below, driving flow downward in
where the hydraulic conductivity is given by Equation (7.3.11) conjunction with gravity. During a dry-down period, where
and the derivative term can be determined via the retention evaporation removes moisture from the soil, the gradient in
curve model (Equation (7.3.10)): soil moisture may reverse and become large enough to

232
counteract gravity. The specific governing equation for
unsaturated flow dynamics will be discussed in the next
section.
Finally, given the retention curve model, one can also
then more precisely define the values for other parameters like
the field capacity and wilting point that were mentioned in
Section 2. The field capacity is defined (albeit arbitrarily) as
the level of moisture reached after drainage for a “few days” or
more precisely the soil moisture corresponding to a matric
head of -340 cm (Dingman, 2008), which can be used in the
Brook-Corey model to invert for soil moisture:
1
" −340 cm %
−
b (7.3.14)
θ fc = θs $$ ''
# ψs & volumetric soil moisture is equal to 0.4.
E XAMPLE 7.3.1
Soil moisture sensors in the field show that the
volumetric soil moisture profile follows the
following linear relationship: θ (z) = θsurf − mz
where the coordinate z is zero at the surface and
negative below the surface and m is a positive
constant. Determine an expression for the Darcy
flux in the soil for this soil moisture profile.
Estimate the magnitude and direction of the flux
at a depth of 0.5 m if the soil is a sandy loam,
the slope m is equal to 0.05 m-1 and the surface

where this can be determined solely from soil type. Similarly If the soil moisture varies with depth (in this case wetter
the permanent wilting point is defined (again somewhat at depth), then so will the matric head and hydraulic
arbitrarily) as the soil moisture at which the matric head is conductivity. The matric (pressure) head in the soil is
equal to -15000 cm (i.e. very dry): given by:
1
" −15000 cm %
−
b (7.3.15) ! θ (z) $
−b
! θ − mz $
−b

θwp = θs $$ '' ψ(z) = ψs ## && = ψs ## surf &

&
# ψs & " θs % " θs %

which again only depends on soil type. These two parameters and the hydraulic conductivity is given by:
provide the bounds within which soil moisture is typically
c c
found (except immediately after storms when the soil moisture ! θ (z) $ ! θ − mz $
K(z) = K s ## && = K s ## surf &
&
will be above field capacity) as shown in Figure 7.5. θ
" s % " θ s %

where the soil hydraulic parameters are typically either

233
E XAMPLE 7.3.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 7.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

measured or estimated based on soil texture. The Darcy " 0.4 − 0.05(−0.5) %
(2(4.9)+3)

flux is given by: = (12.49 cm /hr) $ ' = 9.27 cm/hr

# (0.435) &
# ∂ψ & #dψ ∂θ &
q z = −K(θ )% + 1( = −K(θ )% + 1( The matric head gradient is given by:
$ ∂z ' $ dθ ∂z ' −(b+1)
∂ψ bm # θsurf − mz &
where = ψ % (
∂z θs s %$ θs (
'
(4.9)(.0005 cm −1 )
−(b+1)
dψ b " θ (z) %
−(b+1)
b " θ − mz %
= − ψs $$ surf ' = (−21.8 cm) ×
dθ
= − ψs $$
θs # θs '&
'
θs # θs ' (0.435)
& −(4.9+1)
# 0.4 − (0.05 m −1 )(−0.5 m) &
% (
and $ (0.435) '
∂θ = −0.141 cm cm -1
= −m
∂z
where note that this is opposite in sign to the elevation
Substituting all of the terms into the flux equation gradient (equal to 1) but smaller in magnitude. This tells
yields: us that the flow will be downward since the net head
c ( −(b+1) + gradient (matric head term plus gravity) will drive flow
" θ − mz % " mz %
q z = −K s $$ surf ' *bm ψ $ surf
θ −
' + 1- downward. The flux is given by:
' *θ s $ ' -
# θ s & s # θs &
) , q z = −(9.27 cm/hr)"#(−0.141) + 1$% = −8.0 cm/hr

For a sandy loam soil, the soil parameters can be

which is negative and therefore downward.
estimated from Tables 7.1 and 7.2. The hydraulic
conductivity at a depth of 0.5 m is given by:
c
" θ − mz %
K(z = −0.5 m) = K s $$ surf '
'
# θ s &

234
S ECTION 4 ∂θ (7.4.3)
= −∇ ⋅ q
∂t
Modeling Unsaturated
For 1D (z-direction) flow this becomes:
Zone Flow Dynamics ∂θ ∂ ∂ ⎡ ⎧ ∂ψ
= − (q z ) = − ⎢ −K(θ ) ⎨
⎫⎤
+ 1⎬ ⎥ (7.4.4)
∂t ∂z ∂z ⎣ ⎩ ∂z ⎭⎦
The modeling of unsaturated flow (or the unsaturated
flow equation) does not consist solely of Darcy’s Law, but which can be rewritten in terms of the dependent volumetric
requires consideration of water going into or out of storage, soil moisture variable:
which changes the flow properties (matric head, hydraulic
∂θ ∂ ⎡ ⎧dψ ∂θ ⎫⎤ (7.4.5)
conductivity). This can be done via application of the = ⎢ K(θ ) ⎨ + 1 ⎬⎥
∂t ∂z ⎣ ⎩ dθ ∂z ⎭⎦
differential form of mass balance:
∂M (7.4.1)
= −∇ ⋅ (ρw qdx dy dz) The collection of terms multiplying the soil moisture gradient
∂t
is often referred to as the diffusivity (D), i.e.:
dψ (7.4.6)
where this is simply derived from the mass balance Equation D(θ ) = K(θ )
dθ
(1.5.2) where the right-hand-side has been transformed from
the surface integral to one over the differential volume via the
divergence theorem. The left-hand-side is the change in mass In the case where the soil has vegetation roots within the
storage and the right-hand-side represents the convergence of unsaturated zone, then a sink term S can be added:
flow into the differential volume of soil. For an unsaturated
∂θ ∂" ∂θ % (7.4.7)
soil we can write that the mass of water in the differential = $D(θ ) + K(θ )' + S(z,t)
∂t ∂z # ∂z &
volume is given by:

M = ρwθ dx dy dz (7.4.2) The root uptake sink term (S) can vary with depth and time
depending on the root density structure and available soil
Substituting this into the above equation, assuming density is
moisture. In the case of no vegetation or root uptake, S = 0
constant, and canceling like-terms yields:
and Equation 7.4.7 reduces to 7.4.5. This becomes the

235
governing equation for unsaturated flow and is commonly which corresponds to a uniform initial soil condition followed
referred to as the Richards (1931) Equation. Note that this is by an abrupt shift to a different value that is held at the
a second order nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) surface (i.e. what might be seen in a high-intensity storm), the
where the dependent variable is soil moisture and the solution to Equation (7.4.8) is given by (Eagleson, 1970):
independent variables are depth in the soil and time. To solve " z % (7.4.10)
this PDE, one needs 2 boundary conditions and an initial θ (z,t) = θ 0 + (θi − θ 0 )erf $ '
condition. The domain this is applied over is the unsaturated $# 2(Dt) '&
1/2

soil column and the boundary conditions correspond to those

at the surface (infiltration/evaporation) and at the lower where erf is the so-called error function:
boundary (recharge flux into water table or saturated 2 y
−x 2
erf(y) = ∫e dx (7.4.11)
conditions). The nonlinearity comes from the dependence of
π 0
the hydraulic conductivity and matric head on soil moisture.
Due to the nonlinearity and the complicated surface boundary
conditions, Richards Equation is difficult to solve analytically. which is tabulated or available in most numerical software
Therefore in most applications it must be solved numerically. packages (i.e. erf in MATLAB). With such knowledge of the
This involves discretizing the soil column into many layers and moisture profile, one could then determine the Darcy flux
using a finite difference or finite element solution of the anywhere in the soil column. For the above solution this
equation. would (again assuming the gravity term is negligible to be
consistent with the original assumption) be:
Bras (1990) discusses some special case solutions to the 1/2
#D & # z & (7.4.12)
Richards Equation under various simplifying assumptions. For q z (z,t) = −D
∂θ
= −(θi − θ 0 ) % ( exp % (
example, if one assumes that the gravity term is negligible and ∂z $ πt ' % 2(Dt)1/2 (
$ '
the the diffusivity is constant, Equation (7.4.5) reduces to:
∂θ ∂2θ However, outside of the somewhat restrictive conditions
=D 2 (7.4.8)
∂t ∂z mentioned above, analytical solutions to Richards Equation
are not possible and it must be solved numerically.
Under the following initial and boundary conditions:
" θ, z ≤ 0,t = 0 (7.4.9)
$
θ =# i
$% θ 0 , z = 0,t > 0

236
E XAMPLE 7.4.1 E XAMPLE 7.4.1

For the soil moisture profile snapshot in Example which is a complicated (nonlinear) function of the soil
7.3.1, determine the expression for the profile and soil parameters. It can be further rearranged
instantaneous volumetric soil moisture storage to yield:
change. −(b+2)+c c−1
∂θ bcm 2 # θ − mz & cm # θsurf − mz &
As determined in Example 7.3.1, the Darcy flux is given = K s 2 ψs %% surf (
( + Ks % ( +
∂t θs $ θ s ' θs %$ θs (
'
by:
−(b+2)+c
K sb(b + 1)m 2 # θ − mz &
" θ − mz %
c ( −(b+1) + ψs %% surf (
bm
* ψ $
" θ − mz % θs2 θ (
q z = −K s $$ surf ' surf
' + 1- $ s '
θ ' *θ s$ θs ' - −(b+2)+c
# s & ) s # & , bm 2 # θ − mz &
= (c + b + 1)K s 2 ψs %% surf (
( +
θs $ θ s '
Richards equation provides the storage change, which in c−1
the z direction is given by the following expression for cm # θsurf − mz &
Ks % (
this case: θs %$ θs (
'

∂θ ∂ ∂ ) # ∂ψ &,
= − (q z ) = +K(z)% (z) + 1(.
∂t ∂z ∂z * $ ∂z '-
∂ # ∂ψ & ∂2 ψ
= (K(z) % (z) + 1( + K(z) 2 (z)
)
∂z $ ∂z ' ∂z
c−1 # −(b+1) &
cm ) θ − mz , bm ) θ − mz ,
=− K s ++ surf . % ψs + surf . + 1( +
θs θs . % + . (
* - $ θs * θs - '
c # −(b+2) &
) θ − mz , ) mz ,
%b(b + 1)m ψ + surf
2 θ −
K s ++ surf . . (
. % 2 s+ . (
* θ s - θs * θs -
$ '

237
S ECTION 5 dψ ∂θ (7.5.3)
f (t) = K(θ [z = 0,t ]) + K(θ [z = 0,t ])
dθ ∂z
Infiltration
z =0,t

which implicitly requires knowledge of the soil moisture and

A complete modeling of unsaturated zone dynamics
requires the solution of Richards equation. If the soil moisture
profile evolution is known, then everything about storage and
flux in the entire unsaturated zone is known (or can be
determined). The one aspect of unsaturated flow that is of
most interest to hydrologists is infiltration, which is the flux
at the surface resulting from a precipitation event. The prime
motivation for modeling infiltration is that, if infiltration and
precipitation are known, then the surface runoff is known. The
infiltration rate can be defined as:
Infiltration rate = f (t) = −q z (7.5.1)
z =0
its gradient at the surface. The above expression provides the
infiltration rate ([L/T]). In some cases, the cumulative
infiltration ([L]) is used which is defined by:
t
dF (7.5.4)
F(t) = ∫ f (t ′)dt ′ ⇔ f (t) =
0
dt
To model infiltration, there are generally two options:
1. Solve Richards Equation which provides q everywhere
including at the surface, but is computationally expensive.
2. Develop models based on some simplifying assumptions.

which is simply the Darcy flux at the surface (z = 0). The

negative sign is used because the Darcy flux is defined as
positive upwards, but the infiltration is typically defined as
positive downward. Note that the infiltration rate is only a
function of time since it is the Darcy flux evaluated at the
surface which removes the spatial dependence. Substituting
Darcy’s Law into the above equation yields:
⎡ ∂ψ ⎤ (7.5.2)
f (t) = K ⎢ + 1⎥
⎣ ∂z ⎦z =0

which can be written more explicitly as:

M OVIE 7.1 Animation of infiltration as a function of soil type.
238
In this Chapter we focus primarily on Option #2. To start we
will focus on the qualitative nature of the infiltration process.
Movie 7.1 illustrates the process of infiltration for a sand, silt,
and clay all experiencing the same rainfall rate. It should be
noted that the flux of water could also be from snowmelt.
Hereafter, a “storm” is used to refer to either case.

Figure 7.8 illustrates the soil moisture profile at different

times during a typical infiltration event. The limiting cases
will be discussed afterward. The initial soil moisture profile
(just before the start of infiltration) is uniform with depth
with the available storage being equal to the difference
between the porosity and the initial volumetric soil moisture.
When infiltration begins, a so-called “wetting front” develops.
Early on in the storm, i.e. before the “ponding time” (tp), all of
the water can be infiltrated, i.e.:

f = P; t ≤ tp

Water from infiltration quickly fills some of the pores of the

soil at the surface faster than it can be drained from below. So
the soil moisture becomes larger over time near the surface,
ultimately filling the pores so that the soil becomes saturated
at the surface. The time at which the soil surface becomes
saturated is the ponding time, referring to the fact that at F IGURE 7.8 Soil moisture profiles at various times during
that time, water will begin to pond (build up) at the surface steady infiltration starting from a uniform initial condition.
Note the general downward movement of the infiltration front
and will have the condition: and the diffusion of the front over time.
At t = t p :
∂θ ∂θ
θ (z = 0,t p ) = θs ; K(θ [z = 0,t p ]) = K s ; 0< =
∂z ∂z z =0,t =t p
After the ponding time, the wetting front will continue to
239
move downward, with the prime result being that the
moisture gradient at the surface gets smaller over time:
At t > t p :
∂θ ∂θ
θ (z = 0,t > t p ) = θs ; K(θ [z = 0,t > t p ]) = K s ; 0<
∂z ∂z
Recall from Equation (7.5.3) that the first term in the
infiltration is proportional to the soil moisture gradient (at the
surface), while the second term is equal to the hydraulic
conductivity (at the surface). Since the gravity term at the
surface is constant after ponding, the implication is that as
the soil moisture gradient decreases over time the infiltration
rate will also decrease over time. Figure 7.9 shows a schematic
of the actual infiltration rate as a function of time, which can
be written mathematically as:
⎧ P, t ≤ t ≤ t
⎪ 0 p
f (t) = ⎨ *
⎪⎩ f (t), t p ≤ t ≤ tr
where f*(t) is a (yet undefined) monotonically decreasing
function and tr is the duration of the storm (or snowmelt).
Note that in the context of solving Richards Equation, this is
equivalent to a switching boundary condition: a flux
(Neumann) boundary condition before tp and a moisture
(Dirichlet) boundary condition after tp. Note that the
infiltration is not expected to decay to zero. Rather, at the
time when the soil moisture gradient at the surface reaches
zero (i.e. first term in the Darcy flux is zero) the infiltration
rate will simply be driven by gravity and equal to the
∂θ
= <
t >t p
∂z t =t p
F IGURE 7.9 Conceptual picture of actual infiltration rate
(shown in blue) involving a threshold at the ponding time.
Prior to ponding all rainfall infiltrates, while after ponding the
infiltration capacity rate limits the rate at which water can en-
ter the soil (adapted from Mays, 2005).
(7.5.5)
saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). Whether this limit is
reached during a given storm depends on factors like the
initial condition, storm intensity/duration, and soil properties.
Beyond t=tr, the infiltration will cease and redistribution of
soil moisture will ensue.
Some limiting conditions to infiltration are worth
mentioning. For very intense storms or highly impervious soils
(P >> Ks), one would expect immediate ponding (tp = 0). In
this case there would not be a constant infiltration rate early
240
in the storm, but rather a monotonically decaying function
over the entire course of the storm, i.e.:

f (t) = f *(t), t 0 = t p ≤ t ≤ tr (7.5.6)

This is actually a special case called infiltration capacity (or

potential infiltration) that will be used in the next section to
determine the actual infiltration. These situations will
generally yield large amounts of runoff. In the other limit
where a storm intensity is weak and/or the soil is extremely
pervious (P < Ks), one would expect no ponding to occur at
all. In this case there would simply be a constant amount of
infiltration rate equal to the storm intensity (P), but less than
the soil conductivity (Ks), i.e.:
M OVIE 7.3 Animation of infiltration under “heavy” rainfall
conditions relative to soil properties (from COMET program).
f (t) = P, t 0 ≤ t ≤ tr (7.5.7)
This will result in complete infiltration and no runoff. Movie
7.2 illustrates this special case, whereas Movie 7.3 illustrates
the more general case where infiltration is insufficient to
remove the precipitation from the surface, thus resulting in
surface runoff.

M OVIE 7.2 Animation of infiltration under “light” rainfall

conditions relative to soil properties (from COMET program).

241
S ECTION 6 assumptions (if the surface is assumed saturated) with the
additional assumption that the gravity term was negligible.
Infiltration Capacity Mod- An infinite series solution to Richards Equation for the
infiltration rate under these conditions is given by:
els fc (t) = −q z = A1t −1/2 + A2 + A3t 1/2 + A4t + ... (7.6.1)
z =0

In the discussion of infiltration in the previous section it

The Philip (1960) solution keeps the first two terms, which is
was mentioned that after ponding the infiltration rate should
expected to be valid under “short times”:
be described by a monotonically decaying function f*(t). To
gain some insight into that function, and ultimately derive it, Sp (7.6.2)
fc (t) = t −1/2 + K s
we can start by examining models for “infiltration 2
capacity” (or potential infiltration): fc(t), which is the
infiltration rate that would occur under immediately ponded
where the soil sorptivity (Sp) is given by:
conditions. Analytical models for the infiltration capacity can
1/2
be developed under the following simplifying conditions: ⎡ ⎛ 2b + 3 ⎞ ⎤ (7.6.3)
S p = ⎢(θs − θ 0 )K s ψ s ⎜ ⎟⎠ ⎥
⎣ ⎝ b + 3 ⎦
1. Ponded upper boundary condition, i.e.:
θ (z = 0,t) = θs
This solution predicts that the decay occurs to the order t -1/2,
and asymptotes to Ks as expected. Interestingly, the constant
2. The unsaturated zone is infinitely deep, i.e. the
diffusivity case shown in Equation (7.4.12) (when evaluated at
groundwater table is not near the surface
the surface: z = 0) shows the same time dependence. In some
3. The initial condition is uniform with depth, i.e.: versions of the model, Ks is replaced by a fitting parameter.
Also note the sorptivity is only a function of soil properties
θ (z,t 0 ) = θ 0
and the (uniform) initial condition (before infiltration begins).
Based on the above model, the cumulative infiltration
Under these conditions, two commonly used models for
capacity can be derived directly:
infiltration capacity can be developed: the Philip solution and
t
the Green-Ampt model. Note that the analytical model for (7.6.4)
Fc (t) = ∫ f (t ′)dt ′ = S t + K st
1/2
c p
flow shown in Equation (7.4.12) was derived under similar t0

242
 The second model often used for infiltration capacity is dh h − hsurf (7.6.5)
qz = K s  −K s f
the so-called Green-Ampt (1911) model. This model uses the dz z f − z surf
same assumptions as those above, with one additional
simplification: the wetting front is a discontinuous front at where the head at the wetting front is given by:
depth z = -Lf (Figure 7.10). The Green-Ampt model applies
h f = ψ f + z f = ψ f − Lf (7.6.6)
Darcy’s Law across the wetting front:

the effective matric head at the wetting front is given by:

⎛ 2b + 3 ⎞ (7.6.7)
ψf  ⎜ ψ
⎝ b + 3 ⎟⎠ s

and the head at the surface is given by:

hsurf = ψ surf + z surf  0 + 0 = 0 (7.6.8)

which assumes the depth of the ponded water is negligible.

Substituting these into Equation (7.6.5) yields:

Lf + ψ f ⎡ ψf ⎤ (7.6.9)
fc (t) = −q z = K s = K s ⎢1 + ⎥
Lf ⎢ Lf ⎥
⎣ ⎦

This is not the final solution however since the length of the
wetting front (Lf) itself depends on the amount of cumulative
infiltration, i.e.:
Fc (t) = Lf (θs − θ 0 ) (7.6.10)

F IGURE 7.10 Conceptualization used to represent the wet- which assumes a sharp wetting front and yields:
ting front in the Green-Ampt model for infiltration capacity
Fc (t) (7.6.11)
(adapted from Mays, 2005). Lf =
(θs − θ 0 )

243
Substituting into Equation (7.6.9) then yields:
⎡ ψ f (θs − θ 0 ) ⎤ dF (7.6.12)
fc (t) = K s ⎢1 + ⎥= c
⎢ Fc ⎥ dt
⎣ ⎦

Note that this is an ordinary differential equation for Fc. It

can be integrated via separation of variables to yield the
following (implicit) solution:
⎡ ⎧ ψ f (θs − θ 0 ) ⎫⎪ ⎤ (7.6.13)
1 ⎢ ⎪
t= Fc (t) + ψ f (θs − θ 0 )ln ⎨ ⎬⎥
Ks ⎢ ⎪⎩ Fc (t) + ψ f (θs − θ 0 ) ⎪⎭ ⎥⎦
⎣

The key point is that the Green-Ampt model is an implicit

solution (i.e. known in terms of the dependent variable instead
of the independent variable) rather than the generally
preferred explicit solution. To determine fc(t) one can use the
following method:

1. Choose values of Fc over a range of increasing values: [0

Fc1, Fc2, ... ]

2. Solve for t using Equation (7.6.13) to get: [0, t1, t2, ...].
Keep those solutions in the range between 0 and tr.

3. Estimate fc(t) using Equation (7.6.12) corresponding to

each time.

244
S ECTION 7 shift is not simply equal to the time to ponding as will be
described below. Given this general model for actual
Modeling Actual Infiltra- infiltration, for a storm starting at time t0 = 0, with intensity
(P), and duration tr, we can write the actual infiltration rate

tion mathematically as:

⎧ P, t 0 ≤ t ≤ t p (7.7.1)
⎪
f (t) = ⎨
⎪⎩ fc (t − tc ), t p ≤ t ≤ tr

Both the Philip and Green-Ampt solutions assume where f* in Equation (7.5.5) has been replaced by fc. Here the
ponded conditions to obtain analytical solutions for the function is kept general in terms of notation, but could be
infiltration capacity: fc(t). In addition to the ponded surface either the Philip or Green-Ampt models where the time
condition, they assume that the initial condition is uniform
with depth and the unsaturated zone is very deep. These
equations would only give us models for the actual infiltration
rate if the actual conditions corresponded to those described
above. In general that is not the case. When the precipitation
rate (P) is not intense enough to cause immediate ponding,
then initially the infiltration rate will equal the precipitation
rate. If ponding does occur during the course of the storm
(depends on soil type and precipitation intensity), then from
that point forward we would expect the infiltration rate to
decrease in a way similar to that described by the infiltration
capacity curves mentioned above.

The basic idea behind the time-compression

approximation (TCA) is to avoid having to solve Richards
Equation numerically for a general set of conditions and
instead use a time-shifted analytical infiltration capacity curve
(shifted by a “compression time” tc) to determine the
infiltration after the time to ponding (tp). Note that the time
F IGURE 7.11 Illustration of the model for actual infiltration
using the time-compression approximation. The dotted line rep-
resents an infiltration capacity model (i.e. under immediately
ponded conditions) which is shifted by the compression time.
245
argument (t - tc) is used instead of t. For a positive value of tc,
this just represents a time-shift to the right. This is in
acknowledgment of the fact that the decay behavior after
ponding should be comparable to infiltration capacity. In the
above model for actual infiltration there are two unknowns: tp
and tc that need to be determined. A conceptual picture of
this model is shown in Figure 7.11.

To determine the two unknowns we need to construct

two independent equations that constrain the model. These
conditions should provide physically-based constraints on the
actual infiltration model. The first, and perhaps easiest to
understand, is simply that the infiltration rate as predicted by
the shifted analytical model should equal the precipitation F IGURE 7.12 The first condition that needs to be met by the
rate at the ponding time: TCA (i.e. matching infiltration rates at ponding time).

fc (t − tc ) = fc (t p − tc ) = P(t p ) (7.7.2)
t =t p
tp t p −tc
(7.7.3)
∫ P(t)dt = ∫
0 0
fc (t)dt
This matching condition ensures that the infiltration rate is
continuous in time (as it should be) and is shown graphically
in Figure 7.12. The second condition may be a bit less which for a constant P can be written as:
intuitive, but has to do with making sure that at the ponding t p −tc
(7.7.4)
time, the amount of cumulative infiltration predicted by the Pt p = ∫
0
fc (t)dt
analytical model is consistent with how much has actually
occurred. This is just another way of saying that the starting
point in the infiltration capacity curve is that which would be This condition is shown graphically in Figure 7.13. Together,
expected given the actual cumulative infiltration. This can be Equations (7.7.2) and (7.7.3) represent two equations for the
written mathematically as: two unknowns tp and tc. Keep in mind that the expressions are
in terms of a general infiltration capacity model. So these two

246
 If applying the Philip solution (and assuming the storm
intensity P is constant), using Equations (7.7.2) and (7.7.4), it
can be shown that:
S p2 ⎡ Ks ⎤ (7.7.5)
tp = ⎢1 + ⎥
2P(P − K s ) ⎣ 2(P − K s ) ⎦
2
⎡ Sp ⎤
tc = t p − ⎢ ⎥ (7.7.6)
⎢⎣ 2(P − K )
s ⎥⎦

where the actual infiltration rate over the entire storm is then
given by:
⎧ P, t 0 ≤ t ≤ t p (7.7.7)
⎪
f (t) = ⎨ S
p
⎪ (t − tc )−1/2 + K s , t p ≤ t ≤ tr
⎩ 2

where the specific values for tp and tc can be computed from

Equations (7.7.5) and (7.7.6). Note that the ponding and
compression times depend on both the storm intensity and
soil properties.

Similarly, if using the Green-Ampt model, it can be

F IGURE 7.13 The second condition that needs to be met by shown that:
the TCA (i.e. matching the cumulative infiltration up to the Ks
ponding time). tp = ψ (θ − θ 0 ) (7.7.8)
P(P − K s ) f s

⎡ ⎧ ψ (θ − θ ) ⎫ ⎤
1 ⎢ ⎪ f s 0 ⎪⎥
equations can be solved for the two unknowns for any tc = t p − Pt p + ψ f (θs − θ 0 )ln ⎨ ⎬ (7.7.9)
Ks ⎢ ⎪ Pt + ψ (θ − θ ) ⎪ ⎥
infiltration capacity model (e.g. Philip or Green-Ampt). ⎣ ⎩ p f s 0 ⎭ ⎦
247
where the actual infiltration rate over the entire storm is then
given by:
) P, t0 ≤ t ≤ t p
+ the so-called infiltration excess runoff during the storm. The
+
f (t) = * # ψ (θ − θ )&
(7.7.10)
f s 0
+ K s %1 + (, t p ≤ t ≤ tr
+, %
$ Fc (t − tc ) ('
where Fc(t - tc) vs. t needs to be determined via the implicit
Green-Ampt model equation as described above.
Given these models for actual infiltration, it is worth
reiterating the special cases mentioned above:
1. In the case of a high intensity precipitation event, i.e.
P→∞
it can be seen that for either model, the time to ponding and
compression time both go to zero. This simply reduces the
actual infiltration rate to the infiltration capacity rate (as
would be expected since it is consistent with the original
assumption of instantaneous ponding).
2. In the case where the precipitation rate is less than the
saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil, then no ponding
will ever occur (since both infiltration capacity curves
asymptote to the hydraulic conductivity). In this case the
actual infiltration rate is simply given by: f(t) = P and the
above computation of ponding and compression times can be
skipped altogether. So it is important to first check whether P
> Ks when computing actual infiltration. Otherwise, using the
above equations will yield nonsensical values for the ponding
and compression times. Once known, the actual infiltration
function can be used to estimate cumulative infiltration and
discussion of runoff is saved for Chapter 10.
E XAMPLE 7.7.1
A rainstorm of duration tr = 8 hr and constant
rainfall intensity P= 30 mm hr-1 occurs over an
area which has a soil type characterized by the
following parameters:
θs = 0.35; b = 1; ψs = −50 cm; K s = 11 mm/h
The soil has an initial soil relative saturation of
50%. Compute the actual cumulative infiltration
from this storm.
To compute the actual infiltration we should use the
time-compression approximation which requires the
choice of an infiltration capacity model. Here we will use
the Philip solution for infiltration capacity. As a first
step it needs to be determined whether ponding is
possible. Since P > Ks in this case, there is at least the
potential for ponding so that the ponding time and
compression time equations can be applied. If this were
not the case there would be no runoff and all water
would infiltrate.
248
E XAMPLE 7.7.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 7.7.1 ( CONTINUED )

Given the choice of the Philip solution, first compute the Note this is less than 240 mm, which would be the
sorptivity (Equation (7.6.3)): cumulative infiltration if all water infiltrated. Ponding
1/2
generates runoff and reduces infiltration.
( " 2(1) + 3 %+
S p = *(0.35 − 0.5(0.35))(11 mm/h) −500 mm $ '- We could also choose to apply the Green-Ampt model,
) # (1) + 3 &,
where the relevant parameters (using Equations (7.7.8)
34.7 mm h −1 2 and (7.7.9)) are:

Next, Equations (7.7.5) and (7.7.6) can be used to ! 2(1) + 3 $

compute the ponding and compression times:
ψf = # &(−500 mm) = −625 mm
" 1 + 3 %
(34.7 mm h −1/2 )2 " 11 mm/h % (θs − θ 0 )=0.175; ψ f (θs − θ 0 ) = 109.375 mm
tp = $1 + '
2(30 mm/h)(30 − 11) mm/h # 2(30 − 11) mm/h &
= 1.36 h 11 mm/h
tp = (109.375 mm)
(30 mm/h)(30 − 11) mm/h
2
" 34.7 mm h −1/2 % = 2.1 hr
tc = 1.36 h − $ ' = 0.53 h
# 2(30 − 11) mm/h &
1
tc = 2.1 hr − "(30 mm/h)(2.1 h) + (109.375 mm) ×
An expression for the cumulative infiltration can be 11 mm/h #
obtained by integrating Equation (7.7.7): ln {109.375 mm / ((30 mm/h)(2.1 h) + 109.375 mm)}
tr t = 0.9 h
F(t = tr ) = ∫ f (t)dt = Pt p + [S p (t − tc )1/2 + K st ]tr
0 p

= Pt p + S p (tr − tc )1/2 + K str − S p (t p − tc )1/2 − K st p The cumulative infiltration (Fc) as a function of time (t)
can be obtained via Equation (7.6.13). By construct, at
= Pt p + S p [(tr − tc )1/2 − (t p − tc )1/2 ] + K s (tr − t p )
time t = tp, the cumulative infiltration should equal Ptp.
mm mm The cumulative infiltration at the end of the storm will
= 30 (1.36 h) + (34.7 −1/2 )[(7.47 h)1/2
h h be the cumulative infiltration corresponding to the time:
− (0.83 h) ] + K s (6.64 h) = 177 mm
1/2
t = tr - tc. Doing so, yields a cumulative infiltration:

249
E XAMPLE 7.7.1 ( CONTINUED )

Fc (t = tr − tc = 7.1 h) = 187 mm

which is about 6% different than predicted by the Philip

solution.

250
S ECTION 8

MOD-WET Codes
Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in
this chapter include:

Brook-Corey retention curve model:

brooks_corey_PSI_and_K.m

Field capacity (using Brooks-Corey model):

field_capacity.m

Green-Ampt infiltration capacity model:

green_ampt.m

Philip infiltration capacity model:

philip.m

Soil sorptivity:
sorptivity.m

Time-compression approximation for actual infiltration:

TCA_infiltration.m

Permanent wilting point (using Brooks-Corey model):

wilting_point.m

251
S ECTION 9 9. In unsaturated zone problems, name the variable that, if
known, allows for the determination of everything else
Conceptual Questions about the system. Hint: It is the dependent variable in
Richards equation.

10. Mathematically, how are the infiltration rate and

1. Define the meaning of porosity. How is it used to transform cumulative infiltration related?
between volumetric water content and relative saturation in
a soil? 11. Concisely explain the difference between an infiltration
capacity rate and an actual infiltration rate. Under what
2. What are the three end-member soil types in the SCS soil conditions are they the same?
triangle?
12. Name the two commonly used models for infiltration
3. Which has a higher porosity, sand or clay? Which has a capacity.
higher field capacity? Which has a higher wilting point?
13. Concisely describe the conceptual meaning of the ponding
4. What are the two terms in the piezometric head? Describe time and compression time that are solved for in the time-
what each term physically represents. compression approximation for infiltration.
5. What is the sign of matric head. Explain why. 14. If for a particular storm the precipitation intensity is less
than the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil, do
6. How does the hydraulic conductivity and matric head
you need to apply the time compression approximation?
change as soil moisture decreases.
Justify your answer.
7. The Darcy flux dictates that the flow (per unit area) is
proportional to the piezometric head gradient. What soil
property is the proportionality constant in the Darcy
equation? What two factors generally cause that parameter
to vary in unsaturated soil (i.e. what does it depend on)?

8. When fully expanded, what are the two terms in the Darcy
flux in an unsaturated soil? Explain the physical meaning of
each term.

252
S ECTION 10
Sample Problems
Problem 7.1. A soil sample is analyzed via a sieve analysis
and determined to have the following size distribution: 10%
sand and 45% silt.
a) Identify the soil texture and provide its porosity, saturated
hydraulic conductivity, and saturated matric head based on
Tables 7.1 and 7.2. Based on those parameters calculate the
field capacity and permanent wilting point for the soil.
b) Plot the matric head vs. volumetric soil moisture and
hydraulic conductivity vs. volumetric soil moisture for this
soil.
c) At a particular time, tensiometers (instruments that
measure soil water tension (i.e. matric head)) at the site from
which the soil sample was taken indicate that the matric head
profile (over a 1 meter soil profile) is in a state of hydrostatic
equilibrium with a surface matric head of -150 cm. For this
condition derive and then plot the profiles (i.e. as a function
of depth) of matric head, piezometric head, hydraulic
conductivity and volumetric soil moisture. Keep in mind that
elevation z is positive upward so depth below the surface is a
negative number. Is the soil wetter or drier at the surface
compared to at 1 meter depth? Is the matric head more or
less negative at the surface compared to at 1 meter depth?
How does the piezometric head vary with depth? By
definition, what is the flow throughout the soil profile under
these particular conditions? Prove your result.
d) Based on the profile in part c), compute the hydraulic
conductivity (in cm/day) and relative saturation at the
surface of the soil.
Problem 7.2.
a) The Philip and Green-Ampt equations provide models for
“infiltration capacity” (or “potential infiltration”). What
assumptions are used in the development of the Philip and
Green-Ampt infiltration capacity models? Clearly explain the
difference between actual infiltration rate and infiltration
capacity (potential infiltration). Under what specific
conditions are the two the same?
b) State the condition that for a given rainfall (or snowmelt)
event would never generate infiltration excess runoff. This
should be written in terms of the rainfall/melt rate and the
saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil.
Suppose the volumetric soil moisture at a particular site is
measured to be 0.024. Immediately after the soil moisture
measurement is taken, the region experiences a snowmelt
event lasting 12 hours with a uniform melt flux intensity of
0.69 mm/hr. Assume that this region is uniformly covered by
sandy loam soil. Similar to a rainfall event, a snowmelt event
can result in infiltration and/or infiltration excess runoff. In
the case of a snowmelt event, the melt flux/rate would be
analogous to the rainfall rate during a storm event.
253
c) Based on the soil conditions/characteristics in this region,
what values of the melt flux intensity would generate
infiltration excess runoff? Based on your answer, will
infiltration excess runoff occur during this snowmelt event?
What is the physical meaning of the ponding time in
infiltration? Will ponding occur during this snowmelt event?
What will the cumulative infiltration be in this case? Justify
your answers.
d) Assume the soil instead corresponded to one with the
following soil hydraulic properties: saturated hydraulic
conductivity of 0.00125 cm hr-1, saturated matric head of -21.8
cm, porosity of 0.435, and Brooks-Corey parameter b of 4.9. Is
it possible that infiltration excess runoff will occur in the
watershed given the same snowmelt event described above?
Justify your response. Using both the Philip and Green-Ampt
models, compute the time to ponding under these conditions.
Will ponding occur for these conditions? Explain your
reasoning.
e) Use the Philip and Green-Ampt models to compute the
cumulative infiltration and infiltration excess runoff for this
snowmelt event for the above mentioned initial conditions and
soil properties from part d). Compute the cumulative
infiltration (in mm) and infiltration excess runoff (in mm)
with both models. Note: You should do so using the time
compression approximation. What fraction of the total
cumulative melt infiltrates vs. generates runoff for this case.
By how much do the two models differ in their predictions?
Problem 7.3. A rainstorm of duration tr = 8 hr and rainfall
intensity P = 30 mm hr-1 occurs over an area with an initial
soil saturation of 50% and the following soil properties:
θs = 0.35; ψs = −50 cm; K s = 11 mm hr -1; b = 1;
These conditions will form the “baseline” case for the
sensitivity tests described below. Here you can use the time
compression approximation (TCA) with the Philip solution.
a) What is the physical meaning of the ponding time in
infiltration? Under what storm intensity condition (relative to
soil parameters) will ponding never occur? Write out the
equation for the ponding time and use it to compute the
ponding time in hours for the baseline case. What is the
meaning of the case where the ponding time is greater than
the duration of the storm?
b) Compute and plot the ponding time for a range of storm
intensities consisting of the baseline case, 50% of the baseline
case (i.e. 15 mm/hr) and 200% of the baseline case (i.e. 60
mm/hr). Explain the trend seen in ponding time as a
function of precipitation rate.
c) Compute and plot the ponding time for a range of initial
conditions consisting of the baseline case, and 25%, and 75%
relative saturation. Explain the trend seen in ponding time as
a function of initial condition.
d) Write out the equations for concentration time, actual
cumulative infiltration, and infiltration excess runoff using the
TCA. Use these equations to compute the expected actual
254
cumulative infiltration and infiltration excess runoff (in mm)
for the baseline storm case.

e) What fraction of the total rainfall is converted to runoff for

the baseline case?

f ) Qualitatively, how would your answers to parts d) and e)

change if the precipitation intensity was higher than the
baseline case?

g) Qualitatively, how would your answers to parts d) and e)

change if the initial condition in soil moisture was lower than
the baseline case?

h) Qualitatively, how would your answers to parts d) and e)

differ between sand and clay soil types?

255
S ECTION 11 Justify your response. Using both the Philip and Green-Ampt
models, compute the time to ponding under these conditions.
MOD-WET Problems Will ponding occur for these conditions? Explain your
reasoning. Note: You can use the MOD-WET function
sorptivity.m to compute the sorptivity.

Problem 7.1. In this problem, you will study infiltration for
a soil/region similar to that of the watershed. Suppose near
sunrise on the summer solstice, the volumetric soil moisture is
0.024 and that subsequently the region experiences a
snowmelt event lasting 12 hours with a uniform melt flux
intensity of 0.69 mm/hr. Assume that this region is uniformly
covered by sandy loam soil. Similar to a rainfall event, a
snowmelt event can result in infiltration and/or infiltration
excess runoff. In the case of a snowmelt event, the melt flux
rate would be analogous to the rainfall rate during a storm
event.
c) Use the Philip and Green-Ampt models to compute the
cumulative infiltration and infiltration excess runoff for this
snowmelt event. Use the MOD-WET function
TCA_infiltration.m to compute the cumulative infiltration
(in mm) and infiltration excess runoff (in mm) with both
models and the time compression approximation. Assume that
the “elapsed time of storm” input to this function is equal to
the duration of the melt event. What fraction of the total
cumulative melt infiltrates vs. generates runoff for this case.
By how much do the two models differ in their predictions?

a) Based on the soil conditions/characteristics in this region,

what values of the melt flux intensity would generate
infiltration excess runoff? Based on your answer, will
infiltration excess runoff occur during this snowmelt event?
What is the physical meaning of the ponding time in
infiltration? Will ponding occur during this snowmelt event?
What will the cumulative infiltration be in this case? Justify
your answers.

b) Assuming the soil instead corresponded to one with the

following soil hydraulic properties: cm/hr, cm, , and , is it
possible that infiltration excess runoff will occur in the
watershed given the same snowmelt event described above.

256
Chapter 8

Evaporation
S ECTION 1
Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:
1. List the three requirements needed for evaporation to
occur
2. Convert back and forth between evaporation mass flux,
latent heat flux, and depth flux (i.e. flux density)
3. Write down the units of evaporation mass flux and latent
heat flux
4. Define potential evaporation
5. Write down the surface energy balance
6. Define the individual terms of the surface energy balance
and what they represent
7. Estimate evaporation as a residual in the energy balance
equation
8. Describe the functional form of the average horizontal
wind speed profile in the atmospheric surface layer
9. Determine the aerodynamic roughness length and zero-
plane displacement height in terms of the height of surface
roughness elements
10. Define, describe, and compute the aerodynamic
resistance to turbulent heat transfer
11. Define the Bowen ratio
12. Compute the Bowen ratio from dual-level measurements
of air temperature and humidity
13. Estimate evaporation from the Energy Balance Bowen
Ratio (EBBR) method
14. Compute the latent and sensible heat flux using the
mass-transfer approach
15. Apply the Penman or Penman-Monteith models to
estimate potential evaporation and/or evapotranspiration
respectively
16. Explain how vegetation tend to control water loss via
their stomata and what environmental factors regulate
transpiration
17. Explain and compute the vegetation canopy resistance
258
S ECTION 2 3. Evapotranspiration rates during inter-storm periods control
the antecedent soil moisture before the subsequent storm,
Basics of Evapotranspira- which impacts runoff and flooding.

4. Evapotranspiration is a key flux that couples the surface

tion water and energy budgets (i.e. recall SEB in Chapter 6:
Rn - G = LE + H).
Evapotranspiration (ET) refers to all the processes by
which water in liquid phase at or near the Earth’s surface The direct measurement of evapotranspiration however is
becomes atmospheric water vapor. In particular it generally extremely difficult, especially compared to other variables like
refers to the flux of water from the surface into the precipitation and streamflow. The closest readily-available
atmosphere. Evaporation usually describes the direct measurement networks are so-called evaporation pans (Figure
vaporization of water from either open water surfaces or bare
soil. Transpiration refers to water loss from within the leaves
of plants. Together the two fluxes are referred to as
evapotranspiration. Sublimation is a special case whereby
vaporization occurs directly from ice. A more comprehensive
treatment of evaporation is given in Brutsaert (1982).

Evapotranspiration is important for several reasons

including:

1. The long-term water balance, which depends on

evapotranspiration (as well as precipitation and runoff)
determines the available water for human use.

2. Much of the food supply is grown via irrigated agriculture

and efficient irrigation practices requires knowledge of
evapotranspiration.
F IGURE 8.1 Photo of a standard evaporation pan which pro-
vides an estimate of potential evaporation.

259
8.1). Such measurements are easy to make, but are very
sparsely distributed and do not measure actual
evapotranspiration, but rather the potential evaporation
(discussed in more detail below). As a result, estimates of ET
are most often made via the use of models that require more
readily-available measurements.
Long-term estimates of ET can be determined via
developments already discussed earlier, namely mass balance
and/or energy balance. For example for a watershed control
volume, the long-term average mass balance can be written as:
dS
(8.2.1)
= P − E −Q  0
dt
where ET can be estimated as a residual provided the other
terms are known:
E = P −Q (8.2.2)
Similarly, the long-term surface energy balance can be written
as:
G = Rn − LE − H  0 (8.2.3)
where the long-term ground heat flux can be reasonably
assumed small for similar reasons to the long-term water
storage. A non-zero value would imply a continual warming/
cooling of the surface. Again, solving for the ET (specifically
in terms of latent heat flux) as a residual yields:
LE = Rn − H (8.2.4)
So Equations (8.2.2) or (8.2.4) provide a mechanism for
estimating the long-term values of ET for a given control
volume. In many applications we need to estimate it over
much shorter time-scales (e.g. hourly or daily). The remainder
of the chapter focuses on models useful for that purpose.
In terms of the basic physics of ET, one can think of
three necessary requirements:
1. A water source (generally an open water surface, soil
moisture, or snowpack),
2. An energy input for vaporization (generally in the form of
net radiation Rn),
3. A transport mechanism to remove vapor-rich air from the
near-surface (otherwise air will saturate; need gradients in
moisture to maintain a net flux).
Note that when water is not a limiting factor in the surface
ET (e.g. open water surfaces or very moist soil), then only the
second and third requirements control the ET flux. Under
such conditions, the evapotranspiration flux is referred to as
the “potential evapotranspiration” (Ep), which may be referred
to as potential evaporation or potential evapotranspiration in
the case of a bare soil or vegetated surface respectively. By
definition the actual evapotranspiration must be less than or
equal to the potential evapotranspiration, i.e.:
E ≤ Ep
260
S ECTION 3
Mass-transfer Model for
Evaporation
Evaporation is the net flux of vapor from the surface to
the overlying air. In truth, e.g. over a water surface, individual
molecules are continually moving (somewhat randomly) from
the air to the liquid water phase and vice versa (Figure 8.2).
If the rate of exchange is balanced, then there is no net flux
and hence the evaporation is zero. If there are more water
molecules leaving the liquid phase than returning to it, then
evaporation is occurring. Conversely, if more water molecules
are entering the liquid surface than leaving it, the net flux is a
condensation flux.
F IGURE 8.2 Conceptual picture of water vapor molecules in a
bulk water surface and the overlying air (adapted from Dingman,
2008).
Evaporation can be thought of as a diffusive process,
whereby a flux is driven by concentration gradients. In this
case, the concentration refers to the concentration of water
vapor molecules, which can be expressed in terms of the vapor
pressure. Over a liquid water surface, the air in immediate
contact with the liquid has a saturated vapor pressure. So
when the air above the surface layer is sub-saturated, there is
a gradient in vapor concentration, which would be expected to
correspond to a vapor flux away from the surface. It is
important to remember that the saturated vapor pressure is a
function solely of temperature, hence if there is a temperature
gradient between the surface (Ts) and the overlying air (Ta),
this may lead to a vapor pressure gradient even if both are
saturated. In Figure 8.3 the air in contact with the liquid has
a vapor pressure equal to es(Ts), while that above is at
ea<es(Ts). Under these conditions, there would be expected to
be an evaporative flux away from the surface. In general,
neither the surface or overlying air may be saturated, however
the gradients will still drive the net flux.
Speaking more generally of a diffusive flux, the rate of
transfer (flux) of constituent X in direction z can be written
(using Fick’s 1st Law):
dC(X ) (8.3.1)
Fz (X ) = −DX
dz
where C(X) is the concentration of constituent X and DX is
the “diffusivity” of constituent X in the fluid (in this case air).
This simply states that the flux is expected to be driven from
261
areas of high concentration to low concentration (down the
concentration gradient) where the diffusivity is a constant of
proportionality (to be determined). Note this is analogous in
form to Darcy’s Law and can be used to describe different
fluxes in many systems.
If applied to water vapor in the atmosphere (i.e.
evaporation) we can write:
d ρv dq ε de (8.3.2)
E = Fz (vapor) = −Dv = − ρDv = − ρDv
dz dz p dz
where in this form: [E ]= kg m-2 s-1. To get the latent heat
flux, the above could simply be multiplied by the latent heat
of vaporization (Lv). The sensible heat flux in the SEB can
also be conceptualized as a diffusive flux (of heat) and is
therefore presented here in parallel to evaporation:
d( ρc pTa ) dTa
H = Fz (heat) = −DH = − ρc pDH (8.3.3)
dz dz
where in this form: [H ]= W m-2. Note, as can be seen from a
unit analysis, the density in Equations (8.3.2) and (8.3.3) is
air density. The specific heat of air is: cp = 1004 J kg-1 K-1.
The next question is what are the diffusivities related to?
When dealing with molecular diffusion (e.g. envision dye
diffusing in a water-filled beaker), the diffusivities are simply
related to the constituent and the fluid. However in land-
atmosphere interaction, molecular diffusion is not the driving
process. Instead, it is turbulent fluid motions in the
atmosphere that transport constituents from near the surface
to higher in the atmosphere (and vice versa). These turbulent
eddies, which are caused by frictional wind shear and thermal
stratification in the surface layer (i.e. lower few hundred
meters) of the atmosphere, are much more efficient than
molecular diffusion in transporting vapor, heat, and
momentum between the land and atmosphere. Figure 8.3
shows a schematic of the mean horizontal wind profile as a
function of height above the surface as well as turbulent
eddies (of varying sizes) superimposed on the mean flow. At
the rough surface the mean velocity must be zero (no-slip
boundary condition), and much higher in the troposphere it is
driven by the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. The
surface layer is the lower portion of the atmosphere where
there is a strong gradient in the horizontal velocity profile.
The profile of the mean horizontal wind for a neutral
surface layer (i.e. with a temperature gradient equal to zero)
has a well-known logarithmic form:
u* " z − d % (8.3.4)
V (z) = ln $ '; z > z0 + d
κ # z0 &
κ ≡ von Karman constant = 0.4
u* ≡ friction velocity
The parameters z0 and d are called the momentum roughness
height and zero-plane displacement height respectively and are
representative of the impact of the roughness of the surface on
the mean flow. They are often parameterized in terms of a
characteristic roughness height of the surface (h) as:
262
 z 0  0.1h (8.3.5)
d  0.7h

The logarithmic profile implies a positive wind shear, i.e.:

∂V (8.3.6)
>0
∂z

This wind shear is one of the mechanisms that generates an

overturning of the fluid leading to turbulence. The other
mechanism is if the surface layer also exhibits a temperature
gradient (i.e. non-neutral). The surface layer generally has a
negative temperature gradient (unstable condition) during the
daytime and a positive temperature gradient (stable
condition) at night. The unstable condition generally enhances
turbulence while the stable condition generally suppresses
turbulence. The positive wind shear also implies a negative
(i.e. toward the surface) momentum flux.

So the diffusivities in the flux equations for E and H are

related to turbulence. Here we will focus on the case over bare
soil/open water and will extend to vegetated surfaces in the
F IGURE 8.3 Plot of mean horizontal wind speed profile over- next section. If it is assumed that DH = DV, it can be shown
lying a rough surface with turbulent eddies superimposed on that the impact of turbulence can be embedded in E and H
the mean flow. Turbulence is generated mechanically by wind models (using a finite difference approximation):
shear (forced convection) and can be enhanced or suppressed
by thermal gradients in the surface layer (free convection). The κ 2V22 (q 2 − q1 ) (8.3.7)
turbulence is the primary transport mechanism for energy, wa-
E  −ρ
( " z − d %+ (V2 −V1 )
2
ter vapor and momentum fluxes between the surface and at- ** ln $ 2 '--
mosphere (adapted from Dingman, 2008). ) # 0 &,z

263
 κ 2V22 (T2 −T1 ) (8.3.8) ra = raN φmφh (8.3.10)
H  −ρc p
( " z − d %+ (V2 −V1 ) φm ≡ momentum stability correction factor
2

** ln $ 2 '--
z φh ≡ sensible/latent heat stability correction factor
) # 0 &,

where the subscripts on T, q, and V represent values of those The stability correction factors scale the resistance in a way
variables at two measurement levels: z1 and z2. The above that recognizes enhancement or suppression of resistance to
models are for a neutral surface layer. Note that, strictly turbulent transport in unstable or stable conditions
speaking, we would expect the sensible heat flux to approach respectively. A commonly used empirical form for these
zero in neutral conditions since the temperature gradient is functions are (Businger et al., 1971):
zero. Modifications to account for thermal stability effects can
φh = φm2 = (1 − 15RiB )−1/2 ; RiB ≤ 0 (unstable) (8.3.11)
be included (shown below). In applying these models we often
φh = φm = (1 − 5RiB )−1; 0 ≤ RiB < 0.2 (stable)
choose one level to be at the surface (i.e. z1 = z0 + d) where
by definition V1 = 0 and re-define the other variables as:
where RiB is the bulk Richardson number, which is a non-
T1 = Tsurf , q1 = q surf , V2 = V , T2 = Ta , q 2 = qa
dimensional ratio of the thermal stability to wind shear:
From this we can then define the “aerodynamic resistance” to (g /Tsurf )∂T ∂z (8.3.12)
turbulent transport (under neutral conditions): RiB =
(∂V ∂z) 2

2
( " z − d %+ (8.3.9)
** ln $ '--
Note that for neutral conditions (i.e. where the temperature
) # z 0 &,
raN = gradient in the above equation is zero):
κ 2V
RiB = 0; φm = φh = 1 (8.3.13)
where the N subscript is meant to denote neutral conditions.
This resistance has dimensions of T/L (i.e. s m-1). The height so that the aerodynamic resistance in Equation (8.3.10)
z in Equation (8.3.9) is the reference-level height at which the reduces to the neutral value shown in Equation (8.3.9). The
meteorological measurements are taken (e.g. often 2 meters sign of the temperature gradient in the surface layer
above the surface). For the more general (non-neutral surface (numerator in Equation (8.3.12)) controls the sign of RiB
layer) case, the resistance can be generalized using the which corresponds to unstable or stable conditions. For
approximation: unstable conditions (negative temperature gradient), the

264
stability correction factors are less than 1.0 (which reduces the
resistance; enhanced turbulence), while for stable conditions
they are greater than 1.0 (which increases the resistance;
suppressed turbulence).
Using this notation the evaporation flux model can be
written as:
(q surf − qa ) (8.3.14)
E=ρ
ra
or equivalently in terms of latent heat flux:
(q surf − qa ) (8.3.15)
LE = ρLv
ra
and the sensible heat flux model can be written as:
(Tsurf −Ta ) (8.3.16)
H = ρc p
ra
The resistance terminology is used because one can
conceptualize these fluxes using a circuit analogy, where the
“current” in this context is the flux, the “potential difference”
is the difference in either humidity or temperature and ra is
the resistance. This will be discussed more in the next section.
These so-called mass-transfer (or diffusion analogy)
models show that the flux is proportional to the differences in
the relevant variables between the surface and reference-level,
and the resistance describes how efficiently the turbulence is
at transporting the vapor/heat away from the surface. From
the resistance model, it can be seen that as the reference-level
velocity increases, the resistance decreases (which causes the
flux to increase). This is because a larger reference-level
velocity implies more surface layer turbulence, which will
increase the turbulent transport. Similarly, if the roughness of
the surface increases, turbulence will also increase, reducing
the resistance and increasing the fluxes. It should be noted
that these flux models so far have been developed for bare soil
or open water surfaces only. The resistance analogy becomes
useful as other factors (most notably vegetation) become
relevant, the effects of which can also be embedded in a
resistance term. Then the law of resistances in series or
parallel used in circuits can be used to easily augment these
models. For example, in some models an additional resistance
is used to model the barrier in vapor leaving the soil in which
case the resistance in the denominator of Equations (8.3.15)
and (8.3.16) can be replaced by: r = rsoil + ra.
To estimate the fluxes using the above models requires
specification of time-varying variables including:
meteorological measurements (V, Ta, qa, i.e. from a weather
station), and surface states Tsurf and qsurf, as well as relatively
static surface characteristic roughness parameters (h, z0, d).
The surface states are often predicted as part of a land-surface
model (i.e. that models the surface energy/water balance).
The fluxes are driven by gradients in humidity and
temperature between the surface and atmosphere (larger
gradient yields larger fluxes) and regulated by turbulent
transport (smaller resistance yields larger fluxes).
265
 Over well-watered surfaces (i.e. open water or moist soil),
the air in contact with the surface is expected to be saturated.
In this special case one can generally assume: qsurf = qs(Tsurf)
which is equivalent to E = Ep (i.e. potential evaporation).
Based on this, one model used for potential evaporation is:
(q s (Tsurf ) − qa ) (8.3.17)
Ep = ρ
ra
In the more general soil case, soil moisture limits qsurf (i.e. qsurf
< qs(Tsurf)), and E < Ep (i.e. actual evaporation is less than
the potential evaporation). In such cases, the soil moisture
impact is often modeled as:
where in this example the soil moisture reduction factor
linearly increases between the wilting point and field capacity
and is otherwise 0 or 1 below the wilting point or above the
field capacity respectively.
Connecting these models back to the necessary
requirements for evaporation stated in Section 2:
i) Water availability: This comes into the above equations
implicitly through qsurf or explicitly via the soil moisture.
ii) Energy input: The net radiation implicitly drives the
evolution of surface temperature, which itself appears
implicitly or explicitly in the evaporation equations above.

q surf = β(θ )q s (Tsurf ) (8.3.18) iii) Transport of vapor away from surface: The aerodynamic
β ≡ soil moisture reduction factor, 0 ≤ β ≤ 1 resistance is the term that expresses the regulation of
transport of vapor (or energy) away from the surface via
or via: turbulent motions.

E = β(θ )E p (8.3.19)
E XAMPLE 8.3.1
where in either case the soil moisture reduction factor is an
increasing function of soil moisture that varies between 0 and Meteorological and surface measurements
1, e.g.: collected at noon from a bare soil field site are:

# Air temperature =27.2ºC

1, θ fc ≤ θ
% Air relative humidity =69%
%% θ − θ
β =$ wp
, θwp ≤ θ ≤ θ fc (8.3.20) Surface air pressure = 973 mb
θ
% fc − θ wp Windspeed = 5.8 m/s
%
%& 0, θ ≤ θwp Soil surface temperature = 26.9ºC

266
E XAMPLE 8.3.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 8.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

Assume the soil is saturated (i.e. after a heavy The specific humidity of the air and aerodynamic
rain) and has roughness elements with an average resistance (for neutral conditions) are given by:
height of 2 cm. Compute the instantaneous latent
es (Ta )
heat flux. For simplicity assume neutral qa = RH × q s (Ta ) = RH × ε
p
conditions in your calculation. Comment on the
36.9 mb
qualitative difference you would expect if non- = (0.69)(0.622) = 16.3 g/kg
973 mb
neutral conditions were included. What is the
2
equivalent evaporation rate in mm/day? ( " 2 m − 0.7(0.02 m)%+
* ln $ '-
Given the measurement of surface soil temperature and ) # 0.1(0.02 m) &,
raN = = 51 s/m
knowledge that the surface is saturated, we can safely (0.4)2(5.8 m/s)
assume that:
The air density can be computed as:
es (Tsurf )
q surf = q s (Tsurf ) = ε p
p ρ=
RdT[1 + 0.608qa ]
Using the integrated Clausius-Clapeyron equation, the 97300 Pa
=
saturated soil surface vapor pressure can be computed (287J/kg/K)(300.35K)[1 + 0.608(16.3 × 10 −3 )]
which yields es(Tsurf)=36.2 mb, which then gives: = 1.12 kg/m −3
36.2 mb
q surf = 0.622 = 23.1 × 10 −3 kg/kg so that the evaporation rate is:
973 mb
(23.1 − 16.3) × 10 −3 kg/kg
E = (1.12 kg/m ) 3
The evaporative mass flux is given by: (51 s/m)

(q surf − qa ) = 1.49 × 10 −4 kg/m 2 /s

E=ρ
ra The latent heat flux is determined by multiplying the
above mass flux by the latent heat of vaporization:

267
E XAMPLE 8.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

LE = Lv × E = (2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)(1.49 × 10 −4 kg/m 2 /s)

= 373 Wm −2

To get the equivalent flux density in mm/day simply

requires a unit conversion, i.e.:
1 m3
E[mm/day] = (1.49 × 10 −4
kg/m /s) ×
2
×
1000 kg
1000 mm 86400 s
× = 12.9 mm/day
1m 1 day

Note that these answers assumed neutral conditions. In

fact the conditions are near-neutral since the reference-
level temperature is almost the same as the surface
temperature. In this case, the air temperature is slightly
warmer than the surface. This corresponds to stable
conditions which generally suppresses turbulent flow.
Mathematically, this would correspond to a higher
aerodynamic resistance and hence a lower latent heat
(evaporation) flux.

268
S ECTION 4

Transpiration
The models presented in the previous section are relevant
for open water surfaces or bare soil surfaces. However in many
applications, vegetation is present and is expected to play a
key role in ET. Transpiration by plants occurs via the
vascular system of the plant structure (Figure 8.4). It is
helpful to first start with the “motivation” underlying the
plant’s role in water loss from the surface. In this context,
photosynthesis is the key driver. Plants use photosynthesis to
build plant structures (leaves, stems, roots, etc.) in order to
grow. The photosynthetic reaction can be written as:

H 2O+CO2 → CH 2O+O2 (8.4.1)

where the key driver implicit in the forward progression of F IGURE 8.4 Schematic of key structures of a plant as rele-
this reaction are photons from the sun (“photosynthetically vant to transpiration flux (by Laurel Jules from
active radiation” [PAR], which is essentially energy in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Transpiration_Overview.svg).

visible part of the solar spectrum). The carbohydrate on the

right-hand-side (CH2O) is the compound that is used to
build/grow plant structure. So the key ingredients to make
this happen are water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and solar
energy (PAR). A by-product of the process is oxygen (O2).
The water source is soil moisture taken from the
rootzone and the carbon dioxide source is from the
atmosphere. The site of photosynthesis is inside the leaf,
where carbon dioxide can diffuse into the leaf and solar
radiation is absorbed. Water is brought to the leaves via
absorption of soil water by plant roots and transport via the
roots, stem, branches, etc. (Figure 8.4). Diffusion of carbon
dioxide into the stomatal cavities inside the leaves occurs via
small openings called stoma (Figures 8.5 and 8.6). These
stomatal openings are ringed with so-called “guard cells”,
which can open and shut to regulate the flow of carbon
269
dioxide into the leaves or the flow of water vapor out of the
leaves. The reason for this regulation has to do with the fact
that photosynthesis requires all of the ingredients listed above.
When the ingredients are unavailable (i.e. nighttime when
PAR = 0, or when water is limited due to soil moisture
shortage, etc.), there is little benefit to having the stoma open
and needlessly lose the water (which will diffuse out into the
air). So in this context the transpiration is essentially a water
loss term that happens at the leaves of the plant.

The water is mobilized at the root structures via suction:

F IGURE 8.6 Microscope view of a leaf stomatal opening (from

sols.unlv.edu/Sculte/Anatomy/Leaves/PopulusStomata.jpg).

the water loss at the stoma provides a suction that propagates

F IGURE 8.5 Illustration of leaf-level processes involved in
photosynthesis (from earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LAI/
LAI2.php).
through the system, ultimately applying a negative pressure
to the water in the soil. This negative pressure can act against
gravity as described in Chapter 7. Recall that the drier the
soil, the higher the suction pressure in the soil. Hence, when
soil moisture is low, the plant must exert more pressure to
mobilize the water. When overly high suction pressures
develop, the plant structure may fail (causing wilting) which
corresponds directly to the wilting point soil moisture defined
in Equation (7.3.15).

270
 The evaporative loss occurs because the air inside the
stomatal cavity is essentially saturated (i.e. q = qs), while that
outside the leaf is generally sub-saturated (i.e. q < qs). This
gradient in vapor will drive a diffusive flux as described in the
previous section. The guard cells attempt to regulate the
carbon dioxide influx in a way that minimizes environmental
stresses on the plant (chiefly water loss). This ability to
regulate transpiration will add an additional “resistance” to
the flux equations developed in the previous section. This can
be modeled in terms of an extra stomatal or vegetation
canopy resistance (Figure 8.7). The details of this
physiological behavior are complicated, but the way it is
handled in the modeling of ET is generally simplified. The
resistance for the entire vegetation canopy (i.e. all of the
leaves combined) is often scaled from the single-leaf scale
using the so-called leaf area index (LAI), which is defined as
the leaf area per unit area of ground surface. So dense
vegetation with a large leaf area to ground surface area may
have values of LAI of approximately 6.0 or greater. This
parameter has both a strong spatial and seasonal variation
(Movie 8.1).
F IGURE 8.7 Conceptualization of controls on evapotranspira-
The canopy resistance (rc) is then modeled as: tion process using a resistance analogy approach (from
media.wiley.com/mrw_images/els/articles/a0003206/image_n/
r nfgz002.gif).
rc = s (8.4.2)
LAI

where rs is the stomatal resistance. In the same way that ra is
the resistance to evaporation due to turbulent transport, rc is
the resistance to transpiration due to stomatal control. Since
the resistances are in series, the total resistance can be
thought of as just the sum of the two resistances. Hence the
mass-transfer (diffusion analogy) model developed in Section 3
can be easily augmented to account for this effect:
271

M OVIE 8.1 Animation of satellite-derived global LAI showing
seasonal and interannual variability (from
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LAI/LAI3a.php).
(q surf − qa ) (8.4.3)
E=ρ
ra + rc
which represents the evapotranspiration from a vegetated
surface. Note that the sensible heat flux is not regulated by
the stomata since it is still driven by temperature gradients,
hence the model for H is that given in Equation (8.3.16). This
particular form of model is often referred to as a one-source
model, assuming a homogeneous vegetation covered surface.
More complicated models can use a two-source model, where
evaporation comes from both vegetation and soil.
It should also be noted that the vegetation itself can
intercept water or snow as discussed in Chapter 6. In the case
where liquid water is on the leaves, the evaporation takes
place at the potential rate (Ep) since water is freely available
for evaporation from the leaves, and the contribution from the
leaf surface is often called interception loss. The amount of
precipitation that directly reaches the surface (i.e. is not
intercepted) is called throughfall. Additional water can fall to
the surface via drainage if the interception storage fills up in
conjunction with continuing precipitation.
As mentioned above, the stomatal openings open/close
depending on environmental “stresses” being experienced by
the plant. So far these effects have not been included
explicitly in the model. The four stresses that are usually
accounted for are the incoming shortwave radiation (PAR), air
humidity, air temperature, and rootzone soil moisture. These
effects are usually modeled in the stomatal resistance
mentioned above as:
rsmin
rs = (8.4.4)
fR ⋅ fT ⋅ fδe ⋅ fθ
s a rz
where rsmin is the (plant-dependent) minimum stomatal
resistance and the terms in the denominator are “stress
factors” that vary between 0 and 1 and depend on incoming
shortwave radiation, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit,
and rootzone soil moisture respectively. These functions are
constructed in a way that in the limit approaching fi = 0
(where i corresponds to the different variable subscripts in
Equation (8.4.4)) corresponds to fully stressed conditions and
the limit approaching fi = 1 corresponds to fully unstressed
conditions. For example, when rootzone soil moisture becomes
272
 1.105Rs↓ (8.4.5)
fR (R ) =
↓
s
, 0 ≤ R ≤ 1100 W m
↓
s
-2
s
1.007Rs↓ + 104.4

fδe (δe) = 1 − 0.000238δe, 0 ≤ δe ≤ 4200 Pa (8.4.6)

Ta (40 −Ta )1.18

fT (Ta ) = , 0 ≤ Ta ≤ 40 C (8.4.7)
a
690

# 1, θ fc ≤ θ
%
%% θ − θ
fθ (θrz ) = $ wp
, θwp ≤ θ ≤ θ fc (8.4.8)
rz
θ
% fc − θ wp
%
%& 0, θ ≤ θwp

which are plotted in Figure 8.8.

For the incoming shortwave function, the stress function

F IGURE 8.8 Illustrative example of environmental stress fac-
tors used in canopy resistance model.
low, the stress factor for soil moisture will approach zero,
which will increase the stomatal resistance, and ultimately
make the transpiration equal to zero. The specific forms of
these functions are generally empirically-based. One example
of such equations is the set given by (Dingman, 2008):
goes to zero (i.e. stoma close) when the radiation is zero (at
night) and it goes to 1.0 when the stoma are fully open during
a sunny day with a significant amount of PAR. The air
temperature stress function is generally a function with a
peak or plateau region, which represents the optimal
temperature conditions for the plant. If the temperature gets
too cold or too hot the stoma will close completely. The vapor
pressure deficit (VPD) function is 1.0 when the VPD is zero
and decays as the VPD increases. This is because evaporation
losses will generally be high when the VPD is high and low
when the VPD is low. For soil moisture, when the rootzone

273
soil moisture is at or below the wilting point (i.e. 0.1 in Figure
8.8) the stoma will have to shut completely. When the
rootzone moisture is above the field capacity (i.e. 0.4 in Figure
8.8) then water is plentiful and the stoma can be open. Given
that all of these variables are functions of time, the stress
functions themselves are functions of time as is the stomatal/
canopy resistance.
In summary, the presence of vegetation primarily changes
evapotranspiration by adding an additional regulation on the
flux of vapor at the surface. Vegetation plays an active role in
the water vapor loss (transpiration) via the regulation of
stomatal openings in the leaves. When under perfectly
unstressed conditions, the stomatal resistance is equal to the
minimum stomatal resistance, which is then scaled by the LAI
so that the additional regulation is entirely determined by
plant-dependent parameters. In the more general cases,
environmental conditions (both meteorological and soil
moisture) can generally increase the canopy resistance as the
environmental conditions are sub-optimal for vegetation
photosynthetic functioning. In the extreme case where
environmental conditions are severely sub-optimal (e.g.
rootzone soil moisture becomes very dry approaching the
wilting point of the plant), transpiration can be shut-off
completely via the complete closing of the stoma.
E XAMPLE 8.4.1
A vegetated surface is adjacent to the bare soil
surface described in Example 8.3.1. The
vegetation consists of a grass surface with a
characteristic height of 5 cm, a leaf area index of
2.5 and a minimum stomatal resistance of 70 s/
m. The incident shortwave radiation at the
surface is measured to be 900 W m-2. Assume the
meteorological conditions and surface conditions
for the vegetated surface are the same as that in
Example 8.3.1. Compute the evaporation rate
from the vegetated surface.
The primary difference for a vegetated surface is the
additional resistance due to stomatal control on vapor
loss. This requires computation of each of the
environmental stress factors in the stomatal resistance
function. Based on the saturated soil and meteorological
conditions and using functions illustrated in Figure 8.8
(Equations (8.4.5)-(8.4.8)), the stress factors can be
estimated as:
1.105(900 W m −2 )
fR (R ) =
↓
s
= 0.98
s
1.007(900 W m ) + 104.4
−2

(27.2 C)(40 − 27.2 C)1.18

fT (Ta ) = = 0.80
a
690
fθ (θrz ) = 1
rz

274
E XAMPLE 8.4.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 8.4.1 ( CONTINUED )

For the vapor pressure deficit term: → LE = (2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)(0.88 × 10 −4 kg/m 2 /s)
δe = es (Ta ) − ea = es (1 − RH ) = (36.9 mb)(1-0.69) = 219 W m −2
= 11.44 mb which is less than the bare soil evaporation.
fδe (δe) = 1 − 0.000238(1144 Pa) = 0.73

The canopy resistance is then given by:

rsmin (70 s/m)

rc = =
LAI(fR ⋅ fT ⋅ fδe ⋅ fθ ) (2.5)(0.98 ⋅ 0.80 ⋅ 0.73 ⋅ 1)
s a rz

= 49 s/m

The aerodynamic resistance also changes due to the

increased roughness of the vegetated surface, i.e.:
2
( " 2 m − 0.7(0.05 m)%+
* ln $ '-
) # 0.1(0.05 m) &,
raN = = 38 s/m
(0.4) (5.8 m/s)
2

which shows that the resistance is reduced due to the

increased roughness. The evaporation rate is then given
by:

(23.1 − 16.3) × 10 −3 kg/kg

E = (1.12 kg/m ) 3

(38 + 49 s/m)
= 0.88 × 10 −4 kg/m 2 /s

275
S ECTION 5
Additional ET Models
The mass-transfer models described in the last two
sections provide instantaneous (i.e. over 10-30 min.) models
for LE and H (over bare soil/open water or vegetated surface
respectively), but require measurements/estimates of Tsurf,
qsurf, Ta, qa, and V (as well as characterization of other surface
properties). Other methods/models have been developed for
cases where different measurements may be available.
The first approach discussed in this section is the so-
called Energy Balance Bowen Ratio (EBBR) method. The
Bowen ratio is defined as the ratio of the sensible heat to the
latent heat flux: B = H/LE. Note that the Bowen ratio is a
parameter indicative of the state of the surface and its role in
the partitioning of energy. When the surface is very dry, most
of the available energy will go into sensible heat (high Bowen
ratio). When the surface is wet, most of the available energy
will go into latent heat flux (low Bowen ratio). From the
original diffusion analogy models in Equations (8.3.2) and
(8.3.3), this can be written as:
c p ∂T / ∂z
B= (8.5.1)
Lv ∂q / ∂z
where the gradients are determined between two levels in the
atmosphere (i.e. could be over soil, open water or vegetation).
Using a finite difference approach this can be written as:
c p (T2 −T1 )
B=
Lv (q 2 − q1 )
(8.5.2)
which implies that if measurements of temperature and
humidity are available at two different levels (i.e. on a tower),
then one can estimate the Bowen ratio at a given time. The
method then invokes the surface energy balance equation,
which can be written in terms of the Bowen ratio:
Rn − G = LE + H = LE(1 + B) (8.5.3)
which can be solved for the latent heat flux:
Rn − G (8.5.4)
LE =
1+B
So given an estimate of the Bowen ratio and estimates of the
available energy (Rn - G), one can estimate the actual
evapotranspiration. Note this does not explicitly depend on
soil moisture measurement, wind speed, or other surface
properties aside from those needed to estimate Rn - G. Also,
no separate treatment is required for bare soil or vegetated
surfaces. Additionally, once latent heat flux is estimated, the
sensible heat flux can be estimated from the definition of the
Bowen ratio:
H = B ⋅ LE (8.5.5)
276
 The second model described here is the so-called Penman
E XAMPLE 8.5.1 model. Penman (1948) combined the mass-transfer models
with surface energy balance to derive a model for potential
A meteorological tower takes temperature and
evaporation. The primary development of the model is as
humidity measurements at two levels (where level follows:
1 is at 5 m and level 2 is 10 m above the surface)
and available energy measurements: 1. Assume that the surface humidity in the mass-transfer
model for evaporation is equal to the saturated specific
Air temperature (level 1) =27.2ºC
humidity (this implies potential evaporation):
Air temperature (level 2) =24.2ºC
Air specific humidity (level 1) =12 g/kg q surf = q s (Tsurf ) (8.5.6)
Air specific humidity (level 2) =11 g/kg
2. Linearize the saturated specific humidity around the air
Available energy (Rn - G) = 500 W m-2
temperature via a Taylor series expansion:
Estimate the latent and sensible heat fluxes from
dq s 1 d qs
2
the surface. q s (Tsurf ) = q s (Ta ) + (Tsurf −Ta ) + (T −T )2
+ ...
dT T 2 dT 2 surf a
a T
a
From the two-level measurements, the Bowen ratio can
be estimated as: Keeping only the linear terms (i.e. the first two terms on the
1004 J/kg/K (27.2 − 24.2) K right-hand-side) yields:
B= = 1.2
2.5 × 10 6 J/kg (12 − 11) × 10 −3 dq s (8.5.7)
q s (Tsurf )  q s (Ta ) + (T −Ta )
dT T surf
Based on the available energy, the latent and sensible a

heat fluxes are:

where by definition:
500 Wm −2
LE = = 227 Wm −2 dq s ε des ε Lv es
1 + (1.2) = = (8.5.8)
dT p dT p Rv T 2
H = (1.2)(227 Wm −2 ) = 272 Wm −2
is simply the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and can be directly
both of which are away from the surface.
evaluated (or tabulated) as a function of air temperature. It is

277
often written using the following simplified notation: temperature, humidity, wind speed, and surface roughness. It
dq s ε des ε also shows two key drivers of potential evaporation, the first
= = Δ (8.5.9)
dT p dT p term in the numerator is energy driven, while the second term
is associated with “atmospheric demand” depending on how
humid the air is. As mentioned in Section 3, the actual
3. Rearrange the mass-transfer equation for sensible heat into: evaporation is often then modeled as:
Hra
(Tsurf −Ta ) = (8.5.10) LE = β(θ )LE p (8.5.12)
ρc p

4. Rearrange the SEB into: H = Rn + LE - G and substitute

into Equation (8.5.10). E XAMPLE 8.5.2

5. Substitute the expression for (Tsurf - Ta) into the linearized A reservoir has a nearby meteorological station
Equation (8.5.7), which can then be substituted into the that takes the following measurements:
mass-transfer equation for E (Equation (8.3.14)).
Air temperature =29.2ºC
6. Finally, solving for LE yields the Penman equation for Air relative humidity =76%
potential evaporation (i.e. from bare soils or open water Surface air pressure = 980 mb
surfaces): Windspeed (at 2 m height) = 10.3 m/s
Available energy (Rn - G) = 383.2 W m-2
Δ ρL
(Rn − G) + v δ q
γ ra Estimate the evaporation rate (in mm/day).
LE p = (8.5.11)
Δ Assume the characteristic wave height on the
1+
γ reservoir surface is 3 cm.
pc p
γ ≡ psychrometric constant = Note that in this case there is no data characterizing the
ε Lv surface temperature. (If the surface temperature was
δ q = qs (Ta ) − qa known, we could reasonably assume that the surface
specific humidity was equal to the saturated specific
The Penman model provides potential evaporation rates
humidity at that temperature.) Hence the mass-transfer
given estimates of available energy, reference-level air

278
E XAMPLE 8.5.2 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 8.5.2 ( CONTINUED )

model cannot be used in this case. Since the problem The Clausius-Clapeyron and psychrometric terms are
involves evaporation from an open-water surface we given by:
know that the evaporation rate should equal the
Lv es (2.5 × 10 6 J/kg) (4157 Pa)
potential evaporation rate. Given the measurements of Δ= =
available energy, the Penman model is applicable to this Rv T 2 (461 J/kg/K) (302.35 K)2
problem: = 246.6 Pa/K
(98000 Pa)(1004 J/kg/K)
Δ ρL γ= = 63.3 Pa/K
(Rn −G) + v δq (0.622)(2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)
γ ra
LE p = Δ 246.6 Pa/K
Δ = = 3.9
1+ γ 63.3 Pa/K
γ
Putting all terms together yields the latent heat flux:
where each term needs to be computed. The air density
can be computed from the ideal gas law for these (3.9)(383.2 W/m 2 )
LE p = +
conditions, which yields a density of 1.11 kg/m3. The 1 + 3.9
aerodynamic resistance (under neutral conditions) is (1.11 kg/m 3 )(2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)
equal to (from Equation (8.3.9)): ra = 25.6 s/m. The (6.3 × 10 −3 )
(25.6 s/m)
specific humidity deficit is a function of air temperature 1 + 3.9
and relative humidity as given by: = 444 W/m 2
# 2.5×106 J/kg # 1 1 &&
es (Ta ) = (6.11 mb) exp % % − (( The equivalent evaporation rate is then given by:
$ 461 J/kg/K $ 273.16 K 302.35 K ''
= 41.57 mb 444 W/m 2 1 m3
E[mm/day] = × ×
(2.5 × 10 6 J/kg) 1000 kg
ea = (0.76) ( 41.57 mb) = 31.59 mb 1000 mm 86400 s
× = 15.3 mm/day
ε (0.622) 1m 1 day
δq = δe = (4157 − 3159 Pa) = 6.3×10−3 kg/kg
p (98000 Pa)

279
 Other models have followed directly from Penman. For resistance term in the mass-transfer model. Following that
example over a large moist surface with minimal advection the approach, one can show:
air will become saturated under continued evaporation, i.e.:
Δ ρL
δq → 0 (Rn − G) + v δ q
γ ra
LE = (8.5.15)
Δ r
Under these conditions one can define the “equilibrium 1+ + c
γ ra
evaporation”, i.e. that driven solely by energy considerations:
Δ In functional form this is identical to the Penman model
(R − G) (8.5.13)
γ n except for the additional (last) term in the denominator which
LEe =
Δ includes the canopy resistance. In fact, in the limit that the
1+
γ canopy resistance goes to zero, this equation reduces to the
Penman model as expected. Despite these similarities, some
The Priestly-Taylor model postulates a relationship between care needs to be taken in terms of the meaning of the ET
potential and equilibrium evaporation, i.e.: predicted by the Penman-Monteith equation. Note that in its
general form the canopy resistance has a soil moisture stress
Δ
(Rn −G) (8.5.14) factor embedded in it (Equations (8.4.2) and (8.4.4)). Hence if
γ
LE p = α ⋅ LEe = α ⋅ one wishes to use Penman-Monteith to model potential
Δ
1+ evapotranspiration, then one needs to set the soil moisture
γ
stress factor to 1.0 (which is equivalent to soil moisture not
being a limiting factor). The soil moisture impact on actual
where experimentally it has been found that in many cases evaporation could then be considered via Equation (8.5.12).
the multiplicative coefficient has a value of 1.26. Given this, Alternatively, if one keeps the soil moisture stress function in
the Priestly-Taylor model is often used to estimate potential the canopy resistance, then the equation will not predict
evaporation (and does not require humidity or wind speed potential evapotranspiration, but more closely actual
measurements). evapotranspiration.

Finally, it must be noted that the Penman model does
not consider vegetation cover. To account for the impact of
vegetation, the Penman-Monteith model is an extension which
follows the same recipe as above, but considers the canopy
The set of models described in this and the previous
sections, take various approaches to predict ET based on
various inputs. The model chosen depends on the surface type
as well as the measurements that are available. The specific
280
measurements that are available are often the result of
practical factors like cost of equipment and operation and
maintenance costs, proximity to existing infrastructure, etc.

E XAMPLE 8.5.3

A vegetated region adjacent to the reservoir in

Example 8.5.2 has the same meteorological data.
Based on its roughness and vegetation
characteristics, the corresponding aerodynamic
and canopy resistances are ra = 20 s/m and rc =
50 s/m. What is the expected latent heat flux
and evaporation rate (in mm/day)?

Based on the data, and since the surface is vegetated,

the Penman-Monteith model can be used:

(3.9)(383.2 W/m 2 )
LE = +
50 s/m
1 + 3.9 +
20 s/m
(1.11 kg/m 3 )(2.5 × 10 6 J/kg)
(6.3 × 10 −3 )
(20 s/m)
50 s/m
1 + 3.9 +
20 s/m
= 326 W/m 2

which is a lesser value than the potential rate from the

open-water surface in Example 8.5.2 due to the
additional stomatal control, despite having a lower ra.

281
S ECTION 6 psychrometric_constant.m

MOD-WET Codes Bulk Richardson number:

richardson_number.m

Surface energy balance model (prognostic solver):

Relevant functions based on concepts introduced in soil_SEB_solver_prognostic.m
this chapter include:
Stability correction factors:
Aerodynamic resistance to turbulent transport: stab_corr_factors.m
aero_resistance.m

Canopy resistance due to stomatal control:

canopy_resistance.m

Slope of Clausius-Clapeyron equation:

clausius_clapeyron_slope.m

Energy Balance Bowen Ratio Method for ET estimation:

EBBR.m

Mass transfer model for evapotranspiration (and sensible

heat):
mass_transfer.m

Penman model:
penman.m

Penman-Monteith model:
penman_monteith.m

Psychrometric constant calculation:

282
S ECTION 7
Conceptual Questions
1. Describe the physical meaning of potential evaporation.
How does it generally compare to actual evaporation?
2. Is pan evaporation a measure of actual evaporation or
potential evaporation?
3. For a watershed mass balance, write the long-term average
evaporation as a function of other long-term average mass
fluxes.
4. Using an energy balance, write the long-term average
evaporation as a function of other long-term average energy
fluxes.
5. How do you convert between latent heat flux (in units of W
m-2) and evaporation mass flux (in units of kg m-2 s-1)? How
do you convert between an evaporation mass flux to units
of depth per unit time (i.e. mm/day)?
6. In the mass-transfer model for evaporation from bare soil,
what time-varying gradient is evaporation proportional to
(i.e. the “driver” of the flux). What gradient is sensible heat
flux proportional to?
7. What type of function describes the form of the mean
horizontal wind profile (i.e. as a function of z) in the neutral
surface layer?
8. What physical process in the near-surface layer of the
atmosphere is chiefly responsible for the transport of vapor
(or heat) away from the surface?
9. Describe what the aerodynamic resistance physically
represents.
10. How does the aerodynamic resistance change if wind
velocity at a reference-level increases? Explain why this is
and what impact it has on evaporation and sensible heat
fluxes.
11. What is a neutral surface layer, i.e. what does neutral
refer to?
12. Describe the basic physical mechanism whereby vegetation
exerts an additional control/regulation on
evapotranspiration.
13. What does canopy resistance refer to?
14. Describe what leaf area index is.
15. Describe the meaning of the environmental stress factors
used in models for canopy resistance.
16. If environmental conditions are such that there is no stress
on the plant, what will the canopy resistance reduce to?
17. Does high soil moisture stress refer to high or low soil
moisture? Explain.
283
18. Identify whether the EBBR, Penman, and Penman-
Monteith models give actual or potential
evapotranspiration. Explain.

284
S ECTION 8
Sample Problems
Problem 8.1. On a given day, the following meteorological
and surface measurements were collected at noon from a bare
soil field site in the Emerald Lake watershed:
Air temperature = 11.5ºC
Air relative humidity = 46.5 %
Surface air pressure = 714 mb
Wind speed at 2m height = 1.9 m s-1
Soil surface temperature = 22.5ºC
The measurements are taken on the first sunny day after a
rainstorm (you can assume the soil is saturated). The soil
roughness elements have an average characteristic height of 5
cm. For simplicity, assume neutral atmospheric conditions.
a) What additional information/input data would you need if
the soil were not saturated?
b) Use the appropriate model to compute the instantaneous
latent and sensible heat fluxes.
c) What is the equivalent evaporation rate (in mm/day) from
the surface at noon?
Problem 8.2. A meteorological station takes the following
measurements at solar noon:
Air temperature = 15.2ºC
Air relative humidity = 34%
Surface air pressure = 711.9 mb
Wind speed at 2 m height = 2.7 m s-1
Net shortwave radiation = 734.2 W m-2
Net longwave radiation = -152.4 W m-2
Assume the surface is snow-free and the conduction of energy
(ground heat flux) into the sandy loam soil is 20% of the net
radiation and the characteristic soil roughness height (h) at
the site is 5 cm. Also assume that the soil is saturated (i.e. the
measurements are taken shortly after snowmelt).
a) Using only the measurements/information provided, which
model discussed in class could be used to estimate the
instantaneous surface evaporation? Which model/s cannot be
used if you only have the data provided? Explain why.
b) Consider a general case where soil moisture may limit the
surface specific humidity. In this case actual latent heat can
be modeled using Equation (8.5.12). Consider two cases: 1) a
saturated soil as mentioned above; and 2) a water-limited case
(volumetric soil moisture is 80% of the field capacity) where
the multiplicative reduction factor is given by Equation
(8.3.20). Use an appropriate model to compute the latent heat
flux using the above measurements for each of these cases.
How do the values of the fluxes between the water-limited
case and the saturated soil case compare? For simplicity,
assume neutral atmospheric conditions.
285
c) What is the equivalent evaporation rate (in units of mm
day-1) from the soil for each case?
d) How would you expect the evaporation rate to change if
the wind speed were to decrease? Explain.
Problem 8.3.
A meteorological station/tower is set up at a field site to take
the following measurements: net radiation at the surface (Rn),
ground (surface) heat flux (G), and air temperature and
specific humidity at two different heights within the
atmospheric surface layer (T1 and T2 and q1 and q2).
Measurements taken at noon for a particular day are given
below. Note: No surface humidity and temperature data is
available.
T1 = 26.0ºC
T2 = 24.0ºC
q1 = 11.0 g kg-1
q2 = 8.6 g kg-1
G = 40.0 W m-2
Rn = 404.5 W m-2
a) Use an appropriate model to compute the latent and
sensible heat flux at the measurement time.
b) What is the equivalent evaporation rate in units of mm/
day?
c) How would you expect the Bowen ratio of an arid (dry)
region to compare to that of a wet region at noon on a clear-
sky day over snow-free bare soil?
Problem 8.4. A farmer is trying to decide which type of
orchard tree to plant, crop A or B. She wants to plant the one
that uses less water where the amount of irrigation applied to
a crop is typically equal to the estimated evapotranspiration
from the crop. At 10 meters above the surface, the typical
wind speed, air temperature, and relative humidity are
determined to be: 6 m s-1, 22ºC, and 37% respectively. The
representative available energy over the growing period is 487
W m-2, the density of air is 1.18 kg m-3, and the representative
surface air pressure is 990 mb. It can be safely assumed that
the ground heat flux is negligible. Type A grows to about 3.0
meters tall and has an average canopy resistance of 120 s m-1.
Type B grows to about 2.5 meters tall and has an average
canopy resistance of 76 s m-1. Which orchard tree should the
farmer plant to minimize irrigation demand? Justify your
answer.
286
S ECTION 9
MOD-WET Problems
Problem 8.1. In this problem, you will examine surface
states and fluxes during an inter-storm period in the
watershed. Using the output from your simulation over the
watershed, consider the 30-day period immediately following
the last snowmelt event of the season for one of the pixels
chosen above for each part below. This period immediately
follows the last snowmelt event of the season.
Provide an explanation for the “tradeoff” seen in sensible vs.
latent heat flux, keeping in mind that the available energy
gets partitioned into latent and sensible heat flux, ii) Explain
how the surface temperature is related to the evolution of soil
moisture and evaporation, keeping in mind that evaporation is
a very efficient cooling mechanism.
d) What is the maximum evaporative flux in (mm/day) that
occurs during this period?

a) Plot the time series of the daily-averaged volumetric soil

moisture in the rootzone. The rootzone has a depth of 0.5 m
at this location. Note: The rootzone soil moisture stored in
the states.maps.Srz variable is expressed as a depth, which
is simply the rootzone volumetric soil moisture multiplied by
the depth of the rootzone. Describe the evolution of the soil
moisture over this period. Explain why the soil moisture time
series exhibits the observed evolution.

b) On a single figure, plot the time series of the daily-

averaged latent heat and the sensible heat fluxes (in W/m2)
using the variable fluxes.maps.LE and fluxes.maps.H
respectively. On a separate figure plot the daily-averaged time
series of the surface temperature (in Kelvin) using
states.maps.Tsurf.

c) Explain how the rootzone soil moisture plotted for part a)

is related to the evolution of evaporation. In particular: i)
287
Chapter 9

Groundwater
Flow
S ECTION 1
Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:
1. Write down Darcy’s Law for specific discharge in
saturated flow; show how it is a special case of the
expression used in unsaturated flow
2. Compute the average fluid velocity through an aquifer
based on the Darcy flux and soil porosity
3. List the key differences between unconfined and confined
aquifers
4. Describe the different mechanisms by which water is
stored in unconfined and confined aquifers
5. Define the respective storage parameter relevant to
unconfined and confined aquifers
6. Write down the general 3D groundwater flow equation for
confined aquifers
7. State the key dependent variable that is being solved for
in any groundwater flow problem (i.e. once this variable is
known anything else can be solved for)
8. Write down the general 2D groundwater flow equation
(using the Dupuit approximation) for unconfined and
confined aquifers
9. Solve the groundwater flow equation via integration for
simple steady-state one-dimensional boundary value
problems
10. Understand the difference and meaning of a fixed-head
and no-flow boundary condition
11. Use the principle of superposition to decompose and
solve more complicated groundwater flow problems
12. Write down the 2D flow equation in cylindrical
coordinates for flow to a single pumping well
13. Understand the difference between a monitoring well and
a pumping well
14. Solve the steady-state flow equation toward a single
pumping well for unconfined and confined aquifers
15. Use the single-well solutions to solve for aquifer
properties (conductivity/transmissivity) given measured
head values
16. Solve the transient flow equation toward a single
pumping well using the Theis equation
17. Use superposition to solve for head/drawdown in
problems with multiple wells, impermeable or fixed-head
lateral boundaries
289
S ECTION 2

Basic Groundwater Charac-

teristics
The term groundwater is generally used to refer to the
study of subsurface flow in saturated soil media. Such
groundwater reservoirs constitute approximately 30% of the
total global freshwater and approximately 99% of the total
global liquid freshwater, and hence form one of the key water
resources for water supply. We will start this chapter with
some of the basic definitions used in groundwater. It should
be noted that many are shared with unsaturated flow
problems (also flow in porous media) with the difference being F IGURE 9.1 Illustration of various layers in subsurface includ-
ing vadose zone, an unconfined and confined aquifer and an
that all the pores are filled with water. A more comprehensive aquiclude.
treatment of groundwater processes is given in Bear (2007).

An “aquifer” is a geologic unit (often of unconsolidated

soil) that is capable of storing and transmitting significant
amounts of water. A schematic of the subsurface is shown in
Figure 9.1. Aquifers are generally characterized into one of
two types: unconfined aquifers and confined aquifers.
In unconfined aquifers (generally near the surface just
below the unsaturated zone) the pores saturate via water
pooling up over time on top of an impervious or low
conductivity layer. These low conductivity layers that prevent
downward flow are generally referred to as aquicludes or
aquitards. The upper boundary for an unconfined aquifer is
the water table, which is open to the atmosphere and
therefore has a (gauge) pressure equal to zero (i.e.
atmospheric) at the water table. The main source of water for
unconfined aquifers is direct recharge from the overlying
unsaturated zone. Because the water table is a free surface,
changes in storage in unconfined aquifers correspond directly
to an increase or decrease in the water table elevation. In this
way, unconfined aquifers are analogous to streams where
unsteady flow involves changes in stream elevation. The
piezometric (or potentiometric) surface, i.e.:

290
 p (9.2.1)
h= +z
ρg

corresponds directly with the height of the water table, where

z is defined relative to a datum.

In confined aquifers, the saturated soil is bounded above

and below by low conductivity layers. Often these layers may
be clay soil layers above and impervious bedrock below. As a
result, the physical boundaries of the confined aquifer are
essentially fixed, making the flow more analogous to pipe flow.
The source of water in confined aquifers is recharge from
upstream locations or in some cases via leaky aquitards
(Figure 9.2). As a result of the configuration (i.e. fixed
F IGURE 9.2 Typical aquifer configuration showing piezomet-
boundaries above/below), water in confined aquifers is often ric surface for unconfined and confined aquifers, which can be
under high pressure. By definition the piezometric surface is measured via monitoring wells (from
artinaid.com/2013/04/types-of-aquifers) .
generally above the top of the aquifer. In some cases, the
piezometric surface is actually above the ground surface
(Figure 9.2), in which case if a well were drilled into the
confined aquifer, water would flow up to the surface without piezometric head is a 3D function in space, i.e. h=h(x,y,z,t).
the need of a pump (artesian well). The components of the Darcy flux vector can be written as:
∂h ∂h ∂h (9.2.3)
Flow in aquifers is simply flow through porous media and qx − K x , qy = −K y , q z = −K z
therefore Darcy’s Law still applies for the specific discharge/ ∂x ∂y ∂z
Darcy flux vector:
The pore velocity is another variable that is often of interest
q = −K∇h (9.2.2) in groundwater flow as it controls the advection of pollutants.
It represents the average velocity of water in the pores and
where the conductivity is no longer a function of moisture can be written as:
content since the soil is saturated (i.e. K=Ks). The gradient
Q q
operator is used in recognition of the fact that in general the v= = (9.2.4)
θ sA θ s
291
where the porosity in the denominator corresponds to the fact
that only that fraction of the cross-sectional area of flow is
occupied by pore space. As was discussed previously, while
flow in the unsaturated zone is primarily 1D (z-direction),
groundwater flow is primarily 2D (in the x-y plane). In such
cases this implies that qz = 0 and hence the head is constant
with depth in the aquifer.

The storage characteristics of aquifers differ depending

on the type of aquifer. For an unconfined aquifer, the storage
change corresponds directly to a change in water table level.
The storage parameter used to characterize unconfined
aquifers is the “specific yield” or the storage coefficient: Sy
which is defined as the volume of water released per unit
decline in water table (per unit area). Physically, the specific
yield is dimensionless and varies between zero and the
porosity of the soil, with typical values between 0.05 and 0.35. F IGURE 9.3 Map showing the large-scale groundwater aqui-
fers across the U.S. (from USGS;
The specific retention is the difference between the porosity pubs.usgs.gov/ha/ha730/ch_a/gif/A004_us.gif).
and specific yield.

In confined aquifers the storage mechanism is different

since there is no water table that can move up or down.
Rather storage changes correspond mainly to compression of
the aquifer as the weight of the overlying material is
transferred from liquid to solid grains when water is removed
(or vice versa). In essence this amounts to storage changes as
a result of porosity changes. The storage parameter used to
describe this behavior is the so-called specific storage:
Ss ≡ change in porosity/change in piezometric head
which has dimensions of L-1. Typical values range between
1×10-5 and 1×10-3 m-1.
Together the storage and flow characteristics will be
combined to derive the groundwater flow equation. Some
examples of aquifer types and distribution in the U.S. are
shown in Figure 9.3. Of particular note is the Ogallala Aquifer
in the midwestern U.S. Much of the grain belt of the U.S.
draws its irrigation water via pumping from this one very
large aquifer.

292
 E XAMPLE 9.2.1 E XAMPLE 9.2.1 ( CONTINUED )

A square island has an unconfined aquifer with a middle of the island with values above 25 m, but below
piezometric head distribution (h(x,y); in meters) 30 m (since there is no 30 m contour). The head
as shown in the figure below. The aquifer is generally decreases to zero at the aquifer boundaries.
homogeneous and has a saturated hydraulic The water will flow down the head gradient (i.e. from
Problem #3: (6 points ~ 20 min.)
conductivity of 1.0 m/d and a porosity of 0.35. high to low head). Based on the distribution of head, the
The steady-state head field for a confined aquifer under a 5 km x 5 km square island (with a
homogeneousWhat is the
and isotropic Darcy
hydraulic flux and
conductivity poreis velocity
of 1 m/day) plotted in theat themap below.
contour The flow pattern will also vary in space. The Darcy flux is
datum is such that the head on all sides of the boundary of the island is 0 m.
location: x = 3 km, y = 2 km? given by:

q = −K∇h

where the gradient must be estimated from the head

distribution. The head gradient is mathematically in the
direction of steepest ascent, which graphically is
perpendicular to head contours. The negative sign in the
Darcy flux indicates that flow is in the down-gradient
direction. The down gradient direction at x = 3 km, y =
2 km is shown in the annotated figure below. The
gradient can be estimated using a finite difference:
Δh 5m
∇h   = 0.01
x =3km,y=2km ΔL x =3km,y=2km 500 m

Based on the hydraulic conductivity, the magnitude of

the Darcy flux is given by:

q = (1.0 m/d)(0.01) = 0.01 m/d

a) On the map,
Thesketch the flowof
pattern direction
head of water starting
shows a generalfrom point
peak(3km, theto the edge of the island. in
near3km) the direction shown in the figure below. The pore
(2 pts.)
velocity is in the same direction with a magnitude:
b) Where is the Darcy flux the maximum and what is its approximate value? Explain your reasoning for
choosing where the flux is largest. (4 pts.)
293
 E XAMPLE 9.2.1 ( CONTINUED )
Problem #3: (6 points ~ 20 min.)
The steady-state head field for a confined aquifer under a 5 km x 5 km square island (with a
homogeneous and isotropic hydraulicqconductivity
0.01 m/d
of 1 m/day) is plotted in the contour map below. The
v = = 0.029
= the
datum is such that the head on all sides of the boundary of islandm/d
is 0 m.
θs 0.35

+"

a) On the map, sketch the flow direction of water starting from point (3km, 3km) to the edge of the island.
(2 pts.)
Note that the Darcy flux and velocity will vary in space.
For example, the Darcy flux will be highest where the
b) Where is the Darcy flux the maximum and what is its approximate value? Explain your reasoning for
contours
choosing where the flux isare closest
largest. (i.e. largest gradient), which occurs
(4 pts.)
near the point x = 2.5 km, y = 5 km. At this location
Problem #4: (12head
the pointsgradient
~ 30 min.)is about 3 times larger than above,
A farmer hasmaking
a row irrigation system asflux
the Darcy shown in Figure
and 1 below.
velocity The soil
3 times is bounded on both sides by
larger.
drainage ditches which allow water to be removed from the soil through lateral groundwater flow. The
water in the drainage ditches is maintained at a depth H0. The irrigation rate I is applied at the top of the
soil profile. The water which is not evaporated via transpiration by the crops recharges (at a rate R) the
unconfined aquifer below (which is bounded by a horizontal impermeable layer at depth D). The crops
being grown by the farmer have a rooting depth of d and have an average evapotranspiration rate E. The 294
farmer must decide the irrigation rate such that the rootzone remains unsaturated (i.e. the water table
S ECTION 3 ∂h (9.3.3)
Ss = −∇(q)
∂t
Development of Groundwa-
which can be expanded to:
ter Flow Equation Ss
∂h ∂q ∂q ∂q
=− x − y − z (9.3.4)
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z
The groundwater flow equation is analogous to the flow
equation for unsaturated flow, but under saturated conditions.
Here we will start with the general 3D flow equation using Substituting in Darcy’s Law yields the general form of the 3D
mass balance and then simplify it to 1D and 2D versions as groundwater flow equation:
special cases. ∂h ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞
Ss = K + K + K (9.3.5)
∂t ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠ ∂z ⎜⎝ z ∂z ⎟⎠
The statement of mass balance can be written as (same
starting point as in unsaturated flow):
This is a second order PDE in h. For a general solution
∂M (9.3.1)
= −∇( ρwq dx dy dz) h(x,y,z,t), there also needs to be two boundary conditions
∂t
(BCs) per coordinate and one initial condition (IC) specified.
Once h is known, then everything about the flow field can be
where again the left-hand-side term is the change in mass computed. In other words, the key point is that in any
storage and the right-hand-side term is the convergence of flux groundwater flow problem what we are really solving for is the
(both for a differential volume of soil). From the definition of piezometric surface (h) first. Once known we can determine
specific storage, we can expand the storage term as: everything about the flow itself. This is analogous to the
∂M ∂h unsaturated flow problem, where when soil moisture is known
= ρwSs dx dy dz (9.3.2)
everything else can be determined. In that case the head is a
∂t ∂t
function of soil moisture, whereas in groundwater it is not.

which transforms the mass storage change into a piezometric Before proceeding to the development of the 2D flow
head change. Plugging this into Equation (9.3.1) and equation, some special cases that are often encountered are
assuming the density of water is constant yields: worth mentioning. First, an aquifer is said to be homogeneous
if its conductivity field does not vary in space, i.e.:

295
 ∂K x ∂K y ∂K z In many natural groundwater systems, the flow is largely
K i ≠ K i (x,y,z) ⇔ = = =0 horizontal (i.e. in the x- and y-directions) with little to no
∂x ∂y ∂z
vertical flow. As such, in many cases solving the 2D GW flow
Second, an aquifer is said to be isotropic if there is no equation is sufficient. Here we develop the 2D flow equation
directionality to the conductivity field, i.e.: from the general 3D equation shown above. The usual
mechanism for doing so if via the so-called Dupuit
K x = Ky = K z = K
approximation, which essentially involves integrating the 3D
equation with respect to z, assuming no vertical flow inside
Finally, if the flow is in steady-state, then there are no head
the aquifer (qz = 0) and that the aquifer has a horizontal lower
variations in time, i.e.:
boundary. Together these mean that h=h(x, y, t). Note that
∂h the lack of dependence on z implies that h is constant in any
=0
∂t vertical plane. This is consistent with the no vertical flow
assumption (i.e. if h varied with z then there would be a
gradient and therefore a Darcy flux). In such cases, as depth
Given these special conditions, one can derive simplified forms
increases into the aquifer, there are one-to-one tradeoffs
of the 3D flow equation. For example, for a homogeneous/
between the pressure and elevation head terms so that the
isotropic aquifer, we can write the governing equation as:
head is constant in the vertical. In other words, at the surface
∂h ⎡ ∂2 h ∂2 h ∂2 h ⎤ (9.3.6) the pressure is zero so the piezometric head is equal to the
Ss =K⎢ 2 + 2 + 2⎥
∂t ⎣ ∂x ∂y ∂z ⎦ elevation head. As one moves down vertically into the aquifer
the pressure increases such that the pressure head increases by
the exact amount that the elevation head decreases.
or for an homogeneous/isotropic aquifer in steady-state:
⎡ ∂2 h ∂2 h ∂2 h ⎤ To develop the 2D GW flow equation we integrate
(9.3.7)
⎢ 2 + 2 + 2⎥=∇h =0
2
Equation (9.3.5) from z = 0 to z = H, where H = h (i.e. the
⎣ ∂x ∂y ∂z ⎦
water table) in the case of an unconfined aquifer and H = b
(i.e. the aquifer thickness) in the case of an confined aquifer:
which is the well-known Laplace equation, which is seen not
only in groundwater problems but many other fields including
H H
heat transfer. ∂h ⎡∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤
∫0 s ∂t
S dz = ∫0 ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠ + ∂z
⎢ K + K ⎜⎝ K z ∂z ⎟⎠ ⎥dz
⎣ ⎦

296
This equation consists of four terms (one on the left-hand-side Finally, term #4 is:
and three on the right-hand-side). We will focus on integration H H
⎡∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤ ∂h ∂h ∂h
of them one-by-one. First, term #1: ∫0 ⎢ ∂z ⎜⎝ z ∂z ⎟⎠ ⎥dz = K z ∂z
K = Kz
∂z H
− Kz
∂z 0
=R−0
⎣ ⎦ 0
H H
∂h ∂h
∫ Ss ∂t
dz =
∂t ∫0 s
S dz
0 where R is the recharge through the top of the aquifer and it
∂h is assumed there is no leakage out of the bottom of the aquifer
= Sy [unconfined aquifers]
∂t (impervious boundary).
∂h ∂h
=Ss ⋅b = S ; [confined aquifers]
∂t ∂t Putting all four terms back together yields the 2D flow
equation. For a confined aquifer this can be written as:
where the confined aquifer parameter: S = Ssb is called the
storativity. Term #2 is: ∂h ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ (9.3.8)
S = T + T +R
∂t ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠
∂ ⎡ ∂h ⎤
H H H
⎡∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤ ∂ ⎡⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤
∫0 ⎢ ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ⎥ ∂x
K dz = ∫0 ⎢⎜⎝ K x ∂x ⎟⎠ ⎥dz = ∂x ⎢⎢K x ∂x z ⎥⎥
⎣ ⎦ ⎣ ⎦ ⎣ 0 ⎦ which is a linear PDE. The recharge R is non-zero (and
∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ positive) only if the confined aquifer has a “leaky” upper
= K h [unconfined aquifer]
∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ boundary. For an unconfined aquifer the 2D flow equation is
∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ given by:
= K b = T [confined aquifer]
∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂h ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞
Sy = K h + K h +R (9.3.9)
∂t ∂x ⎜⎝ x ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠
where the confined aquifer parameter T = Kb is called the
transmissivity. Term #3 is similarly: which is a nonlinear PDE in h due to the product terms
involving h. As mentioned in the context of the unsaturated
∂ ⎡ ∂h ⎤
H H H
⎡∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤ ∂ ⎡⎛ ∂h ⎞ ⎤
∫0 ⎢ ∂y ⎜⎝ Ky ∂y ⎟⎠ ⎥dz = ∂y ∫0 ⎢⎜⎝ Ky ∂y ⎟⎠ ⎥dz = ∂y ⎢⎢Ky ∂y z ⎥⎥ flow equation, nonlinear PDEs are generally more difficult to
⎣ ⎦ ⎣ ⎦ ⎣ 0 ⎦
solve. To make the equation linear we can use the following
∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ identities:
= K h [unconfined aquifer]
∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠
∂h 1 ∂ 2 ∂h 1 ∂ 2
∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ h = (h ); h = (h )
= K b = T [confined aquifer] ∂x 2 ∂x ∂y 2 ∂y
∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y ∂y ⎟⎠
297
along with a linearization (approximation) of the storage term direction), which is the same thing as saying that there is no
about a nominal head h0: variation in head in the y-direction. In such cases, the left-
S ∂ 2 hand-side term will be zero (steady-state) and the second
∂h h
Sy  Sy = y (h ) term on the right-hand-side, which involves derivatives with
∂t h0 2h0 ∂t
respect to y, will also be zero. Therefore the 1D (steady-state)
flow equation will look like:
Substituting these terms into the original Equation (9.3.9)
d 2φ R (9.3.12)
yields: 0= 2 + ; subject to BCs
dx C2
Sy ∂h 2 ∂ ⎛ 1 ∂h 2 ⎞ ∂ ⎛ 1 ∂h 2 ⎞ (9.3.10)
= K + K +R
2h0 ∂t ∂x ⎜⎝ x 2 ∂x ⎟⎠ ∂y ⎜⎝ y 2 ∂y ⎟⎠
where it should be noted that since it is 1D and steady-state
the governing equation is no longer a PDE, but instead an
which is now a linear PDE with respect to the variable h2. ODE. This equation can be integrated (twice) via separation
of variables, i.e.:
By expressing both equations in linear form, we can
write a unified governing linear 2D GW flow equation for a R 2
φ(x) = − x + a 0x + a 1 (9.3.13)
homogeneous/isotropic aquifer: 2C 2

∂φ ∂2 φ ∂2 φ R (9.3.11)
C1 = 2+ 2+
∂t ∂x ∂y C 2 The two integration constants (a0 and a1) can be determined
via application of the two BCs. Common BCs are fixed head
boundaries (which generally correspond to a lake/river
φ = h 2 2 [unconfined]; = h [confined]
boundary where the water level is in steady-state) or a no-flux
C 1 = Sy (Kh0 ) [unconfined]; = S T [confined]
boundary (where there is an impervious boundary like a
C 2 = K [unconfined]; = T [confined] bedrock outcrop). To reiterate: the solution to the above
equation will be the piezometric surface (in this case h(x)),
which can then be used to determine fluxes, pore velocities,
In many applications, especially those types of problems that
travel times, etc.
can be solved analytically, we will be dealing with steady-state
and/or 1D problems. In the case of steady-1D problems, we
can use the above unified equation as a starting point. A 1D
flow problem involves flow only in one direction (i.e. the x-
298
 E XAMPLE 9.3.1 E XAMPLE 9.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

A farmer has a row irrigation system as shown in such that the rootzone remains unsaturated (i.e.
the cross-section figure below: the water table remains below the rooting depth
throughout the entire length L). The soil has a
saturated hydraulic conductivity K. Assuming
steady-state conditions with no change in storage
in the unsaturated zone:

a) Write an expression relating the (steady-state)

irrigation, evapotranspiration, and recharge rates.

b) Determine the expression for the steady-state

water table profile beneath the crops as a
function of x (and in terms of R, K, H0, and L).
Figure 1: Cross sectional view of the unconfined aquifer for problem #1
The soil is bounded on both sides by drainage c) Based on your answers to parts a) and b),
rite an expression relating the (steady-state) irrigation, evapotranspiration, and recharge rates. (2 pt.)
ditches which allow water to be removed from write the expression for the maximum irrigation
etermine the expression for the steady-state water table profile beneath the crops as a function of x rate the farmer can apply to maintain
the
in terms of R, K, Hsoil through lateral groundwater flow. The
0, and L). (5 pts.)
unsaturated conditions in the rootzone.
sed on your water
answers to inparts
thea)drainage
and b), writeditches is maintained
the expression for the maximum atirrigation
a rate the
er can apply depth
to maintain . The irrigation
H0unsaturated conditions inrate I is applied
the rootzone. (2 pt.) at the a) The mass balance for the unsaturated zone control
-1 -1
ssuming H0 =top ofLthe
1.0 m, soil
= 6 m, D =profile. The
4 m, d = 1m, K =water which
3.0 cm day , and is
E =not
8 mm day , what is this volume (i.e. below the land surface and above the
-1
ation rate in mm day ? (3 pts.)
evaporated via transpiration by the crops water table) can be written as:
recharges (at a rate R) the unconfined aquifer
blem #5: (15below
points (which
~ 45 min.)is bounded by a horizontal dS
= I −E −R
re 2 (shown below) is a cross-sectional dt
impermeable layerdiagram
at depthillustrating the steady-state
D). The positions and conditions
crops being
pond and river relative to a one-dimensional confined aquifer.
grown by the farmer have a rooting depth of d In steady-state:
and have an average evapotranspiration rate E.
dS dt = I − E − R = 0
The farmer must decide the irrigation rate

299
E XAMPLE 9.3.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 9.3.1 ( CONTINUED )

b) The steady-state irrigated system yields a one- c) The form of the derived head profile indicates that
dimensional unconfined aquifer which is governed by there will be a peak in head at the mid-point of the
(from Equation (9.3.11)): aquifer. This can be proven by taking the derivative of
the head profile and setting it to zero, and is true in this
d 2h 2 2R
= − case because the boundary conditions are the same at
dx 2 K each boundary. The maximum allowable irrigation is
Integrating twice yields: such that the head is the requisite level shown in the
figure, i.e.:
R 2
h 2(x) = − x + a 0x + a 1 2
K R " L % RL " L %
h (x = L 2) = − $ ' +
2
$ ' + H 0 = (D − d)
2 2

K #2& K #2&
which has two (unknown) integration constants. They
can be determined by applying the boundary conditions RL2
→ + H 02 = (D − d)2
(BCs) at each end of the aquifer: 4K
(I − E)L2
→ + H 02 = (D − d)2
R 2 4K
h 2(x = 0) = − (0) + a 0 (0) + a1 = H 02
K
→ a1 = H 02 where solving for the irrigation rate yields:

R 4K
h 2(x = L) = −(L)2 + a 0 (L) + H 02 = H 02 I =E+ (D − d)2 − H 02
( )
K L2

RL
→ a0 =
K

so that the steady-state head profile is given by:

R 2 RL
h 2(x) = − x + x + H 02
K K

300
S ECTION 4

Groundwater Flow to
Pumping Wells
As mentioned above, groundwater is a primary source of
freshwater. To extract this supply from an aquifer generally
requires a pumping well (Figure 9.4) whereby the well taps
into the existing (natural) flow conditions. A pumping well
generally consists of a lined bore hole (i.e. with a pipe) that
has a screened end within the aquifer and a pump on the
other end of the pipe. Turning on the pump takes water out of
the aquifer and by mass balance induces flow toward the well
as will be described in more detail below. Note that a
F IGURE 9.4 Illustration of impact of pumping on the re-
monitoring well is quite different, as it does not have a pump gional natural groundwater system.
and is generally used solely for monitoring the piezometric
surface and/or constituents in the water (i.e. is passive rather
than an active part in the flow system). A pumping well may
shown for a confined and unconfined aquifer in Figures 9.5
be drilled into a near-surface unconfined aquifer or more
and 9.6 respectively. The pumping rate is generally denoted
deeply into a confined aquifer. In this section we focus on the
by Q and is given a positive value for extraction out of the
hydraulics associated with flow toward pumping wells.
aquifer (or negative for pumping into the aquifer). The
For mathematical tractability we will focus on a single original piezometric surface (h0) is shown with a dashed line.
pumping well in an aquifer of infinite horizontal extent and for Note for the confined aquifer it occurs above the top of the
conditions where the original piezometric surface (i.e. prior to aquifer due to the large pressure head term, while for the
pumping) was horizontal. Extensions to multiple pumps and unconfined aquifer it corresponds to the water table itself. The
more realistic cases can be built up from these single-well spatial coordinate useful for well problems is the radius (r)
solutions via superposition as discussed in the next section. from the well. Additional parameters include the outer radius
The basic schematic for such single well configurations is of the well (rw) and the head within the well (hw). The water

301
 F IGURE 9.5 Schematic of piezometric surface solution
around a single pumping well in a horizontally infinite con-
fined aquifer (from Mays, 2005).
being extracted by the pump must be supplied by flow
through the aquifer. As is well known by now, flow in the
aquifer is driven by head gradients. For flow to be toward the
well, the head must be sloping downward toward the well.
This radially symmetric pattern is usually referred to as the
cone of depression. The key variable that is most often solved
for in pumping problems is the so-called drawdown:
s(r,t) = h0 − h(r,t) (9.4.1)
which is known if the head is known. A radius of influence is
often defined as the radius away from the well at which there
is no drawdown (i.e. at r = R’, s = 0). An aquifer of “infinite
horizontal extent” is really just one that extends beyond the
F IGURE 9.6 Schematic of piezometric surface solution
around a single pumping well in a horizontally infinite uncon-
fined aquifer (from Mays, 2005).
radius of influence of the pumping well. For a constant
pumping rate, the drawdown will initially be changing with
time (transient) such that the drawdown is a function of time
(and radius). Ultimately, after enough pumping occurs, the
amount being withdrawn will be exactly balanced by the flow
from the aquifer (steady-state) in which case the drawdown
will only be a function of radius.
In developing the flow equation for a single pumping well
in an infinitely extending aquifer we focus on the 2D flow
equation for a homogeneous/isotropic aquifer (Equation
(9.3.1)). This equation can be expressed in cylindrical
coordinates (centered at the well) as:
302
 ∞
∂φ 1 ∂ ⎛ ∂φ ⎞ R (9.4.2) e −u (9.4.6)
C1 = r + W (u) = ∫ du
∂t r ∂r ⎜⎝ ∂r ⎟⎠ C 2 u
u

To further simplify the problem we will assume no recharge where the dimensionless argument for the well function is:
(R=0) in which case this becomes:
Sr 2 (9.4.7)
u=
∂φ 1 ∂ ⎛ ∂φ ⎞ (9.4.3) 4Tt
C1 = r
∂t r ∂r ⎜⎝ ∂r ⎟⎠

TABLE 9.1. VALUES OF WELL FUNCTION W(u) AS A

which is the governing equation for radial flow for a single
FUNCTION OF THE NON-DIMENSIONAL PARAMETER u
pumping well (without recharge). We will use this as a
starting point to develop solutions for cases with a constant u 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

pumping rate. ×1 0.219 0.049 0.013

3.8 × 1.1 × 3.6 × 1.2 × 3.8 × 1.2 ×
10-3 10-3 10-1 10-4 10-5 10-5
We will start with the case of transient flow in a confined × 10-1 1.82 1.22 0.91 0.7 0.56 0.45 0.37 0.31 0.26
aquifer, which corresponds to the expected behavior early on × 10-2 4.04 3.35 2.96 2.68 2.47 2.3 2.15 2.03 1.92
after pumping begins. For the transient case (i.e. non-steady-
× 10-3 6.33 5.64 5.23 4.95 4.73 4.54 4.39 4.26 4.14
state) the governing equation is:
× 10-4 8.63 7.94 7.53 7.25 7.02 6.84 6.69 6.55 6.44
S ∂h 1 ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ (9.4.4) × 10-5 10.94 10.24 9.84 9.55 9.33 9.14 8.99 8.86 8.74
= r
T ∂t r ∂r ⎜⎝ ∂r ⎟⎠ × 10-6 13.24 12.55 12.14 11.85 11.63 11.45 11.29 11.16 11.04

× 10-7 15.54 14.85 14.44 14.15 13.93 13.75 13.6 13.46 13.34

This PDE cannot be solved via separation of variables, but × 10-8 17.84 17.15 16.74 16.46 16.23 16.05 15.9 15.76 15.65
has a solution which is referred to as the Theis solution × 10-9 20.15 19.45 19.05 18.76 18.54 18.35 18.2 18.07 17.95
(solved in terms of drawdown): × 10-10 22.45 21.76 21.35 21.06 20.84 20.66 20.5 20.37 20.25

Q × 10-11 24.75 24.06 23.65 23.36 23.14 22.96 22.81 22.67 22.55
s(r,t) = h0 − h(r,t) = W (u) (9.4.5)
4πT × 10-12 27.05 26.36 25.96 25.67 25.44 25.26 25.11 24.97 24.86

× 10-13 29.36 28.66 28.26 27.97 27.75 27.56 27.41 27.28 27.16

× 10-14 31.66 30.97 30.56 30.27 30.05 29.87 29.71 29.58 29.46
where W(u) is the well function which is given by:
× 10-15 33.96 33.27 32.86 32.58 32.35 32.17 32.02 31.88 31.76

303
Based on the aquifer properties (S and T), u can be computed S ∂h 1 ∂ ⎛ ∂h ⎞ (9.4.9)
= r =0
for any radius and time and used as input to the well T ∂t r ∂r ⎜⎝ ∂r ⎟⎠
function. The well function is typically evaluated via its
d ⎛ dh ⎞
tabulated solution (Table 9.1) or numerically (i.e. the MATLAB → r =0
dr ⎜⎝ dr ⎟⎠
command expint is the well function integral). Alternatively,
the well function can be expanded via a Taylor series
expansion, i.e.:
Note that, because there is no time dependence, the equation
1 u2
W (u) = −0.5772 − ln u + u − + ... (9.4.8) goes from a PDE (hard to solve) to an ODE that can be
2 2!
solved easily via separation of variables. If the above equation
where the small higher-order terms can be dropped depending is integrated (twice) we get:
on the size of u. In addition to the Theis solution providing
drawdown information, it can also be used to estimate aquifer h(r) = c 0 ln(r) + c1 (9.4.10)
properties using measured drawdown from monitoring wells.
where c0 and c1 are integration constants that can be
Strictly speaking, an analytical solution for transient flow determined from BCs. If available, head measurements at two
toward a pump in an unconfined aquifer is not available. This locations could be used to identify the integration constants.
has to do with the nonlinearity of the governing PDE. Instead, generally one is related to the pumping rate and the
However based on the linearized version, an approximate second to a measurement. The flow toward the pumping well
solution can be obtained by using (K h0) in place of the can be equated to the pumping rate via:
transmissivity (T) in the above solution. This is equivalent to ⎛ dh ⎞ (9.4.11)
assuming the aquifer is quite thick so that the amount of Q = −2π rb ⎜ −K ⎟
⎝ dr ⎠
drawdown is relatively small compared to the original
piezometric surface (h0).
where the negative sign in front of the right-hand-side is
Next we focus on the analytical solutions for steady-state because flow is in the negative r-direction. The first term on
drawdown. For a confined aquifer the governing equation is the right-hand-side represents the cross-sectional area of flow,
given by: which is a cylinder at a radius r of height b, and the last term
in parentheses is the Darcy flux (which by definition is the
flow per unit cross-sectional area). Substituting the first
derivative of the general solution (Equation (9.4.10)) yields:

304
 ⎛ c ⎞ Q Q (9.4.12) Q ⎛ r ⎞ (9.4.16)
Q = 2π rb ⎜ K 0 ⎟ → c 0 = = s(r) = h0 − h(r) = − ln ⎜ ⎟ ; rw ≤ r ≤ R ′
⎝ r⎠ 2π Kb 2πT 2πT ⎝ R ′ ⎠

which provides the first integration constant in terms of the where it is noted that strictly this solution is valid starting at
pumping rate and the transmissivity of the aquifer. Solving for the radius of the well extending out to the radius of influence.
the second integration constant is generally done via the Beyond determining drawdown fields, the above solutions can
specification of a measured head h1 at a known radius r1 (i.e. be used to determine the aquifer transmissivity from two head
from a monitoring well) where one can write: measurements at different locations (monitoring wells), i.e.:
Q Q (9.4.13) Q ln[r2 r 1 ] (9.4.17)
h(r1 ) = h1 = ln(r1 ) + c1 → c1 = h1 − ln(r1 ) T =
2πT 2πT 2π h2 − h1

Substituting for the two integration constants with these Such an approach might first be used to characterize the
conditions yields: aquifer (i.e. determine its properties) which can then be used
to generally estimate drawdown fields throughout the aquifer.
Q !r $ (9.4.14)
h(r) = ln # & + h
2πT " r1 % 1 Finally, the last case to examine is the steady-state flow
in an unconfined aquifer with a single pumping well. The
which is the solution for the piezometric head in the case of a governing equation is:
single pumping well in a confined (infinite) aquifer in steady- S ∂h 2 1 ∂ ⎛ 1 ∂h 2 ⎞
= r =0 (9.4.18)
state conditions. For the special case where the specified Kh0 ∂t r ∂r ⎜⎝ 2 ∂r ⎟⎠
radius and head are the radius of influence (R’) and the
d ⎛ 1 dh 2 ⎞
corresponding (original) head (h0), yields: → ⎜r =0
dr ⎝ 2 dr ⎟⎠
Q ⎛ r ⎞ (9.4.15)
h(r) = ln ⎜ ⎟ + h0 ; rw ≤ r ≤ R ′ which can be integrated (twice) and using the same procedure
2πT ⎝ R ′ ⎠
for identifying integration constants as shown above (for the
confined aquifer case) yields:
which can be rearranged to obtain an expression for the
steady-state drawdown:

305
 Q ⎛r⎞ (9.4.19) solutions can also be used to model the case of a recharge
h (r) =
2
ln ⎜ ⎟ + h12 ; rw ≤ r ≤ R ′ well, which is simply one that is used to pump water into the
π K ⎝ r1 ⎠
aquifer. Mathematically, this just involves using a negative
Because the solution is in terms of the square of the value for the pumping (recharge) rate. The result is a cone of
piezometric head, there is not as clean of a solution for “build-up” rather than one of depression as the water being
drawdown as there is in the confined aquifer case, but it still pumped into the aquifer initiates a head gradient away from
can be determined via: the well that drives flow laterally outward into the aquifer.

s(r) = h0 − h 2(r); rw ≤ r ≤ R ′ (9.4.20)

E XAMPLE 9.4.1

A single well in a (horizontally infinite) confined

Analogously to the confined aquifer, these solutions can also aquifer begins pumping at a rate of 10 m3/day.
be used to characterize the conductivity of the aquifer from The aquifer has a storativity of 0.0001 and a
measurements at two monitoring wells: transmissivity of 50 m2/day. What is the
Q ln[r2 r1 ] drawdown at a radius of 25 meters from the well
(9.4.21)
K = after 10 days?
π (h22 − h12 )
This problem involves transient flow in a confined aquifer
So to summarize, we have defined the solutions to the and can therefore use the Theis solution. The non-
groundwater flow problem for three single-well infinite aquifer dimensional input argument for the well function is given
cases: i) transient flow in a confined aquifer, ii) steady-state by:
flow in a confined aquifer, and iii) steady-state flow in an
(0.0001)(25 m)2
unconfined aquifer. Additionally, while we do not have an u= = 0.00003
4(50 m 2 /day)(10 day)
analytical solution for the fourth case of transient flow in an
unconfined aquifer, the Theis solution can be used if the From Table 9.1 the Well function at this value is: W(u)
unconfined aquifer is relatively thick compared to the = 9.84. The drawdown is:
drawdown. Finally, it should be noted that the above
development defined a positive pumping rate as one that (10 m 3 /day)
s(r,t) = (9.84) = 0.16 m
extracts flow from the aquifer. These cases yield a cone of 4 π (50 m /day)
2

depression based on the given pumping rate. All of the above

306
E XAMPLE 9.4.2

A single well pumps from a horizontally infinite

confined aquifer at a rate of 5 m3/day until
steady-state is reached. The well is of radius 10
cm and shows a drawdown of 1 m. At a
monitoring well located 100 meters from the
pumping well the drawdown is 0.1 m. Estimate
the transmissivity of the aquifer. Based on the
estimate, what is the expected steady-state
drawdown at a radius of 50 meters?

The two different head measurements can be used to

estimate the transmissivity:

(5 m 3 /day) ln[100 m/0.1 m]

T= = 6.1 m 2 /day
2π 1 m − 0.1 m

Based on the estimated transmissivity and the measured

drawdown, the radius of influence can be determined:

" 2πTs % " 2π (6.1 m 2 /day)(0.1 m) %

R! = r exp $ ' = (100 m)exp $ '
# Q & # (5 m 3 /day) &
= 215 m

The drawdown at 50 meters is then:

(5 m 3 /day) " 50 m %
s(r) = − ln $ ' = 0.19 m
2π (6.1 m 2 /day) # 215 m &

307
S ECTION 5
Superposition of Groundwa-
ter Solutions
The linearity of the governing equation in groundwater
flow (most notably for confined aquifers) allows for the
application of the principle of superposition of solutions. What
this means is that if a complicated problem can be broken
down into a series of additive simpler ones (each with their
own solution), the solution to the complicated problem can be
obtained by adding up the solutions. This can be used for any
number of groundwater flow problems. Several types of
problems involving pumping wells are commonly solved via
this approach. Examples where this is useful include:
1. An infinite aquifer with multiple wells (instead of just a
single well)
2. Non-infinite aquifers with a no-flux boundary condition
3. Non-infinite aquifers with a fixed-head boundary condition
4. Combinations of the above cases
Additionally, cases where a regional natural groundwater flow
exists to which pumping wells are added can be solved via
superposition. Here we will focus on the above examples, with
the understanding that even more complicated problems can
be solved via superposition.
To start, the easiest example of superposition is the case
of a confined aquifer of infinite extent with multiple wells.
Conceptually, we know that a single well generates a
symmetric drawdown around the well. Multiple wells will have
multiple cones of depression that can form a complicated
head/drawdown field. The linearity of the single well solution
(with respect to h) allows for the determination of the total
drawdown as simply the summation of drawdown from each
well in the well field. (Note for an unconfined aquifer,
superposition does not strictly apply since the governing
equation is not linear in h). So the actual drawdown (s) is
given by:
s(x,y,t) = s1(x,y,t) + s2(x,y,t) + ... + sN (x,y,t) (9.5.1)
where this assumes there are N wells. The x- and y-
coordinates are used rather than r simply because each well
will have its own radial coordinate system. In practice, the
drawdown at a given location can be determined by finding
the distance from that point to each pumping well and using
that distance as the argument in the single-well solution (i.e.
in Equations (9.4.5) or (9.4.16)) to get each of the individual
drawdown predictions in Equation (9.5.1).
Figure 9.7 shows an example of a case with 2 wells with
pumping rates Q1 and Q2. In general, the pumping rates may
differ. Even for this relatively simple case, the composite
drawdown curve is complicated. For example, there is a local
maxima in between the two wells, with local minima at the
two wells. The local maxima corresponds to the location
where the head gradient is zero (implying no flow). It
308
 E XAMPLE 9.5.1

It is required to de-water (i.e. lower the water

table) below a construction site that 80 m by 80
m in area as shown in plan below.

F IGURE 9.7 Drawdown solution for multiple wells via super-

position (solid line) from single well solutions (dashed line).

represents the location (inflection point) separating regions of

flow from one well to another well. The specific locations of
these features depend on the relative pumping rates and
distances between wells. It is also important to keep in mind
that the resulting head is a 2D field (map) which could be
represented as a contour map of piezometric head or
drawdown. In the simple one-well case, the contours would be The bottom of the construction will be 1.5 m
concentric circles around the well. For multiple wells the below the initial water surface elevation of 100 m
drawdown becomes much more complicated. Superposition (see cross-section figure shown below). Four
can be applied for any number of wells in a confined aquifer. pumps are to be used in 0.5 m diameter wells at
In the case of an unconfined aquifer, superposition can be the four corners of the site. The aquifer has
applied using confined aquifer solutions (as an approximation) K=15 m/day and the wells each have a radius of
if the drawdown is relatively small compared to the influence of 600 m. Assuming all four wells pump
undisturbed head.

309
E XAMPLE 9.5.1 ( CONTINUED )
at the same rate, determine the required steady
state pumping rate that has to be extracted from
each of the four wells to meet the desired
objective.
First, note that since the unconfined aquifer is relatively
thick compared to the drawdown, the solution will
behave like that of a confined aquifer with T=KH0 (i.e.
the governing equation is linear). This simplification is
useful because it allows for the application of
superposition of single-well solutions for a confined
aquifer. Next, we can note that the lowest drawdown
E XAMPLE 9.5.1 ( CONTINUED )
location will be in the center point of the construction at
a radius from one of the wells:
r = (40 m)2 + (40 m)2 = 56.7 m
The total drawdown from all four wells must be:
s(r) = s1(r) + s2(r) + s3(r) + s4 (r) = 1.5 m
where if the pumping wells are operating at the same
rate, the drawdown due to each well will be 1.5m/4
=0.375 m. Inverting the drawdown equation for a single
well yields the corresponding pumping rate:
2πTs(r) 2π (15 m/day)(100 m))(0.375 m)
Q =− =−
ln(r / R") ln(56.7 m / 600 m)
= 1498 m 3 /day
Building upon the example of multiple wells, we can
apply superposition to solve problems that involve non-infinite
aquifers. In this context, non-infinite means there is some
feature which impacts the flow to the well that is within its
radius of influence. There are generally two examples of this:
no-flux and fixed head BCs.
The first case we will discuss involves a no-flux boundary
within the radius of influence of the well. An example of such
a system is shown in the top panel of Figure 9.8.
310
Conceptually, for a given pumping rate, the aquifer must
supply that amount of water to preserve mass balance. In the
simple case of an infinite aquifer, the water comes
symmetrically from all directions with the result that
drawdown is a symmetric cone of depression around the well.
The primary consequence of the no-flux boundary is that flow
is cutoff from a portion of the aquifer so that the water must
be supplied by other portions of the aquifer, leading to non-
symmetric and generally higher drawdown. While this
complicated problem could be solved numerically, the question
is can we use superposition to our advantage to solve the
problem using the addition of single-well solutions?

The use of superposition to solve such problems is often

referred to as the “method of images”. We can start with a
proposed solution as the summation of two single-well
solutions, i.e.:

s(r,t) = sreal (r,t) + simag (r ′,t) (9.5.2)

where the left-hand-side represents the true drawdown, the

first term on the right-hand-side is the predicted drawdown of
a single-well solution at the location of the real well and the
second term on the right-hand-side is a single-well solution for
an “image (or imaginary) well” located at a particularly chosen
location to satisfy the real conditions. The key condition that
needs to be satisfied in the no-flux boundary case is that the
head (or drawdown) gradient must be zero everywhere along
the no-flux boundary.
The location and pumping rate of the imaginary well can
F IGURE 9.8 Solution of flow to a pumping well with an im-
permeable boundary using the image well approach. The top
panel is the real system and the bottom panel is the conceptual
model using superposition with a pumping image well to en-
sure the no-flow boundary. The dashed lines in the bottom im-
age are the single well solutions which when superposed yield
the real cone of depression (adapted from Mays, 2005).
be arbitrarily chosen to satisfy this condition. The simplest
way of doing this is to use symmetry to our advantage. This

311
involves putting an imaginary well at the same distance as the the two solutions over the entire domain provides the actual
real well on the other side of the boundary (hence it is an cone of depression for this case (shown with the solid line).
image well with the boundary serving as the “mirror”), with
Another example is shown in Figures 9.9 - 9.11 in terms
the same pumping rate as the true well. The result of this for
of the drawdown fields. Figure 9.9 illustrates that a single well
a no-flux boundary is shown in the bottom panel of Figure
solution for the real system violates the no-flux BC. Figure
9.8. Due to the symmetry of the choice made, adding the
9.10 shows the contours for the drawdown fields predicted by
drawdowns together ensures the proper BC at the location of
each of the (real and image) well drawdown solutions. Figure
the impermeable boundary (i.e. dh/dr = 0). Moreover adding
9.11 shows the summation of the two drawdown fields, which

F IGURE 9.9 Contour map of a single well solution in the pres-

ence of an impervious boundary. Note this is obviously incor- F IGURE 9.10 Contour map of the single-well solutions for
rect as the gradient is non-zero at the boundary. the real and image wells.

312

F IGURE 9.11 Actual drawdown obtained via the summation
(superposition) of the real and image well solutions shown in
Figure 9.10.
indeed has a zero head gradient everywhere perpendicular to
the impermeable boundary. Additionally it is clear that the
overall drawdown is significantly increased, most notably in
the region between the real well and the impervious boundary.
As one moves away from the impervious boundary on the far
side of the real pumping well, the drawdown approaches zero.
Strictly this occurs at a distance equal to the radius of
influence. The impact of the boundary will disappear at a
distance equal to the radius of influence of the image well.
Finally, note that the solutions used in Equation (9.5.2) could
be either transient or steady-state depending on the particular
problem.
The other type of non-infinite aquifer condition that
often must be dealt with is that of a stream boundary. For
simplicity, the stream is often modeled as a fixed-head BC
(Figure 9.12). The primary consequences of the fixed-head
boundary is that the boundary acts as a water source that
would not exist in an infinite aquifer, so that less water is
required to be supplied by the rest of the aquifer leading to
non-symmetric and generally less drawdown. Superposition
can again be used to solve this problem. We again choose to
add an image well at the same distance as the real well, but
on the other side of the fixed-head boundary. However, rather
than making the image well a pumping well (to represent the
water loss and no-flux boundary condition provided by the
impervious boundary) we make it a recharge well (to represent
the extra source of water provided by the stream boundary).
By symmetry, since the real and image wells are the same
distance and the same magnitude of pumping rate, the
amount of drawdown predicted by the single-well solution for
the real well is exactly balanced by the same amount of
“build-up” as a result of recharge. Therefore, everywhere along
the fixed-head boundary the drawdown is zero. This is shown
in the bottom panel of Figure 9.12. Moreover we see that
generally there is less overall drawdown everywhere in the
aquifer due to the extra source provided by the stream.
313
 Another example analogous to that shown in Figures
9.9-9.11 for the no-flux BC is shown in Figure 9.13 for the
fixed-head BC. The setup is exactly the same as before except
that the image well involves recharge so that there is a sign
change in the image well drawdown contours. In this case the
drawdown from the image well is negative (build-up). By
summing up the two single-well solutions, we get the result
shown in Figure 9.13. As can be seen, the drawdown is

F IGURE 9.12 Solution of flow to a pumping well with a fixed-

head boundary using the image well approach. The top panel is
the real system and the bottom panel is the conceptual model
using superposition with a recharge image well to mimic the
no-flow boundary The dashed lines in the bottom image are the
single well solutions (one discharge and one recharge) which F IGURE 9.13 Actual drawdown contours (plan view) ob-
when superposed yield the real cone of depression (adapted from tained via the superposition of a real pumping well solution
Mays, 2005). and an image recharge well solution.

314
effectively zero everywhere on the boundary and the overall
drawdown is less than for a single well in an infinite aquifer. E XAMPLE 9.4.2

The drawdown due to the pumping well if there were no

E XAMPLE 9.4.2 boundary would be (using the Theis solution):

A pumping well for a confined aquifer is located Q

s1 = s(r = 50 m, t = 2 days) = W (u1 );
100 meters away from a valley wall as shown 4 πT
below. The well is pumping 0.06 m3 s-1. The Sr12 (10 −4 )(50 m)2
u1 = = = 3.3 × 10 −5
storativity of the aquifer is 10-4 and the 4Tt 4(950 m /day)(2 day)
2

transmissivity is 950 m2 day-1. Find the total →W (u1 ) = 9.76

piezometric surface (head) drawdown at the 86400 s
(0.06 m 3 s −1 )
midpoint between the pumping well and the s1 = 1d 9.76 = 4.24 m
valley wall after 2 days from the start of 4 π (950 m 2 /day)
pumping.
A mirror image well on the other side of the boundary
would yield a drawdown of:

Q
s2 = s(r = 150 m, t = 2 days) = W (u2 );
4 πT
Sr12 (10 −4 )(150 m)2
u1 = = = 2.96 × 10 −4
4Tt 4(950 m /day)(2 day)
2

→W (u1 ) = 7.55
86400 s
(0.06 m 3 s −1 )
s2 = 1d 7.55 = 3.28 m
Assuming the radius of influence of the well is greater 4 π (950 m /day)
2

than 100 meters, then the bedrock outcrop will need to

So that the total drawdown (via superposition) is:
be handled as a no-flux boundary condition using an
image well. Further, the pumping is in the transient s = s1 + s2 = 4.24 + 3.28 m = 7.5 m
phase (2 days after pumping).

315
 These examples show some of the power of the difference or finite element grid. Figure 9.14 shows an example
superposition principle to solve relatively complex problems in corresponding to a square island (i.e. with fixed head
a relatively easy way. Even these examples/concepts of boundary on all four sides) that is subject to a non-uniform
superposition could be used to build up solutions for more steady-state recharge (i.e. more recharge in the northeast
complicated problems. For example, if a pumping well is in a corner of the island). Numerical solution of the 2D flow
river valley with a horizontal head distribution prior to equation yields the steady-state piezometric head on the grid,
pumping, the aquifer may have a stream BC condition on one showing a characteristic “recharge mound” with flow implicitly
side and a impervious boundary on the other. Depending on down the head gradient to the island boundaries. Figure 9.15
the radius of influence of the well (i.e. given its pumping rate) shows a solution for the same recharge pattern, but with five
both boundaries may impact the flow patterns. In such a case pumping wells extracting water from the aquifer. As expected,
one may use two image wells and have an additive solution the solution is a superposition of the solution in Figure 9.14
with three terms instead of two. Or even more complicated
yet, the original head distribution (prior to pumping) may not
be horizontal, but itself the solution of a 1D flow problem
between the two BCs with recharge. In this case the solution
could be the summation of the original piezometric head
distribution combined with the drawdown from the real and
imaginary wells. Another example would be the case with
multiple real wells with a no-flux or fixed-head BC (or both).
In this case each real well would have a corresponding image
well. In these types of problems the hardest part is breaking
down the real problem into its constituent parts (each of
which has an analytical solution), with the easy part being
determining the solution via superposition of the individual
solutions.

As groundwater flow problems become more complex,

one may instead need to solve the problem numerically. In F IGURE 9.14 Steady-state piezometric head (in meters) on a
such a case, the aquifer is discretized into small differential square island with non-uniform recharge.
units and the GW flow equations are solved on the finite

316
 F IGURE 9.15 Steady-state piezometric head (in meters) for
the same recharge as in Figure 9.14, but with five pumping
wells.

with drawdown surrounding each well location. This

illustrates the more complicated flow patterns that may exist
in real groundwater flow problems.

317
S ECTION 6
Conceptual Questions
1. Name the two types of groundwater aquifers. Describe how
they differ.
2. What type of aquifer generally occurs closest to the land
surface (i.e. is shallowest in the subsurface)?
3. In an unconfined aquifer, what physical boundary does the
piezometric surface correspond to?
4. In an unconfined aquifer, is the piezometric surface above
or below the upper boundary of the aquifer? Explain.
5. Name the storage parameters used to characterize an
unconfined and confined aquifer.
6. Why is the 2D groundwater flow equation usually sufficient
for groundwater problems? What two dimensions are used
in this equation?
7. In any groundwater flow problem, what variable are you be
solving for?
8. In the 2D groundwater flow equation, what is the name of
flux entering the top of the aquifer? Is it typically higher for
an unconfined or confined aquifer?
9. Suppose you have a no-flux boundary condition in a
groundwater problem. What do you know about the head
at the no-flux boundary?
10. What is the difference (in meaning) between a transient
and steady-state pumping problem?
11. What is the general shape of the piezometric surface
surrounding a single pumping well?
12. What are the underlying assumption/s used in the
development of the three single-well solutions derived in
this chapter?
13. Define the meaning of radius of influence in the context of
a pumping well.
14. Describe what superposition is and how it is useful in
groundwater problems. For which type of aquifer is
superposition strictly applicable or not applicable?
15. Describe the purpose of using an image well to solve a
groundwater flow problem (i.e. why is it used?).
318
S ECTION 7 e) Piezometric surface of the confined aquifer
f ) An artesian flowing well (i.e. one where water is expected
Sample Problems to rise to the surface without the need of a pump)

Draw an arrow in both the upper and lower aquifers showing

the expected direction of (horizontal) flow in each aquifer
Problem 9.1. The figure below shows information from
based on the monitoring well data. The shape of the land
monitoring wells sampling from subsurface confined and
surface is of no importance.
unconfined aquifers.
Problem 9.2. Earth dams essentially behave as unconfined
aquifers. The earthen dam depicted below is constructed to
hold back contaminated water from downstream habitat(s).

It is made of a homogeneous clay material with a low

saturated hydraulic conductivity of 10-6 m s-1 and high
porosity of 0.5. A cap on top of the dam prevents any vertical
Draw a cross section of the subsurface water system (i.e., recharge into the dam. The steady water levels H1 and H2 are
everything below ground level) where you label the following: kept at 4 [m] and 1 [m], respectively, across the entire length
of the dam L = 5 [m], where L is the length of the clay
a) Water table (i.e. piezometric surface of the unconfined portion of the dam shown above.
aquifer)
b)Vadose (unsaturated) zone a) Write down the differential equation governing the (steady-
c)Unconfined aquifer state) water table profile (piezometric head) within the clay
d) Confined aquifer dam.

319
b) Integrate this equation using the boundary conditions
provided to find an expression for the head profile, h(x).
c) Estimate the flux per unit width of the dam.
d) What is the pore-velocity of the contaminated water
through the earthen dam?
e) What is the travel time for contaminated water from the
holding basin through the distance L of the earthen dam?
Hint: Travel time is defined by:
L the river above the datum (hr) is 520 m, and the length of the
1
tL = ∫ v dx
0
Problem 9.3. The figure shown below is a cross-sectional
diagram illustrating the steady-state positions and conditions
of a pond and river relative to a one-dimensional confined
aquifer.
a) Determine the head profile (h(x)) across the aquifer in
terms of the parameters shown in the schematic figure and
any other aquifer properties.
b) A chemical company accidentally dumps a conservative
chemical substance into the pond. Assuming that the chemical
instantly mixes with the pond water, estimate how long (in
days) it would take for the contaminant to get to the river.
Hint: You will first need to derive an expression for the
velocity through the aquifer. For simplicity, you can assume
that the chemical moves passively with the water (i.e., it
doesn’t adsorb to the soil). The aquifer properties are:
porosity=0.43, b = 18 m, and T = 0.65 m2 s-1. The height of
the pond surface above the datum (hp) is 527 m, the height of
aquifer (l) is 5 km.
Problem 9.4. Before constructing a building, it is necessary
to lower the water table (standing at 35 m above the bedrock
prior to any pumping) in the area shown in the figure below
to allow for excavation.
The building foundation is circular with a diameter of 40 m. If
a pumping rate of 0.08 m3/s lowers the steady-state water
table by the required 22 m (enabling the excavation to take
320
place), estimate the hydraulic conductivity [m/d] of the
unconfined aquifer. The radius of influence around the
pumping well is approximately 500 m.
Problem 9.5. Wells A, B, and C shown in plan below are
being used to draw water from a homogeneous, confined
aquifer.
consider the solution due to each pump individually and then
add them up to determine the net effect).
Compute and plot the total steady state drawdown field when
Wells A, B, and C are pumping. Plot the total drawdown
field as a map (e.g. using a MATLAB contour plot). What is
the drawdown at the middle of the domain (x = 1000 m, y =
500 m)? Explain your results.

The transmissivity of the aquifer is 600 m2/day. The wells

fully penetrate the aquifer, which may be considered infinite
in horizontal extent. Well A pumps water at 1500 m3/day
with a radius of influence of 5000 m, Well B at 2500 m3/day
with a radius of influence of 6000 m, and Well C at 4000 m3/
day with a radius of influence of 8000 m. The well radius for
each of the three wells is 20 cm.

In this problem you will study the impact of steady state

drawdown from the pumping of multiple wells. The Principle
of Superposition allows you to do so since the governing
equation for groundwater flow is linear (in other words we can

321
Chapter 10

Runoff and
Streamflow
S ECTION 1 10. Apply the unit hydrograph approach to predict
stormflow for a particular storm given the UH for that
Learning Objectives duration storm

11. Describe the key differences between using a physically-

based distributed modeling approach and the UH method
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:

1. Describe the basic mechanisms for overland runoff and

how they work

2. Describe the basic mechanisms for subsurface runoff and

how they work

3. Define and describe the differences between distributed

hydrologic modeling and lumped hydrologic modeling

4. Differentiate between stormflow and baseflow

5. Understand the concept of baseflow separation and be

able to apply the basic empirical approaches for baseflow
separation

6. Describe the primary assumptions of the unit hydrograph

(UH) method

7. Construct a D-hour unit hydrograph from data

8. Understand and describe the concept of effective (or

excess) rainfall and how it relates to stormflow

9. Construct a D*=nD -hour unit hydrograph from a D-hour

unit hydrograph

323
S ECTION 2

Basic Runoff and Stream-

flow Definitions
Traditionally, runoff and streamflow are a major focus of
hydrology due to their relation to both floods and water
supply. Simply put, runoff is a lateral flux (either at the
surface or in the subsurface that transports water toward the
stream channel network. Large (rare) runoff events lead to the
potential for flooding, which can be mitigated via flood
protection measures (levees, detention basins, culverts, etc.). F IGURE 10.1 Sample DEM over a region that can be used to
derive stream channel network.
Streamflow can be captured behind a dam in a reservoir to
store water that would otherwise be “lost” downstream.

Runoff into streams (where it becomes streamflow) is an
integration of several upstream processes in a watershed. It
can be thought of as an integrated “response” of the watershed
to storm and/or snowmelt events. Specific mechanisms for
generating runoff will be described in the next section. To
start, it is worth noting that topography generally plays a
significant role, not just in the amount of runoff, but in
directing it downstream. An example of a DEM is shown in
Figure 10.1, where one can readily see mountain peaks and
valley troughs across the landscape. In Chapter 1 we
described how one can delineate a watershed by choosing an
outlet point (on a stream) and tracing out all points upstream
of that location that would ultimately flow to it. Implicit in
this is that water flows down the steepest topographic
gradient (slope).
A stream (or river) network is simply an expression of
this fact, where a “stream” is generally just defined as points
in a basin where water will generally collect via the routing of
flow over the topography or through the groundwater system.
We can define this more precisely by computing a quantity
like the “contributing area” of each point in the basin. The
contributing area (Ac) is simply the area (or equivalently the
number of pixels in a DEM) upstream of a given location, i.e.
all the points that will flow into that pixel. Some limiting
cases are the watershed outlet, which by definition has the
entire watershed area as its contributing area, and the points

324
on the watershed ridge, which have no pixels upstream of
them (i.e. Ac = 0). A stream pixel can therefore be defined as
any pixel that has a contributing area above some threshold
(e.g. 1% of the basin area). One can compute and plot the Ac
(actually plotted as log(Ac)) as shown in Figure 10.2. What
clearly stands out is low values (dark blue) for the ridges and
higher values (yellow/red) for the valley areas. If one only
accepts stream pixels as those with contributing areas greater
than 1% of the total basin area, the stream network can be
identified simultaneously with the watershed delineation
(Figure 10.3). Given this construct, one can identify two kinds

F IGURE 10.3 An example watershed delineated from DEM

shown in Figure 10.1. The stream channel is defined using
those regions with a flow accumulation above a specified thresh-
old (i.e. Ac = 1%).

of pixels within a basin: hillslope pixels and stream network

F IGURE 10.2 Flow accumulation patterns across terrain de-
rived from DEM in Figure 10.1. Areas of high flow accumula-
tion (red) correspond to stream channels while areas of low
flow accumulation area (dark blue) represent watershed
boundaries.
pixels. Water falling on hillslope pixels will infiltrate and/or
runoff to the nearest stream channel pixel and then water will
flow down the stream channel network toward the outlet.
Movie 10.1 illustrates this effect. Processes that occur on the
hillslopes generate runoff and the streamflow at any point in
the stream channel network is an integration of upstream
runoff processes. Runoff amounts will vary by location in the
watershed and will have variations in travel time from any one
location to the outlet. The amount of flow crossing the outlet
at any point in time is generally referred to as a hydrograph
(described more in Section 4).

325
M OVIE 10.1 Animation showing varying travel time of water
from different locations in a basin (from COMET program).

326
S ECTION 3
Runoff Generation Mecha-
nisms
Runoff is generated as a result of a water flux being
applied to the surface. This flux can either be in the form of a
rainstorm or snowmelt (Figure 10.4). Storm events can vary in
terms of intensity and duration, both of which should impact
the runoff. For conceptual purposes, one can think of
F IGURE 10.4 Conceptual picture of runoff resulting from ei-
ther rainfall or snowmelt.
snowmelt as a long-duration storm event. The subject of this
section is on the various mechanisms that are responsible for
generating runoff. Note that they should depend on the
characteristics of the storm and the characteristics of the
basin (soils, slopes, etc.). The motivating questions for this
section are: What are the mechanisms that generate runoff?
When, why, and where do they occur in a basin? How do they
contribute to the overall flow in a stream?
Figure 10.5 shows a conceptual picture of hydrologic
fluxes in a basin with particular emphasis on runoff
mechanisms contributing streamflow. Runoff can be classified
into two main categories: i) surface (overland) runoff and ii)
F IGURE 10.5 Components of various runoff and related proc-
esses contributing to streamflow.
327
subsurface runoff. Surface runoff is either generated by
“infiltration excess” runoff or “saturation excess” runoff. The
former was already discussed to some extent in Chapter 7
since it is directly connected to the infiltration capacity of the
surface. Subsurface runoff is generated by either interflow or
baseflow and is simply related to groundwater flow processes
discussed in Chapter 9. Each of these mechanisms are
elaborated on below.
Infiltration excess runoff, often referred to as “Hortonian”
runoff after Horton (1933), is related to the infiltration
process at the surface. As described in Chapter 7, depending
on the antecedent soil moisture condition and soil properties,
a soil has a given infiltration capacity. Depending on the
storm intensity (and duration), the soil may reach a state in
which the precipitation intensity exceeds the infiltration
M OVIE 10.2 Animation of infiltration excess runoff mecha-
nism at a given location on a hillslope.
capacity of the soil. Movie 10.2 shows a conceptual
representation of this phenomenon. The amount of water that
is reaching the surface cannot be fully infiltrated into the soil.
As such, there will generally be ponding (saturation) at the
surface (even though the subsurface soil is not saturated),
which, given a sloped surface, will result in runoff. As shown
in Chapter 7, it is important to remember that this particular
process is a threshold process. When the precipitation rate is
less than the infiltration capacity (i.e. before ponding) or less
than the minimum infiltration capacity of the soil (i.e.
saturated hydraulic conductivity), all water will infiltrate,
meaning there will be no runoff. Movies 10.3 and 10.4
illustrate this by showing a hillslope experiencing two different
precipitation intensities, one of which results in no runoff and
the other results in infiltration excess runoff.
As discussed in Chapter 7, the infiltration rate for the
general case (where ponding occurs at some point during the
storm) can be written as:
⎧ P, t 0 ≤ t ≤ t p (10.3.1)
⎪
f (t) = ⎨
⎪⎩ fc (t − tc ), t p ≤ t ≤ tr
where after ponding a shifted infiltration capacity model is
used via the time compression approximation. By definition,
the infiltration excess runoff rate is simply given by: Qie(t) =
P - f(t). So the infiltration excess runoff is zero up until
ponding occurs. Figure 10.6 illustrates the cumulative
infiltration and cumulative infiltration excess runoff that
occurs over the course of the storm. The cumulative depth of
328
M OVIE 10.3 Animation of infiltration excess runoff under
“light” rainfall conditions relative to soil properties (from COMET F IGURE 10.6 Cumulative infiltration and infiltration excess
program).
runoff for a general case.

infiltration excess runoff can be computed via integration:

tr tr tr

∫Q (t) = ∫ [P − f (t)]dt = ∫ [P − f (t − t )]dt (10.3.2)

ie c c
t0 t0 tp

where the integral represents the blue shaded region in Figure

M OVIE 10.4 Animation of infiltration excess runoff under
“heavy” rainfall conditions relative to soil properties (from
COMET program).
10.6. It should be noted that this runoff generation mechanism
occurs only during the storm and is often in localized areas of
low conductivity soils (i.e. P >> Ks) where ponding is
generated at the surface. If ponding does not occur, then no
infiltration excess runoff can occur.

329
 of the precipitation initially infiltrates, but due to a shallow
E XAMPLE 10.3.1 water table, the pores quickly fill up until the surface is
saturated from below. At that point, any additional
Compute the cumulative infiltration excess runoff
precipitation is falling on saturated soil (i.e. no ability to
for the case described in Example 7.7.1. infiltrate) and therefore completely runs off. Movie 10.6 shows
The cumulative infiltration excess runoff can be another illustration of the process. The key point is that for
computed via the integral in Equation (10.3.2). this mechanism to work, the initial water table must be
Alternatively if the cumulative infiltration is already relatively shallow. This condition generally occurs near the
computed (as in Example 7.7.1), then the runoff is stream, so contributing areas that generate saturation excess
simply the difference between the cumulative rainfall and runoff are most often localized around the stream network.
the cumulative infiltration. So for the Philip solution the Moreover, these areas are often referred to as variable
estimated runoff would be: contributing areas in reference to the fact that, based on the
tr tr groundwater dynamics, they grow and contract both
∫Q ie
(t) = ∫ P dt − F(t ) = (30 mm/h)(8 h) − 177 mm
r seasonally and during and after the course of a storm. An
t0 t0
example of this is shown schematically in Figure 10.7. In this
= 63 mm example, before a large storm there is little saturated area
Similarly for the Green-Ampt model the estimated runoff
would be:
tr tr

∫Q ie
(t) = ∫ P dt − F(t ) = (30 mm/h)(8 h) − 187 mm
r
t0 t0

= 53 mm

The second overland flow generation mechanism is

referred to as saturation excess runoff. It is sometimes referred
to as “Dunne” runoff in reference to the work that first
identified the mechanism (Dunne, 1975). This mechanism
occurs when the groundwater table (due to recharge from
above) saturates the soil from below. Movie 10.5 shows a M OVIE 10.5 Animation of saturation excess runoff mecha-
conceptual representation of this phenomenon. In this case all nism.

330
 rainfall events, the saturation excess runoff mechanism will
generally dominate over infiltration excess runoff. The fact
that Dunne runoff is the primary contributor was a new
discovery, where prior to those studies it was thought that
Hortonian (infiltration excess) runoff was the primary
overland runoff generating mechanism. It turns out that only
in areas of low conductivity soils and/or as a result of very
high intensity storms will Hortonian runoff tend to be a
significant contributor to total overland flow. In areas of
snowmelt, either mechanism can generate runoff depending on
the melt rate, conductivity, and saturation of the soil
underlying the snowpack. In both mechanisms, due to high
surface flow velocities, and/or proximity to channel network

M OVIE 10.6 Animation of saturation excess as a result of a

rising groundwater table.

that would be expected to contribute to saturation excess

runoff. After a large storm the variable contributing area is
significantly larger. The areas often surround the stream
channel network where the groundwater table intersects the
surface. During the drydown the groundwater table recedes
and the variable area shrinks. During the wet season when
contributing area is larger, more saturation excess runoff can
be generated. F IGURE 10.7 Illustration of variable contributing areas grow-
ing and contracting during and after a storm. These areas are
The relative importance of infiltration excess and the locations expected to generate saturation excess runoff
saturation excess runoff depends on several factors including (adapted from Dingman, 2008).

soils and climate. In humid areas with relatively low intensity

331
(in the case of Dunne runoff), overland runoff tends to reach
the channel network relatively quickly, contributing to
stormflow during or shortly after the storm event.
In addition to overland flow, two runoff generation
mechanisms are associated with subsurface processes. These
are illustrated conceptually in Figures 10.8 and 10.9.
Interflow, or perched stormflow, is the lateral movement of
water through the unsaturated zone. Since the hydraulic
gradients in the unsaturated zone are generally largest in the
vertical direction (i.e. driving vertical flow), lateral flow is
F IGURE 10.8 Illustration of subsurface runoff processes: in-
terflow and baseflow.
F IGURE 10.9 Interflow generation as the result of perched
groundwater (adapted from Beven, 2004).
often the result of temporary perched water (i.e. a “perched
water table”) on a low conductivity soil lens. Another interflow
mechanism, that is much more difficult to characterize, is that
occurring via so-called “macropores”. These network of pores
are generally the result of root growth or biological factors
that effectively create channels in the soil that can efficiently
transport water (Figure 10.10). Generally speaking, interflow
is often a relatively small component of total runoff.
Additionally, due to relatively low subsurface velocities,
interflow may reach the stream network after the storm ends.
The final subsurface runoff mechanism is generally
referred to as baseflow. It is simply lateral groundwater flow
into the stream channel network (Figures 10.8 and 10.9). The
flow can be from either unconfined or confined aquifers. In
Chapter 9, streams were treated as boundary conditions in the
groundwater flow problem. As seen in those examples the flux
is generally into the stream channels, which is exactly what
baseflow is. In the steady-state groundwater flow problems
332
that can be solved analytically, the stream is a static feature
in the problem. In reality of course the two systems are
coupled via mass balance. Baseflow from the groundwater
system supplies the river network which in general may cause
an increase in river stage (height).
Finally, with respect to storms it is important to keep in
mind the time scales of subsurface processes (Table 1.3). First,
the percolation and recharge resulting from a given storm can
take a significant amount of time (porous media velocities are
F IGURE 10.10 Interflow as the result of flow through macro-
pores.
generally low). Second, depending on the size of the basin, the
low groundwater flow velocities imply that the recharged
water often reaches the stream significantly after the storm.
This is precisely why perennial streams exist, where
streamflow occurs even in the dry season when storms are not
occurring. During these low flow conditions, the streamflow is
completely made up of baseflow. The various components of
the streamflow hydrograph will be discussed in more detail in
the next section.
333
S ECTION 4
Streamflow Hydrographs
The mechanisms described in the previous section
ultimately lead to runoff that contributes to streamflow. One
could envision measuring streamflow at a given point in the
stream network. If measured, the amount of flow crossing that
point (i.e. cubic meters per second) would simply be the result
of all upstream flow processes (both runoff to the closest
downstream channel location and flow down the stream to the
measurement point) as a function of time. The streamflow
crossing a given point over time is generally referred to as a
hydrograph, where one can conceptualize the total flow (Q)
as:
Q(t) = Qie (t) + Qse (t) + Qi (t) + Qb (t) (10.4.1)
where the four terms on the right-hand-side are respectively
amounts of runoff related to the infiltration excess, saturation
excess, interflow, and baseflow runoff mechanisms.
Figure 10.11 shows a schematic of a streamflow
hydrograph (at a basin outlet) resulting from a rain storm.
The figure shows the typical characteristics of the hydrograph
curve as well as hypothetical contributions from different
runoff mechanisms. Prior to the storm, and before any runoff
reaches the outlet, the hydrograph is composed entirely of
baseflow from the basin’s groundwater system. The rising limb
of the hydrograph generally occurs shortly after the storm
F IGURE 10.11 Typical hydrograph during and after a storm.
Baseflow corresponds to groundwater flow, while other compo-
nents together are often referred to as stormflow. The frac-
tional components depend on the storm and basin characteris-
tics (adapted from Mays, 2005).
begins and results primarily from overland flow mechanisms
(infiltration excess and/or saturation excess, i.e. Qie(t)+Qse(t).
Typically the overland runoff contribution peaks early in the
hydrograph response. After the peak, the falling limb of the
hydrograph will ultimately recede (generally much more
slowly than the rising limb) back to baseflow levels.
Secondarily, the interflow and baseflow tend to respond more
slowly to the storm, often peaking after the overland flow has
moved past the outlet.
How much each mechanism contributes to overall
streamflow, as well as the hydrograph shape, depends on both
334
dynamic factors related to the individual storm characteristics
(intensity, location, etc.) as well as static factors related to
basin characteristics (topography, soil types, vegetation types,
etc.).
Figure 10.12 illustrates how the hydrograph can vary as
a result of the spatial distribution of a storm over a basin.
Storm A is isolated over an extreme location of the basin and
Storm B is uniformly distributed over the basin. For Storm A,
the runoff is generated far from the outlet and therefore takes
a significant amount of time to reach peak flow. For Storm B
the peak occurs much earlier since areas nearer the outlet
generate runoff. Additionally, the total volume of runoff (i.e.
integration of the hydrograph) is larger for Storm B since the
contributing area is so much larger.
Figure 10.13 illustrates how hydrograph shape can vary
as a result of the temporal distribution of precipitation during
the course of a storm. The left panel shows a case where the
F IGURE 10.12 Impact of rainfall distribution on stormflow
hydrograph (adapted from Mays, 2005).
F IGURE 10.13 Impact of rainfall timing on stormflow hydrog-
raph (adapted from Mays, 2005).
highest intensity rainfall occurs late in the storm and the right
panel shows a case where the highest intensity rainfall occurs
earlier in the storm. In the former case the rising limb is less
steep with a later peak.
Figure 10.14 illustrates how particular basin
characteristics can impact the hypothetical storm hydrograph.
The top panels show the response for basins of differing slope;
steeper basins will have hydrographs that respond and recede
more quickly. The bottom panels show the response for basins
of differing roughness; basins with higher roughness will
respond and recede less quickly. Another factor that is not
shown is the level of imperviousness, which is especially
relevant in urbanized basins. Basins with high levels of
urbanization will have more infiltration excess runoff and
therefore the hydrograph will respond and generally recede
more quickly. Additionally, the available storage in the basin
can have an impact; basins with little storage will respond and
recede more quickly.
335
 F IGURE 10.14 Impact of basin slope and roughness on storm-
flow hydrograph (adapted from Mays, 2005).

M OVIE 10.7 Animation showing travel time from extreme

Some of these factors are highlighted in the form of portions of the basin for varying basin shapes.
animations shown in Movies 10.7-10.9. The travel time of
water falling on a basin, as one measure of basin response, is
generally going to be impacted to first-order by key static
characteristics like basin shape, size, and slope.

Lastly, in discussing the streamflow hydrograph it is

important to define the “stormflow” hydrograph. For flood
forecasting and flood mitigation design, engineers are most
often interested in the “quick response” or stormflow portion of
the hydrograph. Nominally, this is the portion of the
hydrograph that is in direct response to the storm. Since
baseflow is often relatively small and responds with significant
lag to a storm, the stormflow generally refers to the
infiltration excess, saturation excess, and interflow
components of the hydrograph (i.e. stormflow neglects
M OVIE 10.8 Animation showing travel time from extreme
portions of the basin for varying basin sizes.

336
 M OVIE 10.9 Animation showing travel time from extreme
portions of the basin for varying basin slopes.

baseflow). In practice, since the interflow component is also

often small, stormflow and overland runoff are sometimes used
synonymously. The next two sections describe some examples
of modeling hydrograph response of a basin, where implicitly
the goal is the modeling of the stormflow hydrograph.

337
S ECTION 5
Unit Hydrograph Rainfall-
Runoff Modeling
The modeling of streamflow for a basin is not only of
implicit hydrologic interest, but has deep roots in the
engineering practice of flood forecasting and the need for
design flood estimation. In either of these applications, the
peak flow and the timing of the flow are key input parameters
to the design/forecast. Models that can be used for predicting
hydrographs span a large range of complexity. A detailed
treatment of modeling runoff is given in Beven (2012).
In this section we will focus on a classical method used
in hydrology called the unit hydrograph (UH) method, which
is specifically designed to predict the stormflow hydrograph
for a given storm. Some of the underlying choices in this
method include: treating the basin as a lumped response unit,
using historical (archived) data to develop the model response
function, and making some simplifying assumptions including
using a systems (black-box) response approach. The primary
benefit of these choices is that the model is very
computationally efficient. In the next section we will focus on
a more physically-based approach that is becoming more
commonly applied in research and/or practice.
The UH approach is an empirically-based method to
predict stormflow response for a given storm. Conceptually,
the method treats the basin as a “black-box” where for a given
input (i.e. precipitation) one can develop a response function
that yields an output (stormflow) hydrograph. In particular,
the method uses “excess” (or “effective”) precipitation as the
input, which corresponds to the cumulative amount of
stormflow runoff from a given storm. In other words, the
excess precipitation is the total precipitation minus the depth
that infiltrates (and therefore does not contribute to runoff. So
one way to look at the method is that if one knows the total
amount of runoff, the UH method transforms that cumulative
amount into its temporal distribution (including rising limb,
peak flow, recession, etc.).
The basic idea of the UH approach is to derive the “unit
response” function for an excess precipitation storm of D-hour
duration. In this context the “unit” response refers to the
response to 1 cm (or 1 inch) of excess precipitation. The
length of the storm that generated excess precipitation
(runoff) will have a first-order impact on the shape of the
hydrograph, which is why all UHs are tied to a particular D-
hour event. The key assumption of the UH method is that the
basin responds linearly to excess precipitation inputs. If the
basin does respond linearly, then superposition can be used (a
key aspect of the UH method). The other assumptions in the
UH method are generally implicit in the linear response
assumption. As described in the previous section, the shape of
the hydrograph will change if the storm varies in space across
the basin (Figure 10.12). For a useful response function to be
derived, its shape must be representative and reproducible.
Hence an implicit assumption in the UH method is that the
338
precipitation occurs uniformly over the basin. If the storm
occurs uniformly over the basin, then the shape of a measured
streamflow hydrograph should be representative of the static
characteristics of the basin (i.e. soils, slope, roughness, etc.)
and therefore have useful predictive utility. Note that the
shape is thus inherently tied to a basin’s characteristics and
therefore different basins should have different unit
hydrographs. Similarly, if the excess precipitation is uniformly
distributed over the D-hour event, the linearity assumption
will be most valid. In addition to the above assumptions, one
would expect that antecedent soil moisture and groundwater
table conditions before the storm are important (i.e. will
determine how much infiltration vs. runoff occurs and how it
is distributed across the basin). Hence it is conceivable that
different unit hydrographs could be developed for different
antecedent conditions. Real-world departures from these
simplifying assumptions are relatively common and will F IGURE 10.15 Inputs necessary for constructing a unit hy-
drograph.
undoubtedly introduce errors into UH stormflow predictions.

We will first discuss the “recipe” used to construct a D-

hour UH. Then we will discuss the various ways in which they
are applied. The key inputs needed for construction of a UH
are shown schematically in Figure 10.15 and consist of a
streamflow hydrograph, the basin area, the basin-averaged
excess rainfall, and the duration (D) of the excess rainfall.
Note that the excess rainfall and duration of excess rainfall
are in general less than the actual rainfall and actual storm
duration. You should be able to convince yourself of this by
considering the special case where only infiltration excess
runoff occurs, while keeping in mind that in this special case
the excess rainfall is simply the cumulative infiltration excess
runoff. As shown in Figure 10.6, runoff would only begin after
ponding, so that in this case the duration of excess rainfall
would be D = tr - tp and the excess rainfall would be the
integral shown in Equation (10.3.2). The more general case is
more complicated as the excess rainfall also includes
saturation excess rainfall (and perhaps interflow) as well, but
the concept is similar in that some of the precipitation will
infiltrate and not contribute to stormflow. The steps of a UH
construction are outlined sequentially below.

339
 function of time so that we could represent the total
hydrograph as: Qt , where t corresponds to discrete time
periods (e.g., every 30 minutes or every hour).

Step 2: The second step is to remove the baseflow at each

time step (Bt) from the streamflow hydrograph. This is done
because the UH method makes no attempt to predict baseflow
(only stormflow). If desired, the baseflow can be added back
to the predicted stormflow to get the total predicted
hydrograph. The conceptual picture is illustrated in Figure

F IGURE 10.16 Illustrative example of a streamflow hydrog-

raph that can be used to derive a unit hydrograph.

Step 1: The construction of a UH starts with a historical

streamflow hydrograph for the basin (e.g. Figure 10.16). Note
this implies that there are streamflow measurements for the
basin of interest. If no measurements exist, then synthetic
UHs must be used (Mays, 2005). Here we focus only on the
case where measurements are available. The hydrograph is the
result of runoff mechanisms described in Section 3 that are
driven by a storm of a given duration and intensity. From F IGURE 10.17 Illustrative example showing the stormflow
historical records of precipitation, one may know the upper (quick-response runoff) and baseflow components of the
streamflow hydrograph. The duration of excess precipitation is
bound of the excess rainfall duration, but it will need to be a key input that defines a D-hour response.
identified specifically as described below. From a data
perspective, the hydrograph can generally be tabulated as a
340
10.17 which shows the duration of excess precipitation (i.e. D
hours) and the same hydrograph shown in Figure 10.16. The
baseflow is shown in green. Note that in general we do not
actually know what the baseflow is. Figure 10.18 shows a
similar picture, but with the time to peak and the time of
concentration labeled on the graph. The time of concentration
represents the time it would take for water from the most
distant part of the basin to reach the outlet and corresponds
to the inflection point in Figure 10.18. By definition it
represents the time at which the quick-response runoff
components go to zero leaving only the baseflow component of
F IGURE 10.18 Illustrative example showing the time to peak
and time of concentration for the streamflow hydrograph.
the hydrograph. Several empirical methods exist for
attempting to estimate the baseflow. The simplest method
assumes that there is no baseflow response to the storm event,
which is equivalent to assuming Bt = Qt0 (i.e. the baseflow is
equivalent to the streamflow prior to the storm event). Under
this simplified model, the baseflow is simply a constant in
time. Slightly more sophisticated empirical methods attempt
to estimate the inflection point to account for increases in
baseflow during the response. One example (Mays, 2005)
assumes the hydrograph trend before the storm response
(which may be a recession curve from the previous storm)
continues until the time to peak and that the inflection point
is Ndays after that time, where:
N days = 1.21A0.2 ; A ≡ basin area (km 2 ) (10.5.1)
Many other empirical functions for the time of concentration
are given in Mays (2005). Note that these are all empirical
relationships and therefore generally not dimensionally
consistent. Using any of these or other empirical techniques,
one can estimate a discrete time series for baseflow: Bt.
Step 3: Determine the cumulative stormflow (excess
precipitation) by removing the baseflow and integrating under
the stormflow hydrograph. The removal of baseflow yields the
stormflow hydrograph (Figure 10.19), i.e.: Qt - Bt. If the
baseflow was estimated accurately, then the integral under
this curve should exactly match the cumulative quick-response
runoff (stormflow). When transformed to depth, this is by
definition equal to the excess precipitation, which therefore
can be calculated by:
341
 F IGURE 10.19 Plot of the stormflow hydrograph with base- F IGURE 10.20 Conceptual picture of the process of convert-
flow removed from the original streamflow hydrograph. ing total volume of excess runoff to the equivalent amount of
uniform runoff depth over the basin.

1 (10.5.2)
A∫
Pe = (Q − B)dt
other words, each ordinate of the storm flow hydrograph can
simply be divided by Pe, so that the unit hydrograph is given
where A is the basin area in proper units. The integral yields by:
a volume and the area transforms it to a depth (Figure 10.20).
Qt − Bt
This will yield the total depth of the excess precipitation ht = (10.5.3)
Pe
(runoff). In practice, the curve is not known analytically, but
at discrete times, so the above integral is estimated via a
numerical approximation (i.e. the rectangular or trapezoidal where the units of the UH are flow units per unit depth of
methods). stormflow, i.e. m3/s/cm. The UH simply represents the
response function that would occur if 1 cm of effective rainfall
Step 4: Normalize the storm flow hydrograph by the effective
occurred over D hours.
rainfall to get the D-hour unit hydrograph (Figure 10.21). In
342
 stormflow runoff. In this particular example, only three hours
in the middle of the storm exceeded the threshold. Hence in
this example, we would have an excess rainfall duration of D
= 3 hours. Therefore the UH shown in Figure 10.21 is the 3-
hour UH. Note that this particular method assumes that the
“loss” function is constant in time, which may be an
oversimplification (i.e. in the case of infiltration excess runoff).
Additionally, it shows that the excess precipitation is not
spread uniformly in time over the 3 hours, which is a violation
of the underlying UH assumptions. Nevertheless, this is
representative of a typical situation where the UH is applied.

F IGURE 10.21 The stormflow (quick-response) hydrograph

is converted to the unit hydrograph by dividing by the equiva-
lent depth of runoff. Note the units of the unit hydrograph are
volumetric flow per unit stormflow depth (e.g. m3/s/cm).

Step 5: Determine the duration of excess precipitation. While

the above UH construction is implicitly in response to a D-
hour excess rainfall event, the actual duration must be
determined prior to application. The rainfall hyetograph (time
series) gives some indication of the duration of the storm, but
the duration of excess rainfall will generally be less than the
storm duration due to infiltration. Figure 10.22 shows an
example of one method to determine D. In this example the
storm was a 12-hour storm. To determine D, a precipitation
depth is found such that the amount above the line equals the F IGURE 10.22 Example of one method for determining the
excess precipitation found in Step 3. Implicitly, the duration of excess precipitation based on the known amount of
excess precipitation.
precipitation below this cutoff line infiltrated into the soil and
went into storage, while the amount above the line went to
343
E XAMPLE 10.5.1 E XAMPLE 10.5.1 ( CONTINUED )

The hydrograph shown below was measured at TIME STORMFLOW

the outlet of a 1 km2 watershed in response to a (HOURS) (m3/s)
storm event that corresponded to 2 hours of
0 0.0
excess precipitation. Construct the 2-hour UH
from this hydrograph. For simplicity assume the 3 0.05
flow at the start of the hydrograph is
representative of the baseflow. 6 0.10

9 0.08
TIME FLOW
(HOURS) (m3/s) 12 0.05
0 0.05
15 0.03
3 0.10
18 0.0
6 0.15
Next, the excess precipitation can be estimated by
9 0.13
integrating under the stormflow hydrograph and
12 0.10 normalizing by the basin area (Equation (10.5.2)). Using
the trapezoidal rule, the integral can be estimated as:
15 0.08
Pe = 0.5[(0 + 0.05) + (0.05 + 0.10) + (0.10 + 0.08) +
18 0.05
(0.08 + 0.05) + (0.05 + 0.03) + (0.03 + 0.0)m 3 /s] ×
Given the historical hydrograph, the first step is baseflow (3h)(3600s / h) / (1 km 2 / (1000 m)2 )
removal. In this case the flow at the beginning of the = 0.00335 m = 0.34 cm
storm is assumed representative of baseflow and
subtracted to generate the stormflow hydrograph: The original hydrograph can then be normalized by the
excess precipitation to get the UH (Equation (10.5.3)):

344
 The end result of the UH construction process is the
E XAMPLE 10.5.1 ( CONTINUED ) determination of the unit response of the basin (i.e. to 1 cm of
excess rainfall) over a D-hour duration. Once constructed, the
TIME UH can be used in applications, including the prediction of
UH (m3/s/cm) response to other D-hour events of varying intensity as well as
(HOURS)
response to storms of different excess precipitation intensity
0 0.0 and duration. This is done via superposition based on the
assumed linear response of the system. Three examples of
3 0.149
applications of the UH method are presented here including:
6 0.294 prediction of stormflow from a different D-hour storm,
construction of an (nD)-hour UH from a D-hour UH (where n
9 0.235 is an integer multiple), and prediction of response from a more
complicated excess precipitation event.
12 0.149
The simplest application of the UH method involves
15 0.088 using a D-hour UH to predict the response of a different D-
hour event. For example, suppose for design or flood
18 0.0
prediction purposes you want to predict the resulting
hydrograph for a 6-hour effective rainfall event with Pe of
excess precipitation. The entire basis of the UH approach is
Note that this is a 2-hour UH because the excess that the system behaves linearly so that the shape should be
precipitation event is of a 2-hour duration and not invariant, but the magnitude can be scaled. So in this case, if
because of anything about the time base of the you have a 6-hour UH, you would simply scale it by Pe:
hydrograph itself (which is a function of basin size and
other characteristics). The shape of the UH is the same Qt = Pe ⋅ ht (10.5.4)
as the original hydrograph with the peak occurring at 6
By construct, the integral under the scaled stormflow
hours after the start of the storm event. The UH can be
hydrograph will exactly equal Pe. Examples of this for storms
used to estimate peak flow for storms associated with
with 0.5 and 2.0 units of effective precipitation (e.g. cm) are
other excess precipitation amounts (and other storm
shown in Figure 10.23. Note that implicit in this is that the
durations) via superposition as described below.
starting and ending times of stormflow do not change, only

345
 cm that is lagged by 1 hour. This is just a statement of
superposition. One can use this to construct an (nD)-hour
UH. Suppose n = 2 and D = 1 hour. By starting a UH at
time zero and lagging a second UH by one hour (blue curves
in Figure 10.24) and summing the two together would yield a
hydrograph with 2 cm of stormflow. This summed hydrograph
can then simply be rescaled (in this case divided by 2) to yield
the 2-hour UH. This operation is the same as taking the
average of the two lagged UHs and results in the red curve
shown in Figure 10.24, which is the 2-hour UH (constructed

F IGURE 10.23 Example of predicted stormflow hydrograph

for different amounts of excess precipitation based on scaling
the unit hydrograph.

the magnitudes change. To get a full streamflow hydrograph

for the scaled event, one could add back an estimate of the
baseflow.

Another application of the UH method is the

construction of an (nD)-hour UH from a D-hour UH. This
approach again uses linearity to its advantage. Suppose for
example a 2-hour excess precipitation event occurred with 1
cm of rainfall in each hour. Linearity suggests that the
response to this should be identical to the summed response of
a 1-hour event of 1 cm followed by a second 1-hour event of 1
F IGURE 10.24 Illustrative example of constructing a 2-hour
unit hydrograph from two 1-hour unit hydrographs lagged by
one hour and re-scaled to correspond to a unit amount of
stormflow.
346
from two 1-hour UHs). This could then be used to predict the
response to any 2-hour event.
The final application discussed here is the case where
there is an excess precipitation event of longer duration than
the available UH and of varying excess precipitation
throughout the event. An example is that shown in Figure
10.25, which shows an excess precipitation time series over a
24-hour period. For the purposes of illustration, we will
assume we have already constructed a 6-hour UH for this
basin. One approach would be to construct the 24-hour UH
from four lagged 6-hour UHs as described above and then
F IGURE 10.25 Example of a 24-hour excess precipitation
time series. The non-uniformity of the time series suggests the
use of superposition of multiple UHs (e.g. four 6-hour UHs)
might perform better than the use of a single 24-hour UH.
scale the 24-hour UH by the amount of excess precipitation.
Another approach is to break the event into smaller pieces,
apply UHs to each, and then sum them up to get the full
response. One reason to do the latter over the former is if
there are considerable variations in excess precipitation over
the course of the event. In the special case that the excess
precipitation were constant over the 24 hours, then the two
approaches would be expected to be identical. In this example
we could propose to break the excess precipitation hyetograph
into four 6-hour pieces. Again, linearity lets us treat each as
independent “events” where the responses to each can
ultimately be summed up (often referred to as convolution).
By breaking the event up, each sub-period comes closer to the
assumption of constant excess precipitation over its duration.
For each sub-period, the response will be the 6-hour UH
starting at the beginning of the event scaled by the excess
precipitation taking place over that period. In Figure 10.26,
the four periods are color-coded as green, blue, red, and
yellow and the respective responses (i.e. scaled 6-hour UHs) to
each are shown in the bottom panel. Using superposition, the
stormflow hydrograph resulting from all of the events over the
24-hour period can be obtained by adding up the individual
responses as shown schematically with the black line in Figure
10.27. This is illustrative of the power of superposition where
a single UH is used to build up a model to a more
complicated input. The net result is a prediction that is
considerably more complicated than that from a single event
response and includes multiple local maxima. Whether the
prediction is accurate depends on the validity of the
underlying UH assumptions.
347
F IGURE 10.26 Illustration of superposition of UHs. The ex-
cess precipitation time series is conceptualized as four different
6-hour storms. The linearity assumption allows for the pre-
dicted response of each 6-hour “event”. The bottom panel
shows the stormflow hydrographs (i.e. scaled UHs) correspond-
ing to each 6-hour event. The color of each hydrograph corre-
sponds to the same color excess precipitation event.
F IGURE 10.27 The bottom panel shows the stormflow hy-
drographs (i.e. scaled UHs) corresponding to each 6-hour
event. The color of each hydrograph corresponds to the same
color excess precipitation event. The bottom panel shows the
predicted total response (in black) which is simply the summa-
tion (superposition) of each of the individual (colored) re-
sponse hydrographs shown in Figure 10.26.
348
E XAMPLE 10.5.2
A small watershed is located in an area that is
frequently hit by intense thunderstorms. You
decide to investigate the peak flows for two
possible extreme thunderstorm events (which are
the largest expected amount to fall in each
duration storm): 1) a one-hour storm with a
cumulative effective rainfall of 24 cm and 2) a
three-hour storm with a cumulative effective
rainfall of 45 cm. The 1-hr unit hydrograph (UH)
constructed for the watershed is shown in the
table below.
TIME UH FLOW
(HR) (m3/s/cm)
0 0
1 10
2 5
3 0
a) Estimate the peak stormflow corresponding to
each storm (based on a unit hydrograph
analysis). Which of the two storms yields a
higher peak runoff?
E XAMPLE 10.5.2 ( CONTINUED )
b) Based on further investigation it is determined
that the basin is composed of soils with a large
saturated hydraulic conductivity and that the
unit hydrograph was constructed from a typical
intensity storm. What runoff generation
mechanism can you reasonably hypothesize was
primarily responsible for the basin response seen
in the unit hydrograph?
c) For the extreme events analyzed above, should
we expect the same runoff generation mechanism
to be responsible for the peak stormflow? How, if
at all, should we expect this to impact the
accuracy of the UH-based prediction?
a) The first storm has duration of 1 hour, which allows
us to directly use the UH ordinates while scaling them
for the actual effective precipitation; this also means that
the peak time occurs at the same time for which the UH
peaks:
Qpeak = Q(t = 1 h) = h(t = 1 h) × Pe
= (10 m 3 /s/cm)(24 cm) = 240 m 3 /s
For the 3-hour storm, the three 1-hour UHs can be used
with the first UH starting at t = 0 h, the second UH
starting at t = 1 h and the third UH starting at t = 2 h.
349

E XAMPLE 10.5.2 ( CONTINUED )
The one-hour lag for each UH is possible if superposition
is invoked whereby the 3-hour event can be
conceptualized as three separate one hour events. Each
UH can be scaled by 15 cm (i.e. 45/3 cm) so that the
total cumulative effective precipitation is equal to the
desired total. At each hour the scaled runoff values can
be summed via superposition. For this particular case
the peak flow is 225 m3/s at both t = 2 and 3 h.
b) If the soil is highly conductive and the UH was
derived from a “typical” storm (i.e. precipitation intensity
was not too high) it is highly likely that runoff is
generated via the saturation excess mechanism (i.e.
Dunne runoff) rather than the infiltration excess
mechanism (i.e. Hortonian runoff) which generally
requires P >> Ks.
c) Since the events analyzed are extreme events it is
likely the precipitation intensity is much larger than a
“typical” storm. This increases the likelihood that there
will be infiltration excess runoff (instead of saturation
excess runoff). If the runoff mechanism generating runoff
for the storm of interest is a different mechanism than
that underlying the original UH, it is possible that the
UH will not be of appropriate shape and therefore the
predictions could be erroneous. A physically-based model
may be more appropriate in this case.
While in the UH construction the excess precipitation is
determined directly from the historical hydrograph,
applications to other events require some estimate of Pe. In
reality it is determined by the runoff generation mechanisms
occurring in the basin, which depend on the precipitation
intensity, soil type, and antecedent conditions (i.e. initial soil
moisture). In practice it is often estimated empirically. One
commonly applied method is the so-called SCS method
developed originally by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service
(now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS)). A schematic of the assumed processes is shown in
Figure 10.28, where Ia is the initial abstraction (i.e. where all
water infiltrates), Fa is the continuing abstraction (potentially
decaying infiltration rate), P is the total precipitation and Pe
is the excess precipitation. Based on empirical evidence from
many small experimental watersheds, the excess precipitation
can be estimated by:
(P − 0.2S)2
Pe = (10.5.5)
P + 0.8S
where S is the potential maximum retention storage in the
watershed. The storage is typically estimated by:
1000
S= − 10 (10.5.6)
CN
where CN is the so-called SCS curve number which is
dimensionless and varies between 0 and 100. A value of CN =
100 corresponds to an impervious surface (i.e. no storage and
350
 1. All of the above can be theoretically applied to snowmelt
runoff modeling just as easily as a rain storm with the
appropriate modifications.

2. The linearity assumption makes for a very computationally

efficient rainfall-runoff model that can be easily
implemented on a spreadsheet and modified for many cases
as illustrated above.

3. By the same token, there is no guarantee that the linearity

assumption is a good one. Any model is only as good as its
underlying assumptions, so the user must be careful in
application of the UH method to minimize errors that could
be introduced as a result of improper assumptions.

4. The key tradeoff to computational efficiency in the UH

method, is a complete lack of knowledge of the underlying
F IGURE 10.28 Illustration of SCS empirical method for esti- physical mechanisms responsible for the runoff and
mating excess precipitation from precipitation data (adapted from sensitivity to errors as a result of unaccounted for changes
Mays, 2005).
in the basin. For a more physical treatment of the rainfall-
runoff processes, physically-based models like those
described in the next section may be required.
Pe = P). The curve numbers are generally a function of land
use, soil types, and antecedent moisture conditions. Tabulated
values can be found in Mays (2005) or other sources. Given
the estimate of excess runoff for a given storm, the UH
method can then be applied using a derived UH of the
appropriate duration.

A few final comments on the UH method:

351
S ECTION 6 basin processes not just basin outlet streamflow), but
generally require significantly more input data, both
Physically-based Rainfall- meteorological data and characterization of the basin (soils,
vegetation, terrain, etc.). At least part of the reason (beyond

Runoff Modeling simplicity) that empirical models have been the traditional
approach to rainfall-runoff modeling is that hydrology used to
be a very data-limited enterprise, where a given basin may
The unit hydrograph approach to rainfall-runoff
have had a single stream gauge and perhaps a few rain
modeling described in the previous section has been and
gauges. For such a limited data environment, simpler models
continues to be widely used. If one needs only basin outlet
make sense. However, with the advent of remote sensing that
runoff predictions and the underlying assumptions of the UH
has been discussed in earlier chapters, many key hydrologic
method are reasonably valid for the basin of interest, then
inputs (precipitation, radiation, topography, etc.) are available
UH-based predictions may be sufficient (and often are, e.g. for
in a much more comprehensive way. Such new data streams
design purposes). The empirical nature of the approach
raise the possibility of implementing more complicated
however includes limitations.
models.
The primary alternative to empirical modeling is
The first step in physically-based modeling is generally a
modeling using physically-based approaches. This simply
decision about to what extent processes are represented in
means that the processes within the basin are modeled using
space. Figure 10.29 illustrates three distinct ways in which a
the physics that have been the primary basis of this book. As
watershed can be discretized in space for modeling and
has been made clear in earlier chapters, the primary drivers of
analysis. Choosing a method of discretization has tradeoff
watershed processes are precipitation and net radiation. Given
implications related to explicitly modeling processes, accuracy
these inputs, a set of processes ensue that include infiltration,
due to both the degree of underlying spatial variability and
evaporation, unsaturated zone moisture redistribution,
available data, and computational demand. Many existing
recharge, groundwater flow, and runoff. Each of these is
models are available that span various levels of discretization
governed by physical processes that can be expressed in terms
as well as how processes are modeled.
of models. If tied together into an integrated unit, the model
becomes a physically-based hydrologic watershed model. One The simplest approach is generally referred to as using a
should be plainly aware of the tradeoffs between models. “lumped” modeling approach (left panel in Figure 10.29). In a
Physically-based models have the potential for a more robust lumped approach the entire basin is lumped or grouped
modeling framework (that may include modeling of interior together in one unit. The UH method is an example of a
352
 F IGURE 10.29 Illustration of various ways of representing a
basin in model: lumped (left panel), semi-lumped or semi-
distributed (middle panel), or distributed (right panel) (from
COMET Program).
F IGURE 10.30 Model structure for the conceptual SACSMA
model that is used by the National Weather Service (NWS)
River Forecasting Centers.

lumped (albeit empirically-based) approach. In lumped

Accounting (SACSMA; NWS, 2002) model, which is
models, the physical processes may be represented (i.e.
represented schematically in Figure 10.30. Sometimes such
evaporation, infiltration, runoff) with basin-scale mass balance
models are referred to as “conceptual” models in that the
and flux equations (in varying ways), but no attempt is made
physical processes may be represented in a more
to account for spatial distributions within the basin. Inputs to
parameterized way. The primary goal of such lumped models
lumped models would include mean areal estimates of
is the outlet hydrograph.
precipitation, radiation, etc. and the outputs would be basin
runoff as well as basin-averaged estimates of evaporation and An intermediate approach that attempts to discretize the
storage in the various modeled reservoirs. An example of a basin to represent some of the spatial variability, is referred to
widely used lumped model is the Sacramento Soil Moisture
353
as a semi-lumped (or semi-distributed) approach (middle
panel of Figure 10.29). In this approach the basin is
discretized into several sub-units (either sub-watersheds or
areas between elevation contours). In such a framework, each
sub-unit is treated as a lumped unit. Mean areal inputs are
required for each sub-unit and mean areal outputs are
F IGURE 10.31 Semi-distributed schematic representation of
basin as used in the USACE HEC-HMS model.
provided for each sub-unit (including runoff). To get the
basin-outlet runoff, the runoff from each sub-unit must be
routed to the outlet. Techniques for routing hydrographs are
described in more detail in the next section. An example of a
widely-used semi-lumped model is the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) HEC-HMS model (USACE, 2010) which
is shown schematically in Figure 10.31. In this model the full
watershed is discretized into a series of sub-basins (lumped
units) that are connected via a series of river reaches.
Finally, the last approach generally used involves so-
called distributed hydrologic models (right panel in Figure
10.29). In this approach the basin is discretized into relatively
small units (typically either on a regular grid or via a
triangular irregular network [TIN] yielding Thiessen polygon-
type units). The attractiveness of distributed models is that
increasingly available spatially-distributed datasets (i.e.
NEXRAD RADAR, satellite-based radiation, topography,
etc.) can be used to model processes at a high resolution. The
desire to model within-basin processes or how changes to a
basin (i.e. urbanization) impact the hydrology can be
addressed with such a model in ways that lumped models
cannot. The drawback is the increased need for input data
and specification of model parameters. An example of a
raster-based (i.e. grid-based) distributed model is the MIKE-
SHE model (Graham and Butts, 2005), which is shown
schematically in Figure 10.32. Such grid-based models are
consistent with many of the relevant datasets (e.g.
topography) that are also raster-based. Other models take
advantage of the potential for increased computational
354

F IGURE 10.32 Distributed schematic representation of basin
as used in the MIKE-SHE model (from mikebydhi.com/Products/
WaterResources/MIKESHE.aspx).
efficiency (i.e. fewer cells) if one uses a TIN to generate a
computational mesh. In such models, the individual modeling
units are the triangular elements of the TIN or the Thiessen
(or Voronoi) polygons formed by the TIN. An example of one
such model is the so-called tRIBS model (Ivanov et al, 2004),
which is represented schematically in Figure 10.33.
For the rest of this section, the focus is on distributed
hydrologic modeling, where the simpler modeling approaches
F IGURE 10.33 TIN-based distributed schematic representa-
tion of basin used in the tRIBS model (from vivoni.asu.edu/
tribs/tinmodeldiagram.jpg).
can be thought of as a special case of representing processes in
a single or handful of lumped units. Figure 10.34 shows a
single cell (or pixel) in a distributed model. Implicit in any
discretization is that the processes at the pixel-scale can be
treated as a homogeneous unit. The spatially-distributed
inputs include all relevant meteorological data (precipitation,
radiation and reference-level air temperature, humidity, wind
speed, etc.). At the surface, surface mass and energy balances
can be solved, which partition the incoming precipitation into:
infiltration, evapotranspiration, interception, and unsaturated
355
zone storage and net radiation into: surface sensible and latent
heat fluxes, ground heat flux and soil energy storage.
Subsurface processes that are modeled may include: one
dimensional flow in the unsaturated zone (including
redistribution and groundwater recharge), and groundwater
mass balance. Lateral fluxes modeled at the pixel-scale include
overland flow (infiltration excess and saturation excess) and
subsurface runoff (interflow and baseflow). These runoff
generation mechanisms yield an outflow hydrograph for each

F IGURE 10.35 Illustration of saturation excess runoff genera-

tion predicted by the tRIBS distributed model (from Enrique Vi-
voni personal communication).

pixel. One example of output from a distributed model that

F IGURE 10.34 Illustration of surface and subsurface compo-
nents at a pixel within the tRIBS distributed model (from Enrique
Vivoni personal communication).
cannot be obtained in a lumped approach is shown in Figure
10.35, which illustrates the fraction of saturation excess runoff
occurrence from each pixel in a basin.
In applying a distributed model, not only are the
hydrologic point-scale processes at each unit modeled
356
explicitly, but hydrologic connectivity between cells becomes
an important component. Figure 10.36 shows an example of
F IGURE 10.36 Illustration of stream channel (flow patterns)
in a distributed model.
F IGURE 10.37 Illustration of how distributed models provide
hydrographs at both internal and outlet nodes.
the cell connectivity for the example basin shown in Figure
10.29. Such connectivity can be derived from topographic
information as described in Section 2. The routing scheme
used by the model takes hydrographs generated at a given
interior point and routes them downstream (Figure 10.37).
The explicit routing takes into account increase in peak flow
due to downstream accumulation as well as translation and
attenuation in time. The end result is the outflow hydrograph
(which is also output by a lumped model) along with
knowledge of all of the interior processes (and their spatial/
temporal variability) that led to the streamflow hydrograph.
357
S ECTION 7

Streamflow Routing: Un-

steady Flow
Streamflow routing is simply the solution for the
hydrograph at a given point (or at all points) along a stream
channel as a function of time. The most general form of
solution is often termed “hydraulic routing” and is simply the
solution of unsteady flow in a channel. The mean flow in a
stream channel is downstream and hence the flow can
generally be treated as one-dimensional with the stream
channel as the single spatial coordinate (i.e. the x-direction),
as represented schematically in Figure 10.38.

One can derive the one-dimensional unsteady flow

equation starting with the continuity (mass balance) equation
originally shown in Equation (1.5.2), which for mass
conservation yields:
d
0= ∫ ρ dV + CS∫ ρV ⋅dA
dt CV
(10.7.1)

where the control volume can be a differential element of

length dx in the channel. The mass inflow rate is given by:

∫
inlet
ρV ⋅dA = − ρ(Q + qdx) (10.7.2) F IGURE 10.38 Relevant variables defining flow in an open
stream channel (adapted from Mays, 2005).

358
where Q(x,t) is the flow in the stream channel and q is the equation has two unknowns: A and Q. Therefore to solve it we
lateral inflow (per unit length of channel) and represents, e.g. need to apply another independent constraint via the
the overland runoff into the stream. The mass outflow rate is momentum equation.
given by:
The momentum equation can also be derived from
∂Q
∫
outlet
ρV ⋅dA = ρ(Q +
∂x
dx) (10.7.3) Reynolds Transport Theorem (Equation (1.5.1)) and written
as:
d
where the second term on the right-hand-side represents the
∑F = ∫ V ρ dV + CS∫ V ⋅ ρV ⋅dA
dt CV
(10.7.7)

increment in flow due to lateral inflow and/or any storage

changes. Finally, the rate of change of mass stored in the
where the left-hand-side represents the net force, the first
control volume is given by:
term on the right-hand-side represents momentum storage and
d ∂
∫
dt CV
ρ dV =
∂t
( ρAdx) (10.7.4) the last term represents the divergence of momentum. The net
force can be written as:

∑F = F g
+ Ff + Fe + Fp (10.7.8)
where A dx is the volume of the channel element. Putting all
three terms back together yields: where Fg is the gravitational force, Ff is the friction force, Fe
∂( ρAdx) ∂Q is the force associated with expansion/contraction of the
− ρ(Q + qdx) + ρ(Q + dx) = 0 (10.7.5) channel, and Fp is the unbalanced pressure force. The sum of
∂t ∂x
all forces can be expressed as:
∂y
Assuming fluid density is constant yields the 1D unsteady ∑ F = ρgAS 0dx − ρgAS f dx − ρgASedx − ρgA ∂x
dx (10.7.9)
continuity equation:
∂A ∂Q (10.7.6)
+ −q = 0 where S0 is the channel bed slope, Sf is the friction slope (head
∂t ∂x
loss per unit length of channel), Se is the head loss due to
expansion/contraction and the unbalanced pressure force is
which is subject to initial and boundary conditions in flow due to differences in hydrostatic pressure on either side of the
and cross-sectional channel area. Note however that this

359
channel element as a result of differences in water elevation. It should be noted that the flow depth y is directly tied to the
The momentum inflow rate is given by: cross-sectional area (A) and therefore is not an independent
(new) variable. So Equations (10.7.6) and (10.7.13) provide
∫ V ⋅ ρV ⋅dA = − ρ(βVQ + βv qdx);
inlet
x (10.7.10) two equations for the two unknowns: Q and A (or depth y).
β ≡ momentum coefficient Together they are often referred to as the Saint-Venant
equations which are a coupled set of PDEs that describe the
where the first term on the right-hand-side is the momentum 1D unsteady flow in a channel (subject to initial/boundary
entering the upstream face and the second is the momentum conditions and lateral inflow) and are often solved numerically
entering laterally (i.e. due to lateral influx q) where vx is the x- (Mays, 2005).
component of the velocity of the lateral influx. The
momentum coefficient accounts for the nonuniform Many of the commonly used equations for flow in open
distribution of velocity in the channel cross-section (Mays, channels/streams can be derived as special cases of the Saint-
2005). The momentum flux at the outlet of the elemental Venant equations. Simplifications may include steady-state, no
volume is given by: lateral inflow, uniform flow, etc. Because of their wide use
∂(βVQ) they are quickly covered here.
∫ V ⋅ ρV ⋅dA = − ρ( βVQ +
∂x
dx) (10.7.11)
outlet 1. Steady-flow with no lateral inflow: For steady flow with no
lateral inflow (i.e. q = 0), the continuity equation becomes:

where the last term represents a change in momentum flux ∂A ∂Q

(either as a result of the lateral influx of momentum or due to + − q =0 = 0
∂t =0 ∂x
a storage change). Finally, the rate of change of momentum
storage is given by: which simply states that Q = constant from one cross-section
d ∂Q to the next (i.e. Q1 = Q2 or V1A1 = V2A2), which is the
∫
dt CV
V ρ dV = ρ
∂t
dx (10.7.12)
commonly applied steady-state mass balance. Under the same
assumptions, the momentum equation simplifies as well:

Putting all of the terms back together (and simplifying) ∂Q ∂(βQ 2 A) # ∂y &
+ + gA % − S 0 + S f + Se ( − β q =0vx = 0
yields: ∂t =0 ∂x $ ∂x '
∂Q ∂(βQ 2 A) # ∂y &
+ + gA % − S 0 + S f + Se ( − βqvx = 0 (10.7.13)
∂t ∂x $ ∂x '
360
which can be simplified further by eliminating the dQ/dx term where the Froude number (Fr) is defined as:
implicit in the second term and noting that: V A dA
Fr = ; D= ; B ≡ top width = (10.7.17)
dy dh gD B dy
− S0 = (10.7.14)
dx dx

Substituting into Equation (10.7.16) and rearranging yields:

where h is the height of the water surface above the datum
dy S 0 − S f (10.7.18)
(Figure 10.38). This yields: =
dx 1 − Fr2
dh d ⎛ V 2 ⎞ (10.7.15)
+ β = −S f − Se
dx dx ⎜⎝ 2g ⎟⎠ which is the commonly used equation for gradually varied flow
in prismatic channels. Note that this equation is an ODE
which is the commonly applied equation for gradually varied (rather than a PDE) and can be integrated relatively easily.
flow in a natural channel. Note this is an ODE (not a PDE)
3. Steady-uniform flow (with no lateral inflow): Simplifying
and can be integrated rather easily (most often numerically).
further for the case of uniform flow (with the same simplifying
2. Steady-flow (with no lateral inflow) for a prismatic channel: assumptions as above), i.e. where there is no variation in the
Under the same assumptions as above, but for a prismatic x-direction, the momentum equation can be simplified:
channel (i.e. of a regular shape that does not change with x),
∂Q ∂(βQ 2 A) ⎛ ∂y ⎞
by definition Se = 0 (and the momentum coefficient is + + gA ⎜ − S 0 − S f − Se ⎟ − β q =0vx = 0
approximately 1.0), which yields a further simplification to the ∂t =0 ∂x =0 ⎝ ∂x =0 ⎠
momentum equation (expressed in terms of water depth y):
which yields:
dy d ⎛ V 2 ⎞ (10.7.16)
+ = S0 − S f S 0 = S f + Se
dx dx ⎜⎝ 2g ⎟⎠ (10.7.19)

for natural channels, and:

where by definition the second term is equivalent to:
S0 = S f (10.7.20)
d ⎛V ⎞ 2
2 dy
= −F
dx ⎜⎝ 2g ⎟⎠ r
dx for prismatic channels. Both of these simply state that the
frictional and expansion/contraction head losses exactly

361
balance the elevation head gradient. Similar expressions can
be derived from energy considerations.
The special case of uniform flow is one of particular
interest and worthy of additional discussion. From dimensional
analysis one can show that the bed shear stress associated
with friction is given by:
V2 (10.7.21)
τ0 = Cf ρ = ρgRS 0
2g
where Cf is a resistance coefficient and R is the so-called
hydraulic radius of the channel (cross-sectional area divided
by wetted perimeter [i.e. perimeter of cross-section in contact
with water]). Solving Equation (10.7.21) for the mean velocity
yields:
2g
(10.7.22)
V = RS 0 = C RS 0
Cf
which is often referred to as the Chezy Equation for uniform
flow. The Chezy coefficient (C) represents a measure of the
roughness of the stream channel bed. The Manning equation
involves an empirical expression for C:
1 16
C = R (10.7.23)
n For uniform flow we can use the Manning equation. For
where n is the Manning roughness coefficient. Putting this
together with Equation (10.7.22) yields the so-called
(empirical) Manning equation which can be expressed either
in terms of velocity (here using SI units):
1 23 12
V = R S0 (10.7.24)
n
or in terms of flow (also SI units):
1
Q= AR 2 3S 01 2 (10.7.25)
n
It is important to remember that these equations are valid for
steady-uniform flow (with no lateral inflow to the channel).
For nonuniform flow, the Manning equation can be generalized
by using Sf in place of S0. The Manning roughness parameter
depends on the type of channel bed and is often tabulated
(e.g. Mays, 2005).
E XAMPLE 10.7.1
Estimate the uniform flow in a prismatic
rectangular channel with a width of 3 m, a water
depth of 0.5 m, a bed slope of 0.001 and a
Manning roughness coefficient of 0.02.
the channel/water depth conditions, the cross sectional
area is equal to: A = 1.5 m2. The hydraulic radius is
given by the ratio of the area to wetted perimeter:
362
E XAMPLE 10.7.1 ( CONTINUED ) E XAMPLE 10.7.2 ( CONTINUED )

A (1.5 m 2 ) the solution must satisfy:

R= = = 0.375 m
P (2(0.5 m) + 3 m) 2 3
! (3 m)y $
((3 m)y) # & = (0.1 m 3 s −1 )(0.02)(0.001)−1 2
The discharge is then given by: " 2y + (3 m) %
= 0.0632
1
Q= (1.5 m 2 )(0.375 m)2 3(0.001)1 2 = 1.2 m 3 s −1
(0.02) Using an iterative solver, the depth that satisfies the
above equation is y = 0.101 m. Note that this depth is
where again it should be noted that the Manning
much smaller than the width (i.e. 0.1 m vs. 3 m). In such
equation is not dimensionally consistent.
cases, a “wide-channel assumption” is often invoked
whereby:
E XAMPLE 10.7.2 P = B + 2y ≈ B, if B << y

Estimate the depth of uniform flow for the which yields a simpler (non-iterative) form of the
channel in Example 10.7.1 if the discharge is 0.1 Manning equation:
m3 s-1. 2 3
1 " By % 1
First, the Manning equation can be expressed in terms of Q ≈ (By) $ ' S 01 2 = By 5/3S 01 2
n #B & n
depth of flow given a rectangular cross-section of width
→ y = (QnS 0−1 2B −1 )3/5
B:
2 3 For the conditions shown above this would yield a depth
1 ! By $
Q = (By) # & S0
12
estimate of 0.099 m, which is a close approximation to
n " 2y + B % the real solution. This approximation is only valid under
the wide-channel assumption mentioned above.
which shows that even for a simple cross-sectional
geometry, the nonlinearity of the Manning equation
requires an iterative solution for the depth y. Specifically,

363
 The Saint-Venant equations are sometimes referred to as attenuates relatively quickly making the kinematic
the dynamic wave equation because they fully describe the assumptions reasonably accurate. From Equation (10.7.27) it
dynamics of 1D unsteady flow in a channel. In this regard is clear that the flow is uniform.
they can be used to model any number of phenomena
The result of the above simplifications is essentially a
including floods, tides, nonuniform flow, uniform flow, etc.
reduction of the two equation governing system to a single
The price for this generality is one of computational demand
governing equation. For uniform flow the momentum equation
since the Saint-Venant equations are expensive to solve.
can also be expressed in the general form relating A and Q as:
The kinematic wave equation is another special case of
A = aQ b ↔ Q = cAd (10.7.28)
the Saint-Venant equations that is generally more easily
solved. By definition a “kinematic wave” (as opposed to a where, for example, with the Manning equation:
dynamic wave) is one where the acceleration terms, pressure
term, and lateral influx of momentum are all negligible, i.e.
3 5
⎛ nP 2 3 ⎞ 1 S0
12
3 5
⎛ ∂Q ∂(βQ A) ⎞ ⎛
2
∂y ⎞ a=⎜ ⎟ ;b = or c= ; d= (10.7.29)
⎜ ∂t
⎝
+
∂x ⎠

⎟ ⎜⎝ gA
∂x ⎟
⎠
(
 βqvx ≅ 0) ⎝ S0 ⎠ 5 n P2 3 3

If true, the momentum equation simplifies to the uniform flow where P is the wetted perimeter. The above form can be used
condition so that the two governing equations (continuity and to derive an expression for the kinematic wave equation
momentum) for the kinematic flow equation are: (either in terms of the dependent variable Q or A). To get the
governing equation in terms of Q, we can use:
∂A ∂Q (10.7.26)
+ = q(x,t)
∂t ∂x ∂A dA ∂Q ∂Q (10.7.30)
A = aQ b → = = abQ b−1
∂t dQ ∂t ∂t

S0 = S f (10.7.27)
where if this is substituted into the continuity equation yields:
where the above form of the momentum equation implies a
∂Q ∂Q (10.7.31)
prismatic channel. So the kinematic wave equation is an abQ b−1 + = q(x,t)
∂t ∂x
unsteady flow equation, but one where the wave motion is
determined primarily from mass balance. For many normal
floods in natural rivers the dynamic component of the wave which is one equation in one unknown. Note that the equation
364
is still a PDE and therefore is generally solved numerically on
a discretized channel (Mays, 2005). Similarly, to get the
governing equation in terms of A we can use:
∂Q dQ ∂A ∂A (10.7.32)
Q = cAd → = = cdAd −1
∂x dA ∂x ∂x

which can be substituted into the continuity equation to get:

∂A ∂A (10.7.33)
+ cdAd −1 = q(x,t)
∂t ∂x

which is again a single equation in a single unknown. In either

case, the streamflow hydrograph Q(x,t) can be determined,
either directly via solution of Equation (10.7.31) or indirectly
via solution of Equation (10.7.33) and then using Equations
(10.7.28) and (10.7.29).

365
S ECTION 8

Streamflow Routing: Hydro-

logic Routing
An alternative to hydraulic streamflow routing using the
dynamic wave method (or one of its special cases) is to use a
so-called hydrologic routing method. The primary difference
between the two methods is that hydrologic routing is a
lumped approach, where a length (reach) of river is treated as
a lumped unit of storage (yielding flow at the reach outlet at
a given time), while hydraulic routing is a distributed
approach where the reach is discretized into many small pieces F IGURE 10.39 Stream channel reach storage conceptualiza-
to get the flow as a function of both space and time. tion used in the Muskingum hydrologic streamflow routing
method (adapted from Mays, 2005).
Hydrologic routing starts with a lumped mass balance
equation for a specified reach of channel (Figure 10.39):
dS (10.8.1) the channel reach as two components (Figure 10.39): prism
= I(t) − Q(t)
dt storage (uniform cross-section across the reach) and wedge
storage. As a flood wave enters the reach, the wedge storage is
positive and when the flood recedes the wedge storage is
where S is the stored water in the reach, I(t) is the inflow negative. The Muskingum method assumes the prism storage
hydrograph, and Q(t) is the outflow hydrograph. It is is proportional to the outflow, i.e. KQ and the wedge storage
generally assumed that the inflow hydrograph is known and is given by KX(I -Q) where X is a weighting coefficient
the goal is to obtain an estimate of the outflow hydrograph. between 0 and 0.5. Note that if I > Q the wedge storage is
However Equation (10.8.1) alone is insufficient, as a storage- positive and if I < Q the wedge storage is negative. The total
inflow-outflow relationship is needed to yield two equations in storage is the sum of the prism and wedge storage so that:
two unknowns. The Muskingum method is a popular
hydrologic routing method that conceptualizes the storage in S = KQ + KX(I − Q) = K[XI − (1 − X )Q] (10.8.2)
366
which shows that the storage is a linear function of the
weighted average of inflow and outflow. The parameter X is
typically on the order of 0.3 for natural streams. The
parameter K must also be determined and is roughly equal to
the travel time of the flood wave through the channel reach.
To perform the routing, the original mass balance
equation can be discretized as:
S j +1 − S j I j +1 + I j Q j +1 + Q j
 +
Δt 2 2
where j is the time index, the left-hand-side represents a finite
difference approximation to the time derivative, and the right-
hand-side fluxes are approximated by their respective average
over the time step. Additionally, the storage change can be
represented by:
S j+1 − S j = K[XI j+1 + (1 − X )Q j+1 ] − K[XI j + (1 − X )Q j ]
Combining Equations (10.8.3) and (10.8.4) and simplifying
yields the following routing equation:
Q j +1 = C 1I j +1 + C 2I j + C 3Q j
where the constants defined above are given by:
Δt − 2KX
C1 =
2K(1 − X ) + Δt
Δt + 2KX
C2 =
2K(1 − X ) + Δt
2K(1 − X ) − Δt (10.8.8)
C3 =
2K(1 − X ) + Δt
where the C1, C2, and C3 coefficients sum to 1.0, meaning that
Equation (10.8.5) is simply a weighted average of the right-
hand-side terms. Provided the inflow hydrograph (as a
function of time), the initial outflow, and the parameters K
and X, Equation (10.8.5) can be applied recursively to yield
(10.8.3) the outflow hydrograph. Methods for determining the
parameters generally require historical inflow and outflow
hydrographs or estimation via other means (Mays, 2005).
Cunge (1969) provided a connection between the
Muskingum method and the kinematic wave method. Recall
that the kinematic wave model is a hydraulic routing method
that provides a distributed estimate of discharge (i.e. at
discretized locations along the channel). One can express the
(10.8.4) discretized solution of the kinematic wave model as:
Qi+1
j+1
= C 1Qij+1 +C 2Qij +C 3Qi+1
j
(10.8.9)
where the i index represents the location in space and the j
(10.8.5) index represents the time step, which is in the exact form of
Equation (10.8.5). The use of Q at varying locations
represents the distributed nature of the estimate. The
coefficients in Equation (10.8.9) are the same as those in
(10.8.6)
Equations (10.8.6)-(10.8.8). Cunge (1969) showed that when
K and the time step are constant, the above equation is an
approximation to the kinematic wave equation (Mays, 2005).
(10.8.7) This representation is often referred to as the Muskingum-
Cunge method.
367
S ECTION 9

Measurement of Streamflow
In the preceding sections it was assumed in various
locations that hydrograph data was available, i.e. at a basin
outlet. Here we briefly outline the primary ways those
measurements are made.

As with many hydrologic variables, streamflow is

generally not measured directly, but estimated indirectly from
measurements that are more straightforward to make. In a
stream, the measurements which are easiest to make include
water depth and velocity. In general, streamflow is estimated
via a rating curve, which is a derived or known from a
relationship between streamflow depth and discharge (flow).

Examples where a rating curve is known theoretically (or

empirically) include flow over or through certain constructed
structures (often called weirs or flumes; Mays, 2005; WMO,
2010). Figure 10.40 shows an example of a weir which is F IGURE 10.40 Schematic (top panel) and picture of an in-
constructed into a channel reach. The primary point of such stalled (bottom panel) v-notch weir in a stream channel for esti-
mating streamflow (from WMO, 2010).
structures is to force the flow to go through a known flow
state transition, i.e. “critical” flow, which is a transition
between supercritical and subcritical flow conditions (see
Mays, 2005 for a thorough discussion of critical flow and the measurement of depth at some point in the structure can
depth). This is usually accomplished via a constriction in the be used to estimate the corresponding flow. In such structures,
flow geometry. When the flow is critical and the structure flow depth is often measured automatically via a pressure
geometry is known, there are empirical relationships between sensor or other mechanism.
flow and the critical depth or measured head. In such cases,
368
 Another mechanism for deriving rating curves and
streamflow measurements is via the manual measurement of
mean velocities in a channel cross-section. Velocity in a stream
can be measured using vertical axis mechanical current meters
(WMO, 2010; Figure 10.41), which are devices placed
perpendicular to the flow. The flow velocity turns a propellor
or anemometer (attached to a wading rod) which can then be
used to back out the velocity at the measurement point. It
should be noted that flow in a stream is generally turbulent,
which means that the velocity field can vary significantly (and
somewhat randomly) in space and time. To get an accurate
measurement of the mean velocity, measurements should be
taken over a long enough period to average over the turbulent
eddies. While flow is often written as: Q = VA, the V is the
average velocity across the entire stream cross-section, so
F IGURE 10.41 Schematic of a Price current meter (from WMO,
2010).
generally multiple measurements are required. More precisely,
one can write the flow as the integral (over the cross-sectional
area):
Q = ∫V dA (10.9.1)
A
In practice, the cross-section can be discretized as shown in
Figure 10.42. Based on this, the flow could be estimated via:
n
Q = ∑Viyi Δwi (10.9.2)
i =1
where Vi is the average velocity across each vertical strip and
the product of depth and discretized width is the area of the
strip. Note that the velocity generally has a profile in the
vertical, with zero velocity at the stream bed and highest
velocity at the surface. A simple rule of thumb for the average
F IGURE 10.42 Illustration of methodology for estimating
streamflow from stream cross-section area and multiple veloc-
ity measurements (adapted from Mays, 2005).
369
velocity is to take the average of two velocity measurements
taken at a height of 20% and 80% of the depth at that
location. Using this manual approach, streamflow discharge
can be determined for a given river stage (depth). If done
several times spanning different flow conditions, one can
develop a rating curve. Once developed, a single manual depth
measurement could be used (along with the rating curve) to
estimate the discharge.

370
S ECTION 10 13. What is excess or effective precipitation?

Conceptual Questions 14. Suppose you have a constructed 1-hour unit hydrograph.
Describe schematically how you would generate a 2-hour
unit hydrograph from your 1-hour unit hydrograph.

1. Describe the mechanism behind infiltration excess runoff.
2. Describe the mechanism behind saturation excess runoff.
3. Describe the mechanism behind interflow.
4. Describe the mechanism behind baseflow.
5. What is a variable contributing area?
6. What are the components of a streamflow hydrograph?
15. Describe the main differences between the UH method and
physically-based lumped and distributed modeling
approach.
16. What two equations are used to derive the Saint-Venant
Equations?
17. Describe the primary methods for how streamflow is
measured.

7. Describe how storm characteristics can impact an outlet

hydrograph.

8. Describe how basin characteristics can impact an outlet

hydrograph.

9. What is the primary assumption in the unit hydrograph

method? What principle does that assumption allow us to
apply?

10. What inputs are required for the construction of a D-hour

unit hydrograph?

11. What does “D-hour” refer to in the context of a unit

hydrograph?

12. What is stormflow?

371
S ECTION 11 Construct the 1-hr unit hydrograph from the known 0.5-hr
unit hydrograph. Your answer should be in tabulated form.
Sample Problems TIME
FLOW (m3/s/cm)
(HOUR)

0 0
Problem 10.1. You are hired to assess the flash flood
potential of a given basin, where “flash floods” are generally 0.5 2
associated with short duration (high intensity) storms that
generate infiltration excess runoff. The basin is composed of a 1.0 10
homogeneous silt loam soil. To comply with regulations for 1.5 15
the region, different downstream infrastructure must be
designed for various “return-period” storm events, where the 2.0 8
return-period is associated with the probability (and therefore
2.5 5
magnitude) of the storm event. The 1-hour duration design
storm events for the 10-year and 25-year return periods in this 3.0 0
region are:
c) Based on the constructed 1-hr unit hydrograph, what is the
STORM RETURN PERIOD 10-year 25-year predicted peak flash flood stormflow (i.e. design flow) for the
two return period storms analyzed in part a). The infiltration
PRECIP. INTENSITY 2 cm/hour 7 cm/hour excess runoff values computed above can be treated as the
effective (excess) precipitation.
a) For this particular basin, what is the expected (if any)
flash flood stormflow (i.e. infiltration excess runoff) for each Problem 10.2. An environmental monitoring agency has a
return period design storm? Design regulations dictate that it rain gauge and a river gaging station installed at the outlet of
should be assumed that 75% of the soil pore space is filled a basin. A rainstorm with 2 hours of effective rainfall
prior to the storm. The Philip model can be used as an produced 2.6 cm of runoff and resulted in the following
infiltration capacity model (as needed). observed total hydrograph for the stream:

b) A previous analysis of the basin found the 0.5-hr unit a) Assuming that the baseflow can be calculated by drawing a
hydrograph to be given by: straight line connecting the end points of the hydrograph,

372
 Problem 10.3. A small watershed is located in an area that
TIME DISCHARGE
is frequently hit by intense thunderstorms. As the engineer
(HOUR) (m3/s)
responsible for designing a new flood protection structure, you
0 3.11 are asked to determine the peak design flow for which the
structure will be built. From your excellent hydrologic training
1 3.45
you know that shorter duration events have the possibility of
2 6.51 being of higher intensity and vice versa. So you decide to
investigate the peak flows for two possible extreme
3 16.36
thunderstorm events (which are the largest expected amount
4 18.25 to fall in each duration storm): 1) a one-hour storm with a
cumulative effective rainfall of 24 cm and 2) a three-hour
5 12.28 storm with a cumulative effective rainfall of 45 cm. The 1-hr
6 8.29 unit hydrograph for the watershed is shown in the table
below.
7 5.72
1-HR UH
8 4.53
TIME UH FLOW
9 3.11 (HOUR) (m3/s/cm)

0 0
separate the baseflow and the direct runoff contributions to
runoff. On the same plot, show the baseflow, direct runoff, and 1 10
total discharge in m3/s.
2 5
b) Find and plot the 2-hour unit hydrograph for the basin.
3 0
c) Estimate and plot the 6-hour unit hydrograph.
a) Estimate the peak stormflow corresponding to each storm
d) What is the total hydrograph resulting from a storm with (based on a unit hydrograph analysis). Which of the two
12-hour effective rainfall that delivers 2 cm of effective rain in storms yields a higher peak runoff?
the first half and 3 cm of effective rainfall during the second
half? Plot the resulting total hydrograph.

373
b) Based on further investigation you determine that the
basin is composed of soils with a large saturated hydraulic
conductivity and that the unit hydrograph was constructed
from a typical intensity storm. What runoff generation
mechanism would you reasonably hypothesize was primarily
responsible for the basin response seen in the unit
hydrograph?

c) For the extreme events analyzed above, would you expect

the same runoff generation mechanism to be responsible for
the peak stormflow? Explain your reasoning and what, if any,
additional mechanism/s might contribute to stormflow. How,
if at all, would you expect this to impact the accuracy of the
UH-based prediction? Explain.

374
S ECTION 12
MOD-WET Problems
Problem 10.1.
a) MOD-WET uses the TOPMODEL framework to account
for the subsurface water (mass) balance and model saturation
excess runoff, baseflow, and the depth to the groundwater
table, etc. The so-called soil-topographic index given by
Equation (11.2.4) is often used to characterize the saturation
potential, or depth to the groundwater table in a watershed.
Plot the map of the soil-topographic index for the watershed.
Based on the formulation of the soil-topographic index, would
you expect pixels with a steeper slope to have a higher or
lower soil-topographic index than pixels with a shallower slope
(with all else equal)? Would you expect the stream network to
coincide with pixels with low or high indices? Justify your
answer.
b) On the same figure, plot the daily-averaged time series of
the basin-averaged: infiltration excess runoff (qie; m/day),
saturation excess runoff (qse; m/day), and groundwater flow or
baseflow (qb; m) over the simulation using the following
variables fluxes.maps.qie, fluxes.maps.qse, and
fluxes.maps.qb respectively. Answer the following: i) Explain
the seasonal cycle seen in each of these runoff components, ii)
Which runoff mechanism provides the largest component of
runoff generation? Does the relative magnitude change
throughout the year?, iii) What is the relative contribution of
infiltration excess runoff to the total runoff over the basin?
Given your answer, explain what this means in terms of the
soil present in the basin (relative to precipitation/snowmelt
intensities)?
c) Plot the daily-averaged runoff (m3/s) at the outlet of the
watershed for the simulation. The hourly outlet hydrograph is
stored in the variable
fluxes.time_series.outlet_hydrograph. Explain the
seasonality observed in the hydrograph. At what date does the
peak flow occur and what is the corresponding peak flow rate
(m3/s)?
d) The saturation deficit (SD) is often used as an indication
of the depth to the water table at a given pixel. A value of SD
should be greater than or equal to zero, where a value of zero
corresponds to the groundwater table being located at the
surface or intersecting the surface in the case of a stream.
Note: A large value of SD represents a deeper water table,
while a lower value of SD represents a shallower water table.
Plot maps of the daily-averaged: saturation deficit
(states.maps.SD), saturation excess runoff, and baseflow on
the day of peak flow during the simulation in the watershed.
In particular answer the following: i) Describe where generally
in the basin the predicted depth to the water table is highest/
lowest. How is the SD map related to the soil-topographic
index map in part a)?, ii) In the TOPMODEL framework,
what must the value of the saturation deficit be at a given
pixel for it to generate saturation excess runoff? Where would
you expect saturation excess runoff to be generated? Explain.
375
Chapter 11

A Simple
Watershed
Model
S ECTION 1

Learning Objectives
By the time you finish this chapter you should be able to:

1. Understand the key components (i.e. inputs, governing

equations, and outputs) of a distributed watershed model

2. Describe the basic idea behind the TOPMODEL approach

3. Understand how analytical mass/energy balance equations

can be discretized and solved numerically

4. Setup and run watershed simulations using the provided

MOD-WET numerical watershed model code

5. Reconcile model simulation output (i.e. watershed

response) with your hydrologic understanding developed
in previous chapters.

377
S ECTION 2
MOD-WET Model Develop-
ment
The previous chapters have covered the various physical
processes involved in hydrology. Chapter 10 (Section 6)
provided an introduction into how these process-level physics
can be tied together into a unified framework via a distributed
watershed model. Many existing examples of distributed
models have been developed and are available for use in
hydrologic modeling (HEC-HMS, MIKE-SHE, tRIBS, etc.).
These models vary in many ways including: level of
conceptualization, physical process representation, degree of
lumped vs. distributed representation, and numerical
implementation. In this chapter an example of such a model is
put forth that is implemented in MATLAB and ties together
many of the processes covered throughout the book using
MOD-WET, thereby illustrating the modularity of the
framework. The goals are to: 1) develop a unified framework
that builds on what has been used previously and 2) provide a
model for qualitative and quantitative understanding of
hydrological processes and how they change as a function of
watershed properties. The MOD-WET model may not be
suitable for all applications, but provides a relatively user-
friendly framework for developing and testing basic
understanding and intuition of distributed hydrologic
processes in a watershed.
In developing a distributed watershed model,
computational expense is generally an important factor.
Physical process computations must be performed at each
pixel in a watershed so that, depending on the model
resolution and area (i.e. total number of pixels),
computational expense is many orders of magnitude greater
than that of a lumped model. Since the model to be used here
is meant to foster understanding of sensitivities of model
response to inputs/parameters, hypothesis testing, etc., we
intentionally choose a distributed framework that attempts to
minimize computational expense. As such, several simplifying
assumptions are made. Every attempt is made to clearly
identify the primary assumptions and simplifications in the
development below. The original version of the model is
described in Huning and Margulis (2015).
The underlying framework used here for runoff is based
on one of the first distributed watershed models, typically
referred to as the TOPography based hydrologic MODEL
(TOPMODEL) developed by Beven and Kirkby (1979). The
model was motivated by the increased availability of spatially
distributed topographic data, i.e. the DEM data we have used
in earlier chapters. TOPMODEL was developed primarily to
predict saturation excess runoff due to shallow groundwater
within a basin. So the TOPMODEL framework is used to
represent unsaturated zone-saturated zone interactions with
an emphasis on runoff. Other components can be coupled to
TOPMODEL including snow accumulation and melt and
378
surface energy balance (including distributed radiative
forcings).

The first key assumption used in the TOPMODEL

framework is that there is a similarity function that describes
hydrologic runoff response. The similarity function originally
proposed was the so-called topographic index for pixel i:
! a $ (11.2.1)
λi = ln # i &
" tan Si %

where ai is the upstream (drainage) area per unit contour

length for a given pixel in the basin ([ai]=L2L-1) and Si is the
slope of the pixel. In the case of a raster grid, the ‘per unit
contour length’ amounts to the grid resolution. Note that this
index is a static map for a basin that can be computed from
DEM data. Pixels where flow is expected to converge (large
upstream area and/or shallow slopes) will yield large
topographic index values, while areas of divergence will yield
small topographic index values. Figure 11.1 shows the
topographic index computed for the DEM shown in Figure
10.1. Note that the highest index values tend to occur at
expected stream locations and the lowest values occur at
upstream areas with steep slopes. Note that based on
Equation (11.2.1), the index is not dimensionless (i.e. [ln(L)]).
This is generally an undesirable property, however this is not
overly problematic since only the relative value of the index is
used to determine the type of response of one pixel compared
to another. Specifically, it is assumed that pixels with the
same value of the index will respond identically with respect
F IGURE 11.1 Topographic index for an example DEM.
to runoff. As will be shown below, this yields significant
computational savings in that repeated computations are not
necessary for pixels with the same index value. This
assumption will not always be a good one.
The second key assumption used in TOPMODEL is that
the saturated hydraulic conductivity in the unsaturated soil
zone decays exponentially with depth, i.e. for pixel i:
K s = K 0 exp(−z i / m) (11.2.2)
where K0 ([K0]=L T-1) is the surface saturated hydraulic
conductivity and m is an exponential decay parameter which
has dimensions: ([m]=L). This assumption has been shown to
be valid for some soils and invalid for others (Beven, 1997).
The model can be generalized for other profiles as shown in
379
Ambroise et al. (1996). It should also be mentioned that the figure of the pixel-scale processes is shown in Figure 11.2. In
parameters are often treated as calibration (or “effective”) this version, there is no vegetation represented in the model.
parameters and hence might not match tabulated values for a Future versions could include vegetation processes. The
given soil type. From the above assumption, one can conceptualization connects to the original TOPMODEL via
alternatively define the corresponding transmissivity the prediction of the saturation deficit (SD; where [SD] = L )
(Sivapalan et al., 1987): and baseflow (qb) as shown below (where the pixel index is
Z
T(z i ) = ∫ K(z)dz  K m exp(−z / m) = T0 exp(−z i / m) (11.2.3)
0 i
zi

where zi is the depth to the groundwater table (which is often

replaced by the storage (or saturation) deficit SDi (detailed
below) and T0 is the saturated surface transmissivity (equal to
K0 m) which has dimensions: [T0]=L2T-1. From this, the
topographic index can be replaced with the soil-topographic
index, i.e.:
! a $ (11.2.4)
γ i = ln # i
&
T
" 0 tan S i%

where this can alternatively be used as the similarity function

to predict hydrologic response. From these two key
assumptions, various forms of the TOPMODEL approach
have been developed. The original approach was primarily
developed to predict baseflow and, by tracking the locations
where the water table intersected the surface (using the
topographic index), to identify variable contributing areas and
saturation excess runoff. F IGURE 11.2 Schematic of the pixel-scale processes in the dis-
tributed model.
Here the TOPMODEL approach is expanded in a similar
way to that shown in Takeuchi et al. (1999). A schematic
380
dropped for simplicity). The key meteorological inputs to the
model are rainfall/snowfall (P), and the resulting infiltration,
and those that drive evapotranspiration (E) at the surface.
The key outputs are overland flow which consists of saturation
excess runoff (qse) and infiltration excess runoff (qie) and
groundwater runoff or baseflow (qb). Mass balances are applied
using unsaturated and saturated zone moisture states as
described below. Note that the model is conceptual in nature
in that mass balances are applied to various “buckets” or
reservoirs rather than via a vertical discretization of the
domain and solution of the unsaturated zone moisture budget
using Richards Equation (Equation (7.4.7)). Such a “bucket”
model approach is typically taken for computational savings.
The form of the surface mass and energy balance
depends on whether or not there is snow cover. For the case
with no snow cover, the prognostic (soil) surface energy
balance is solved using the so-called force-restore method
(Noilhan and Planton, 1989):
dTs
= CT [Rn − LE − H ] −C d (Ts −Td ) (11.2.5)
dt
where Ts is the surface soil temperature, CT is related to the
surface heat capacity and Cd is the diurnal periodicity (i.e. 24
hours), and Td is a deeper soil temperature. The first term
serves to force the surface temperature via the surface heat
conduction and the second term restores the surface
temperature exponentially to Td. The deep layer temperature
is computed as a low-pass filter applied to the surface
temperature (Noilhan and Planton, 1989). The surface soil
water mass balance is built into the TOPMODEL framework
described below.
For a snow covered surface (see Chapter 6), a simple 1-
layer snow mass and energy balance is used. The snow mass
balance at each pixel is given by (Equation 6.4.1) in terms of
the snow water equivalent (SWE):
dSWE
= P −E −M (11.2.6)
dt
where P, E, and M are the (snowfall) precipitation,
evaporation/sublimation, and melt output/runoff respectively.
Computational effort is saved by not simulating snow density
or depth. The surface energy balance for the snowpack is
applied using a prognostic equation for the single-layer snow
temperature (Tsnow) at each pixel:
dTsnow
C snow = Rn − LE − H + A + L (11.2.7)
dt
where Csnow is the snow-layer heat capacity (J m-2 K-1) and the
right-hand-side terms are the net radiation, latent and
sensible heat fluxes, and advected energy (A) and latent
heating (L) that are both associated with rain-on-snow. The
melt flux is determined implicitly by converting any surplus of
energy input to the snowpack (once it becomes isothermal at
freezing temperature) into an equivalent melt water depth.
381
 For simplicity, the soil surface energy balance is only
solved for prognostically when snow disappears. In doing so,
the soil surface temperature is set equal to the snow
temperature (i.e. 0ºC) just before the snow disappears. This is
obviously a simplification as it ignores soil dynamics under
snow, but this choice is made for computational savings. More
complicated models can be used to solve the energy balance
across the entire snow-soil continuum and include soil freeze-
thaw processes.
The unsaturated zone is represented by two moisture
states: the rootzone soil moisture storage (Srz) and the
unsaturated zone storage (Suz). The rootzone storage is the
near-surface reservoir that is filled by infiltration (f ; see TCA
method in Chapter 7; Section 7) and is depleted by
evapotranspiration (E ; see Chapter 8) and drainage (qdrain) to
the main unsaturated zone reservoir:
dSrz
= f − E − qdrain ; Srz min ≤ Srz ≤ Srz max (11.2.8)
dt
Implicitly, what does not infiltrate generates infiltration-excess
runoff, qie. In the MOD-WET model this is done using a
simplified form of the TCA method using the precipitation
over the time step as input and the time step as the storm
“duration”. The loss from the lower boundary of the rootzone
is assumed to be dominated by gravity drainage and is
modeled to only occur when the rootzone storage overfills the
maximum storage capacity. Hence the drainage flux involves a
threshold process and the storage in the rootzone is always
less than or equal to the specified upper limit Srzmax (e.g. field
capacity). If the upper limit is set to a value lower than the
soil porosity, this implies that the rootzone never fully
saturates and this can have implications on infiltration excess
runoff. It is also assumed that the storage cannot go below a
specified lower limit Srzmin (e.g. permanent wilting point). The
larger the rootzone reservoir, the more infiltration will
ultimately be partitioned into evaporation. The smaller the
reservoir or more intense the infiltration rate, the more
drainage flux there will be.
The unsaturated zone storage is fed by the rootzone
drainage flux and depleted by recharge (qv) to the underlying
groundwater system:
dSuz
= qdrain − qv ; 0 ≤ Suz ≤ SD (11.2.9)
dt
where the unsaturated zone storage can go to zero if fully
depleted by recharge or if the groundwater table rises to the
surface (i.e. SD = 0). Implicit in the latter case is the
generation of saturation excess runoff, which is another
threshold process (only non-zero when the groundwater table
reaches the surface). The recharge flux is modeled as:
qv = K 0 exp(−SD / m) (11.2.10)
assuming there is adequate storage in the unsaturated zone.
This drainage flux is effectively equal to the assumed
saturated conductivity at the water table (i.e. only the gravity
382
term is relevant) and increases with increasing surface
conductivity (and m) or decreasing saturation deficit.
The groundwater storage is depleted by the baseflow
(volumetric flow per unit width, i.e. [qb]=L2 T-1) leaving the
pixel, which is given by:
qb = T0 exp(−SD / m)tan S (11.2.11)
which indicates that baseflow increases with increasing
transmissivity or slope (S) and decreasing saturation deficit.
Finally, a basin-average mass balance and similarity
arguments (using the topographic or soil-topographic index)
are used for the saturation deficit. The basin average
saturation deficit mass balance is given by:
d SD (11.2.12)
= Qb −Qv
dt
where the angled brackets denote a spatial average over the
basin and Qb and Qv are basin-averaged baseflow and recharge
fluxes respectively. It is then assumed, using similarity
arguments, that the pixel-scale saturation deficit is a function
of the basin average deficit and the departure of the local soil-
topographic index from its basin-average, i.e.:
SD = SD + m "# γ − γ i $% (11.2.13)
where the second and third term on the right-hand-side are
constant in time. What this similarity argument implicitly
states is that SD at a given pixel will go up or down with the
basin-average saturation deficit, but that the pattern within
the basin is dictated by the topographic or soil-topographic
index. Pixels with a soil-topographic index greater than the
mean will have a lower saturation deficit (i.e. convergent areas
will have a higher water table) and vice versa. Physically, the
saturation deficit should be greater than or equal to zero,
where a value of zero corresponds to the water table being at
the surface. Pixels at which a negative value is obtained using
Equation (11.2.13) indicate regions where the groundwater
table intersects the surface and therefore generate saturation
excess runoff as described in more detail below.
The model described above generates runoff fluxes: qie,
qse, and qb at each pixel in the domain. To generate the outlet
hydrograph, the pixel-wise runoff fluxes must be moved
downstream via a so-called routing scheme (see Chapter 10,
Sections 7 and 8). A key input to the routing scheme is the
channel topology of the basin. In the MOD-WET model, we
choose to have a network that covers the entire basin as
shown in Figures 10.36 and 10.37. The connectivity of the
cells is implicit in the automated basin delineation used in the
MOD-WET function:
watershed_area_and_stream_delineation.m, which has an
output called flowdir. From that variable all upstream and
downstream nodes for each link in the network are identified.
The routing equations are applied to each link of the
network, taking into account both flow in the stream and
inflows from pixel runoff. For simplicity, it is assumed that the
channel is of rectangular (prismatic) cross-section. The spatial
distribution of channel width (B) across the network is
383
modeled via a two-parameter power law (Takeuchi et al.,
1999):
B = αAcc (11.2.14)
where Ac (km2) is the contributing upstream area flowing into
a given pixel. This expression, given the specification of the
two parameters, provides a simple means of estimating the
increase in channel width downstream. However, using the
equation does not prevent cases where (for large upstream
areas) the stream channel width could be larger than the pixel
resolution. The Manning roughness parameter for a given
pixel is given by the model (Takeuchi et al., 1999):
1/3
!
tan S
$ (11.2.15)
n = n0 # & ; S ≡ mean slope
# tan S &
" %
where n0 is the mean Manning roughness over the basin. This
expression indicates that areas of higher than average slope
have higher roughness values and vice versa. Note that such
an expression does not incorporate explicit differences as a
result of different landcover types.
where the i index represents the location in space (i.e.
upstream or downstream pixel), the j index represents the
time step and the C coefficients are weighting factors that
depend on flow characteristics (Equations (10.8.6-10.8.8)). In
this formulation, upstream flows are the sum of those already
in the channel from upstream and those contributing runoff
from the upstream pixel.
Aside from the spatial discretization of the river network
(dx) and temporal discretization (dt), the C coefficients
depend on the dynamic parameters K and X. The parameter
K is given by:
dx
K= (11.2.17)
ck
where ck is the so-called wave celerity, which is defined by the
derivative of flow in the channel with respect to cross-sectional
area:
dQ
ck = (11.2.18)
dA

For simplicity, the Muskingum-Cunge method (Equation

which can be determined via the use of the Manning equation
10.8.9) is used for routing as done in Takeuchi et al. (1999). In
(Equation (10.7.25)):
this case there is an implied river reach connecting a given
upstream and downstream pixel. The routing of flow is 1 1
Q= AR 2 3S 01 2 = A5/3P −2 3S 01 2 (11.2.19)
determined by the relationship: n n

Qi+1
j+1
= C 1Qij+1 +C 2Qij +C 3Qi+1
j
(11.2.16)
The celerity is then given by:

384
 3/5
(11.2.20) It should be reiterated that the version of the MOD-
5 " S0 %
1/2
dQ 5 2/3 −2 3 1 2
ck = = A P S0 = $ 2/3 ' Q 2/5 WET model described herein does not contain explicit
dA 3n 3 $#nP '&
representation of vegetation. As such, it is best suited to non-
which is itself a function of the nominal flow which can be vegetated basins. We would expect vegetation to modify the
estimated using a so-called 3-point average: processes in a variety of ways including: rainfall/snowfall
canopy interception, additional control on evapotranspiration
Q = (Qij+1 +Qij +Qi+1
j
)/3 (11.2.21) via stomatal resistance, attenuation of solar radiation reaching
the soil/snow surface, etc. Future versions of the MOD-WET
Note that the general form in Equation (11.2.20) is iterative
model will embed these processes in the model.
since the wetted perimeter depends on depth. To make the
above formulation non-iterative, a “wide channel” assumption
is invoked, whereby the wetted perimeter in the Manning
equation is assumed approximately equal to the width of the
channel, i.e. (Takeuchi et al., 1999):

P = B + 2y ≈ B (for B >> y) (11.2.22)

where the width is given by Equation (11.2.14). The X

parameter is given by:
" Q % (11.2.23)
X = 0.5 $$1 − ''
# Bc k
tan(S)dx &

For a given time step in the model, Equations (11.2.14)-

(11.2.23) can be applied to each reach of the stream network
from upstream nodes all the way downstream to the basin
outlet. In some cases the flow velocity may be large enough
that it can cover the distance between two pixels in less than
the specified time step. A dynamic time step can be used to
reduce the routing time step for such cases. The streamflow at
the basin outlet is the outlet hydrograph.

385
S ECTION 3
MOD-WET Model Imple-
mentation
The MOD-WET model defined in Section 2 needs to be
implemented numerically since analytical solutions are not
generally available. Numerical solutions are obtained by
discretizing the equations in space and time. Here the spatial
discretization is chosen to coincide with the underlying DEM
or other spatially-distributed fields that are necessary inputs
for the model. So, for example, a typical spatial discretization
may be on the order of 30 m x 30 m using readily available
DEMs. Alternatively, the DEMs may be coarsened to a lower
resolution to reduce computational expense. The time
discretization is done via a time step dt. The choice of the
time step is generally governed by the dynamics of the system.
To resolve the surface energy balance, a time step of less than
an hour may be necessary, while for more slowly varying
dynamics a time step as large as a day may be acceptable.
For numerical implementation, the above equations are
posed by representing all storage (or deficit) states in terms of
equivalent depth of water and the energy state at the surface
is represented by surface temperature (either snow or soil). In
the discretization used below, the indices i and t are used to
represent spatial and temporal dependence respectively. In the
solution of all differential equations, an explicit forward finite
difference scheme is used for computational efficiency. This is
done mostly because it allows for easy vectorization of the
state equations which allows one to avoid using for loops in
MATLAB, which can be a very expensive proposition. It
should be noted that this introduces the possibility of
numerical accuracy and stability issues. For stability, a short
duration (15 min) time step is used. As mentioned above, for
additional computational efficiency, the model solves a single
surface energy balance model at each pixel, either for snow or
soil, depending on the surface conditions. The surface
condition is tracked via an evolving snow mask.
For non-snow-covered pixels the discretized surface
energy balance is given by (based on Equation 11.2.5):
Ts (i,t + 1) = Ts (i,t) + (11.3.1)
dt{CT [Rn (i,t) − LE(i,t) − H(i,t)] −
C d (Ts (i,t) −Td (i,t))}
For snow-covered pixels the discretized single-layer snow
mass balance and snow surface energy balances are given by
(based on Equation 11.2.6):
SWE(i,t + 1) = SWE(i,t) + dt[P(i,t) − E(i,t) − M(i,t)] (11.3.2)
and (based on Equation 11.2.7):
dt
Tsnow (i,t + 1) = Tsnow (i,t) + [R (i,t) − LE(i,t) − H(i,t) + A(i,t) +
C snow n
L(i,t)]; Tsnow ≤ 0! C
(11.3.3)
where any excess energy goes into snowmelt (M).
386
As noted above, there are several threshold processes involved
in surface and subsurface mass balance equations. The way
these are handled below is through the usage of intermediate
calculations which are then checked to satisfy thresholds and
bounds. All intermediate variables (i.e. before being finalized
at the end of the time step) are denoted using a primed
superscript. Equation (11.2.8) can be written by first
computing an intermediate storage amount assuming there
was no drainage:
Srz! (i,t + 1) = max{Srz (i,t) + dt[f (i,t) − E(i,t)], Srz min }
and then correcting for the drainage flux:
qdrain (i,t) = max{(Srz! (i,t + 1) − Srz max ), 0}
Srz (i,t + 1) = Srz! (i,t + 1) − qdrain (i,t)
where f(i,t) is the infiltration rate due to rain/snowmelt
([f ]=L T-1), E(i,t) is the evapotranspiration from the rootzone
([E ]=L T-1), both of which are multiplied by the time step to
get the equivalent depth change due to the fluxes during that
time step, and qdrain is the equivalent drainage flux over the
time step (i.e. [qdrain ]=L). Writing the discretized version of
Equation (11.2.8) in this way takes into account the threshold
nature of the drainage flux and ensures that the rootzone
storage is always maintained within the correct lower and
upper bounds.
Equation (11.2.9) can be discretized in a similar way to
model the unsaturated zone storage evolution by first
computing an intermediate storage amount augmented by the
drainage flux from the rootzone:
Suz! (i,t + 1) = Suz! (i,t) + qdrain (i,t) (11.3.7)
and then correcting for the recharge flux:
qv (i,t) = min{K 0 exp(−SD(i,t) / m)dt, Suz" (i,t + 1)} (11.3.8)
Suz! (i,t + 1) = Suz! (i,t + 1) − qv (i,t) (11.3.9)
where the recharge flux is given by gravity drainage unless
there is insufficient storage to supply the full flux amount.
(11.3.4)
Equation (11.3.9) is still labeled as an intermediate state since
this neglects the possibility of saturation excess overland flow.
Physically, the upper bound is the saturation deficit (SD(i,t)).
(11.3.5) Saturation excess runoff is generated when the unsaturated
zone fills up beyond the local storage deficit. This amount of
(11.3.6)
flux can be written as:
q se! (i,t) = max{(Suz! (i,t + 1) − SD(i,t)), 0} (11.3.10)
where the saturation excess runoff has depth dimensions. The
first term on the right-hand-side will only be positive when
the predicted unsaturated zone storage exceeds the saturation
deficit. Otherwise, the saturation excess overland flow will be
zero. When there is saturation excess runoff it needs to be
extracted from the unsaturated zone storage term, which can
be updated via:
Suz! (i,t + 1) = Suz! (i,t + 1) − q se! (i,t) (11.3.11)
Finally, the groundwater discharge from each pixel is a
function of the local saturation deficit and other parameters
387
as given by: where an intermediate value of the saturation deficit is
denoted in Equation (11.3.15) since there is no constraint on
qb (i,t) = T0 exp(−SD(i,t) / m)tan Si (11.3.12) non-physical values in its application.
The dimensions of qb are: [qb ]=L2T-1, which implies a flow per
Final updates to several variables revolve around
unit width (of stream or hillslope). Further, the basin-average removing negative storage deficits that would be associated
recharge flux Qv (with dimension [Qv] =L) used in Equation with saturation excess flow via:
(11.2.12) is given by:
"
1 N $ q ! (i,t) + SD !(i,t + 1) , SD !(i,t + 1) < 0 (11.3.18)
Qv (t) = ∑q (i,t) (11.3.13) q se (i,t) = # se
N i=1
v
$% q se! (i,t), otherwise

Additionally, when runoff occurs, this implicitly means the

where N is the number of pixels in the basin. The integrated saturation deficit should be zero, which can be maintained
baseflow flux used in Equation (11.2.12) is then computed via: via:
N
dt 1 (11.3.14)
"$ 0, SD !(i,t + 1) < 0
Qb (t) = ∑q (i,t) SD(i,t + 1) = # (11.3.19)
Lx N i=1
b
$% SD !(i,t + 1), otherwise

where Lx is the dimension of the pixel length. From the above This will keep the deficit to a minimum value of zero if
set of discretized equations, Equation (11.2.12) is used to Equation (11.3.15) yields a negative value. The unsaturated
update the basin-averaged saturation deficit and the pixel- zone storage is set to zero where the saturation deficit is zero:
wise saturation deficit is then given by:
"$ 0, SD !(i,t + 1) < 0
(11.3.20)
SD !(i,t + 1) = SD (t + 1) + m #$ γ − γ (i)%& (11.3.15) Suz (i,t + 1) = #
$% Suz! (i,t + 1), otherwise
where
! a(i) $
The above equations should be applied at each time step to
γ (i) = ln # & (11.3.16)
T
" 0 (i)tan S(i) % maintain the basin-wide soil moisture budget. Given a state
estimate at the beginning of a time step, the state estimate at
the end of the time step is determined using the equations
! a(i) $ 1 N ! a(i) $
γ = ln # & = ∑ ln # &dA(i) (11.3.17) shown above. All fluxes are representative of the flux over the
T
" 0 (i)tan S(i) % A i=1 T
" 0 (i)tan S(i) %
time step.
388
 Initialization of the model can be done by specifying an
initial condition of the basin-averaged saturation deficit and
then applying Equation (11.3.15). Other initial states that
need to be specified include the rootzone and unsaturated
zone storage values. A summary of the states and parameters
(in addition to the DEM and meteorological inputs) that need
to be specified for this numerical implementation of the model
are shown below in Table 11.1. Many other parmeters must
also be specified. In the default implementation of the model,
the soil parameters (roughness, hydraulic, thermal, and
T ABLE 11.1. K EY MOD-WET M ODEL P ARAMETERS
VARIABLE DESCRIPTION (SI UNITS)
SD(t 0 ) Initial basin-average saturation deficit [m]
Suz (i,t 0 ) Initial unsaturated zone storage [m]
Srz (i,t 0 ) Initial rootzone storage [m]
Srz max Maximum allowable rootzone storage [m]
Srz min Minimum allowable rootzone storage [m]
T0 Surface saturated transmissivity [m2/s]
m Conductivity decay parameter [m]
radiative properties, etc.) and snow surface characteristics
(roughness, emissivity, etc.) are the same throughout the
basin, but they could be made variable. As such, the primary
spatial variability comes in the form of topography which
directly impacts i) the redistribution of water via Equation
(11.3.15) and the routing of flow and ii) the meteorological
forcings including (among others) air temperature, which is
disaggregated via a lapse rate, shortwave radiation which
depends on elevation, slope, and aspect, surface precipitation
and phase (i.e. rain vs. snow), which depends on air
temperature.
The numerical implementation of the model is done
using a MATLAB model driver function called
MOD_WET_model_driver that is primarily used to: 1) call
various functions to initialize the model and load input files,
2) call MOD-WET functions from within a time-stepping loop
for solving mass and energy budget equations, and 3) to
collect and save outputs. The model has been tested on
several basins and should run fine provided you specify the
correct path to the MOD-WET and to the necessary input
files. The primary model functions that the user must modify
are called set_control_parameters and
set_static_physical_parameters which contain the model
control parameters (i.e. time step, number of days to simulate,
etc.), pointers to input filenames, physical parameters, and
initial conditions including those listed in Table 11.1. The
necessary variables and their units are described in the code.
The set of parameters are stored in two structure arrays:
control_params and params to ease the passing of variables.
389
The files that need to be provided to the model are those
related to the DEM and watershed delineation (i.e. outputs
from the watershed_area_and_stream_delineation function
that must be applied as a pre-processing step) and the
meteorological inputs (which are assumed to come from a
single gage at a specified elevation within or near the basin).
The meteorological data must be at the appropriate time step
specified in the inputs file and is assumed to start at the
beginning of the water year on the Universal Time Coordinate
(UTC; or Greenwich Mean Time), i.e. at UTC 0:00 on
October 1st. Beyond the creation of these input files and the
editing of set_control_parameters and
set_static_physical_parameters, no other functions
should need to be modified to run the model.
Within the MOD_WET_model_driver function, maps of
model states and parameters and pre-allocation of variables
are initialized via the initialize_model function. The time
stepping loop updates state variables at each time step. Doing
so involves several functions including those that sequentially:
distribute the meteorological station data
(distribute_met_forcings), apply snow model physics
(snow_model) and soil energy balance physics
(soil_SEB_solver_prognostic), estimate infiltration and
infiltration excess runoff using the time-compression
approximation (TCA_infiltration), estimate subsurface
processes and saturation excess runoff and baseflow using the
TOPMODEL framework (TOPMODEL), and finally routing of
the runoff downstream using the Muskingum-Cunge method
(routing_muskingum_cunge). The full set of functions
estimate all state variables at the end of each time step and
the fluxes that occurred over the time step. Finally, the raw
data is averaged or saved at the specified temporal resolution.
Outputs are stored in structure arrays based on variable type,
i.e.: states, fluxes, and disaggregated_forcing, where
each contains the key variables (in both map and time series
format) and the units of each.
The MOD-WET model is constructed in an attempt to
run reasonably efficiently, but also in a way that makes for
easy student learning. The forward finite difference
formulations for the energy/mass budgets are simple to
understand and allows for “vectorization” of the calculations.
This simply means that the change in any model state (e.g.
temperature) over the course of one time step can be
computed simultaneously for all pixels across the domain.
Alternatively, one could loop over pixels in the domain, but
loops tend to be very slow relative to vectorized calculations
and hence this saves a significant amount of time. The
primary drawback of these simple finite difference schemes is
the need for a small time step (e.g. 15 min.), which tends to
be most necessary for the surface energy budget calculations.
More sophisticated finite difference schemes (implicit/
iterative) may be more stable and therefore allow a larger
time step, but are generally less straightforward to vectorize.
The primary computational (CPU) expense is proportional to
the number of pixels being simulated (i.e. size of domain and
resolution of DEM) and the length of the simulation (number
of time steps required). Hence, short-duration simulations
with a small domain at coarse resolution will take the least
390
amount of CPU time. Long-duration simulations over a large
domain at high resolution will take the most CPU time. The
primary storage (RAM) expense comes from storing the
mapped arrays, which is therefore proportional to the size of
the domain and resolution of the DEM. The user can control
how often to output mapped results to control RAM
requirements. When designing simulations it is up to the user
to consider these control parameters to meet the practical (i.e.
computational) and instructional requirements.

391
S ECTION 4
Example MOD-WET
Model Applications
The model developed in the last two sections is done
generally so that it can be applied to basins of varying sizes
and characteristics. The key inputs to the model include a
DEM, soil parameters, meteorological data, etc. Here a simple
“toy basin” is used for qualitative demonstration of the model.
Figures 11.3 and 11.4 shows the DEM for the toy basin.
Geographically, its location (i.e. easting/northing coordinates)
F IGURE 11.3 Toy basin DEM with elevation in meters.
F IGURE 11.4 Surface plot of the toy basin DEM showing the
varying slopes along the valley hillslope cross-section.
was chosen such that it is expected to occur in the Southern
Sierra Nevada in California (U.S.A.).
The basin consists of a simple geometry with a
symmetric valley that has a stream that runs from East to
West with a specified bed slope. The hillslopes of the valley
have different slopes: a shallower slope in the lower part of the
valley (i.e. a “flood-plain”) with a steeper slope up to the ridge
lines. The basin outlet has an elevation around 3000 m with
the highest ridge line ranging up to 3050 m. The toy basin
configuration is chosen in order to highlight some of the key
points made earlier in the book including variability in
radiation, snowmelt, runoff contributing areas, etc. Figure
11.5 shows the computed slope and aspect maps for the basin.
392
 The slope is smallest in the valley floor and on the ridges,
with slopes on the hillsides ranging from 10-20 degrees. The
aspect map is quite simple with the pixels on the northern
slope effectively facing due south (i.e. 180 degrees) and the
southern slope effectively facing due north (i.e. 360 degrees).
These patterns will play a key role in explaining some of the
variability in hydrologic variables described below. The valley
floor and ridges have an aspect facing due West (i.e. 270
degrees) due to their shallow east-to-west slopes.

Based on the simple DEM, the topographic index

(Equation (11.2.1)) can be defined for the toy basin and is
shown in Figure 11.6. Based on the regular topography, the

F IGURE 11.5 Slope (top panel) and aspect (bottom panel)

maps for the toy basin. F IGURE 11.6 Map of the topographic index for the toy basin.

393
topographic index varies in a predictable way with lowest
values along the ridge lines, monotonically increasing down
the hillslopes with largest values in the valley floor where the
stream pixels are expected to be located. The largest value is
at the basin outlet which by definition has the whole basin as
a contributing area.
Numerical experiments can be done to illustrate behavior
of the modeled system. Aside from the DEM, the other model
parameters used in all simulations described below are shown
in the test cases included in the MOD-WET package. First,
results are shown from a drainage experiment where the water
F IGURE 11.7 Profile of saturation deficit for the north-south
cross-section of the basin shown in Figure 11.3 at various times
over a 300 day simulation.
table is initially set to be at the surface throughout the basin
(i.e. SD(i,t0)=0) and the groundwater is allowed to drain via
baseflow. Such an experiment provides insight into the
equilibrium state the groundwater system would approach
under the case of no precipitation/infiltration/evaporation.
Figure 11.7 shows the distribution of the saturation deficit
over time through a north-south cross-section through the
middle of the basin. At the beginning of the simulation the
saturation deficit is zero throughout the cross-section.
Baseflow is largest at the beginning of the simulation causing
rapid drainage with predictable spatial patterns. Near the
stream channel in the middle of the basin, the saturation
deficit is smallest, while it is highest at the top of the
hillslopes. For the set of parameters used, after 300 days of
simulation the saturation deficit has dropped by about 0.15 m
at the stream channel and about 0.4 m at the top of the
hillslope. Over time the saturation deficit will continue to
drop, but more slowly as the baseflow is reduced.
Figure 11.8 shows the saturation deficit map at the end
of 300 days. The distribution shows the largest mode of
variability in the north-south direction, with additional
variability in the east-west direction along the stream channel.
As expected, the distribution of SD is highly correlated with
the soil-topographic index (Figure 11.6) via the application of
Equation (11.3.15). The pattern in saturation deficit provides
insight into the likely areas of saturation excess runoff; namely
areas of shallow groundwater are most likely to generate
saturation excess runoff during a storm that is large enough to
raise the groundwater table to the surface.
394
 F IGURE 11.8 Saturation deficit map (in meters) over the toy
basin domain after 300 days of drainage.

A second experiment which is illustrated in this section

is a full-year simulation over the basin using realistic
meteorological forcing data. Figure 11.9 shows the daily-
averaged precipitation, incoming shortwave radiation, and air
temperature over a water year (WY; i.e. October 1st -
F IGURE 11.9 Key (daily-averaged) meteorological forcing
September 30th) corresponding to a meteorological station at variables for full year simulation: precipitation (top panel), in-
an elevation of 3300 m. It should be reiterated that the model coming shortwave radiation (middle panel), air temperature
is run at a 15-minute time step to provide a stable solution for (bottom panel). These forcing variables from a gage at a speci-
the surface energy balance. The data is representative of the fied elevation and distributed spatially using topography.
Southern Sierra Nevada climate, showing the majority of

395
precipitation occurring in the winter months, some of which
occurs as snow, and a strong seasonal cycle in incoming
shortwave radiation and air temperature. The model takes the
station data and distributes it across the basin using
disaggregation functions (introduced in earlier chapters) that
depend on topographic characteristics. For example, lower
elevations will receive higher air temperatures and north-
F IGURE 11.10 Basin-averaged time series of daily-averaged
surface temperature (top panel) and SWE (bottom panel).
facing slopes will receive less incident direct beam solar
radiation relative to higher elevations or south-facing slopes.
Basin-averaged results from the model are presented in
Figures 11.10-11.13. Figure 11.10 shows the daily-averaged
surface temperature and SWE over the annual cycle. Basin-
averaged surface temperature decreases during the early
stages in concert with the decreasing energy input (i.e. Figure
11.9, middle panel) and reaches and stays below freezing
around 60 days after the beginning of the WY (i.e. around
December 1st). Snow begins to accumulate shortly thereafter.
Recall that the surface temperature represents soil
temperature when snow-free and corresponds to the snow
surface temperature otherwise. SWE increases until around
200 days after the beginning of the simulation and peaks at
about 0.6 m. Around the same time, the surface temperature
increases back to freezing which corresponds to the beginning
of snowmelt, where the snowmelt season lasts approximately
60 days. Once snow melts, surface temperature increases
rapidly.
Figure 11.11 (top panel) shows the daily-averaged
rootzone storage and saturation deficit. The rootzone storage
increases during the early part of the simulation in response
to rain events and decreases due to evaporation. The rootzone
storage reaches its capacity (approximately 0.05 m) around
the time that snow begins to accumulate. During that period,
there is no depletion of the rootzone moisture via soil
evaporation (i.e. all surface vapor loss is from snow
sublimation). So any infiltration due to snowmelt during that
period will quickly drain to the unsaturated zone keeping the
396
 Figure 11.12 shows the daily-averaged surface energy
fluxes. Net radiation shows a decreasing trend early in the
simulation in response to decreasing incident shortwave
radiation and air temperature (which reduces incoming
longwave radiation) as shown in Figure 11.9. It is relatively
low during the snow season and then increases during the
summer. The daily-averaged sensible heat flux is generally
positive during the summer when the surface is warmer than
the overlying air and is generally negative when the surface is

F IGURE 11.11 Basin-averaged time series of daily-averaged

rootzone storage (top panel) and saturation deficit (bottom
panel).

storage fixed at its upper limit. Once snow begins to

disappear from some pixels, the rootzone storage is depleted
due to increased summer-time evaporation. The saturation
deficit (Figure 11.11, bottom panel) decreases intermittently
in response to recharge events. During such periods, some
pixels may saturate from below and yield saturation excess F IGURE 11.12 Basin-averaged time series of daily-averaged
runoff. In between such events, saturation deficit increases due net radiation, latent and sensible heat fluxes.
to baseflow losses.

397
 Figure 11.13 shows the daily-averaged runoff terms
from the simulation. Saturation excess runoff is shown to be
the largest contributor to runoff for this basin and model
inputs. In fact, the infiltration excess runoff is zero throughout
the simulation. This is because the specified saturated
hydraulic conductivity for the basin is larger than the
precipitation (or melt) rate experienced throughout the
simulation. Most of the saturation excess runoff is in response
to intermittent melt events during the snow accumulation
season as well as to the sustained melt during Days 200-275 of
the Water Year.

So far only the basin-averaged results have been shown.

F IGURE 11.13 Basin-averaged time series of daily-averaged

saturation and infiltration excess runoff (top panel) and base-
flow (bottom panel).

covered by snow during the winter months. The latent heat

flux is generally highest during summer and/or when rootzone
soil moisture is high. The latent heat flux is directly tied to
the moisture flux at the surface. When the surface is snow-
free, the associated evaporation depletes the rootzone soil
moisture, while during the snow season it represents the F IGURE 11.14 SWE map (in meters) over the toy basin do-
sublimation from the snowpack. main on Day 260 of the Water Year.

398
The distributed model outputs these same states and fluxes at
all pixels in the basin (i.e. state/flux maps) throughout the
year. Example results are shown for SWE in Figure 11.14.
This state is chosen because, even for the simple toy basin
configuration, SWE is expected to show spatial variability.
Specifically, snowmelt should happen more quickly on south
facing slopes. Figure 11.14 shows the SWE map toward the
end of the melt season. From the figure it is clear that snow
has completely melted on the south-facing hillslope, while
snow is persistent on the north-facing hill slope. The
remaining SWE is also larger in the pixels with larger slopes,
which provides further reduction in incident shortwave
radiation due to local shading. To see the full range of
M OVIE 11.1 Animation of daily-average SWE (in meters) over
the toy basin for each day of the Water Year (DOWY).
seasonal dynamics the daily-averaged SWE map is shown over
the whole year-long simulation in Movie 11.1. Keep in mind
that the precipitation is uniform over the basin so that
variability in SWE is either the result of precipitation being
classified differently as snow vs. rain (only a function of
elevation-induced temperature differences) or differential melt.
The animation shows no SWE until around day of water year
(DOWY) 80 (mid-December). Around the time of peak basin-
averaged SWE there is a distinct difference between the north-
and south-facing slopes. The south-facing slopes have lower
SWE due to intermittent melt events during accumulation as
a result of increased radiative heating on those pixels. As
indicated in Figure 11.14, all of the snow has melted on the
F IGURE 11.15 Rootzone moisture storage map (in meters)
over the toy basin domain on Day 260 of the Water Year.
399
south-facing slopes by DOWY 260, while the snow persists on
the north-facing slopes for a couple more weeks.
Figure 11.15 shows a similar example map of the
rootzone soil moisture storage on the same day as the SWE
map in Figure 11.14. The rootzone storage on the north-facing
hillslope is at its maximum value since the intermittent melt
water has replenished the rootzone and the snow cover is
preventing soil evaporation. For the pixels on the south-facing
slope, the rootzone storage is reduced since the melt flux is
zero and evaporation is depleting the near-surface storage
reservoir. The full range of seasonal dynamics in rootzone soil
M OVIE 11.2 Animation of daily-average rootzone soil mois-
ture (in meters) over the toy basin for each day of the Water
Year (DOWY).
moisture is shown in Movie 11.2. While the initial condition is
the same over the whole basin, the north-facing slope
generally has a higher soil moisture prior to snow
accumulation (less radiative forcing and therefore less
evaporation). After snow cover persists (and there is some
intermittent melt), the rootzone storage fills up and is uniform
across the basin since no evaporation takes place from the soil
while snow is on the ground (any additional melt overflows
the rootzone into the unsaturated zone). It remains uniformly
distributed until the snow disappears and soil evaporation
begins. Since snow disappears from the south-facing hillslope
first, the rootzone soil moisture decreases on that portion of
the basin (around DOWY 260).
F IGURE 11.16 Saturation deficit map (in meters) over the toy
basin domain on Day 260 of the Water Year.
400
 F IGURE 11.17 Saturation excess runoff map (in m3/hour)
over the toy basin domain on Day 260 of the Water Year.

M OVIE 11.3 Animation of daily-average saturation deficit (in

meters) over the toy basin for each day of the Water Year
Figures 11.16 and 11.17 show the saturation deficit and (DOWY).
saturation excess runoff maps on the same day as discussed
outlet. The basin-wide dynamics are driven by the residual
above. The SD map (Figure 11.16) shows that only the stream
between the drainage and baseflow fluxes (Equation
channel pixels nearest the basin outlet are saturated at this
(11.2.12)). The bulk changes in SD are then distributed to the
time. As expected, the saturation excess runoff map (Figure
individual pixels using the soil-topographic index via Equation
11.17) shows that only those pixels contribute runoff on this
(11.2.13). As such, the pixels with highest soil-topographic
day in the model simulation. The area contributing to runoff
index tend to have lower SD values. This can lead to a water
is expected to expand and contract based on infiltration/
table that intersects the surface and generates saturation
recharge dynamics over the course of a simulation. The
excess runoff. In this case, it happens exclusively in the
dynamics of the water table (saturation deficit) are shown in
handful of pixels upstream of the basin outlet. The full
Movie 11.3, which shows that SD is consistently smallest in
seasonal dynamics are shown in Movie 11.4. In many instances
the main stream channel and nearest zero closest to the

401
 M OVIE 11.4 Animation of daily-average saturation excess run-
off (in m3/h) over the toy basin for each day of water year
(DOWY).
this generates “exfiltration” due to the rising water table in
these pixels.
The set of results presented so far were intentionally
chosen for a synthetic basin to provide simple results for easy
interpretation. To provide an example for a more realistic case
we present analogous results for a real basin. Figure 11.18
shows a 90-m resolution DEM for the Tokopah watershed
located in the Southern Sierra Nevada (Sequoia National
Park) in California. The basin is primarily above tree-line and
has an area of 19 km2. For illustration, a simulation was
performed for Tokopah using the same meteorological forcing
F IGURE 11.18 Tokopah basin DEM (90-m resolution) in me-
ters.
(which is representative of Tokopah elevations) and
parameters used in the toy basin simulation. The processes
and mechanisms are therefore expected to be similar in nature
to the toy basin example, so they are not explained in great
detail. The results are provided mainly to show more realistic
patterns in hydrologic response. The model was not
calibrated, but is used here solely for illustration.
The precipitation is applied uniformly over the basin and
is equivalent to that shown in Figure 11.9. As a result of the
seasonality of the precipitation and the high-elevation, it is
402
expected that Tokopah will be snow-dominated. The other
primary forcing is net radiation, which is illustrated over the
entire WY in Movie 11.5. Aside from the expected seasonal
variability and clouds, both of which are likely to have more
or less uniform impact on this small basin, there is significant
variability in the net radiation. This is primarily due to the
slope and aspect distribution throughout the basin, which
along with shading, directly impacts the incident shortwave
radiation.

Animations of the key model water budget states (SD,

SWE, and Srz) are shown in Movies 11.6-11.8. The saturation
deficit (Movie 11.6) is controlled primarily by the topographic-
soil index, with low values in the stream channels and higher
values on the hillslopes. The dynamics are controlled by M OVIE 11.6 Tokopah daily saturation deficit animation.

drainage and baseflow, which for Tokopah is mainly driven by

snowmelt. The SWE field (Movie 11.7) is zero until around
DOWY 60 when it first starts to accumulate at high
elevations. Note that lower elevations are receiving
precipitation as well, but it is being classified as rainfall rather
than snowfall due to temperature. Near the peak of snow
accumulation, the SWE varies across the basin from
approximately 15 to 80 cm. During snow melt, the SWE
recedes from low to high elevation. By DOWY 300, the snow
has disappeared completely from the basin. The rootzone soil
moisture (Movie 11.8) is depleted by evaporation early in the
simulation prior to snowcover. During early snowcover,
intermittent rainfall/snowmelt fills the rootzone reservoir
where it remains full over most of the domain until snow
M OVIE 11.5 Tokopah daily net radiation animation.
disappears and evaporation begins to again deplete the
403

M OVIE 11.7 Tokopah daily SWE animation.
M OVIE 11.8 Tokopah daily rootzone moisture animation.
reservoir. The patterns in soil moisture are primarily driven
by the impact of radiation patterns on evaporation.
The runoff from Tokopah is primarily snowmelt driven.
For the precipitation and/or snowmelt rates and soil
parameters used, infiltration excess runoff is zero throughout
the simulation. The saturation excess runoff is shown in Movie
11.9. The results show that the saturation excess runoff is zero
over most of the domain and is intermittently non-zero early
in the WY around the main channel during intermittent
rainfall/snowmelt events. The saturation excess runoff is most
persistent in this same region during snowmelt. Note that
much of this predicted runoff is exfiltration resulting from
upstream snowmelt infiltration that raises the water table.
The fact that most of the runoff is the result of saturation
M OVIE 11.9 Tokopah daily saturation excess animation.
404
 the MOD-WET model. It should be noted that it relies
heavily on previously presented MOD-WET codes and is
designed generally so that it could be used for more complex
basins. Sensitivity of hydrograph response to basin
characteristics is illustrated in the next section.

F IGURE 11.19 Tokopah outlet daily hydrograph.

excess runoff is due to the choice of soil parameters in

combination with the rainfall/snowmelt rates. This is
discussed in more detail in the next section. The outlet
hydrograph for Tokopah is shown in Figure 11.19. This shows
several events early in the season (i.e. around DOWY 60, 100,
150), due to intermittent rainfall/melt events during the main
accumulation season. The bulk of the hydrograph is shown to
occur in the Spring when the primary snowmelt season occurs
before returning to near-zero baseflow late in the WY.

The results presented in this section are meant to be

illustrative of the types of simulations that can be done with
405
S ECTION 5

Example MOD-WET Hy-

drograph Characteristics

This section uses the MOD-WET model to illustrate how

hydrologic response (in terms of the runoff hydrograph at the
outlet) is impacted by various basin characteristics. As a
starting point, the toy basin used in Section 4 is chosen as a
baseline (“nominal”) watershed (Figure 11.20; upper left
panel). The basin is a simple rectangular shape with the main
stream channel moving from east to west with the outlet at
the far left (west) center of the domain. The nominal domain
is 15 x 20 pixels on a DEM of 30 m resolution so that the
nominal basin area is 0.27 km2. The flow patterns are F IGURE 11.20 Elevation maps (shown in meters above out-
therefore relatively straightforward with hillslope flow let) of simple synthetic rectangular watersheds: “nominal” (up-
per left), “longer” (upper right), “wider” (lower left), and
primarily in the north-south direction and main stream “larger” (lower right). The outlet of each basin is at the far left/
channel flow in the east-to-west direction. To assess the center of each rectangular domain. White areas are outside of
impact of shape and size, three other basins are synthesized. each basin and all basins are plotted using the same horizontal
scale.
The “longer” basin (Figure 11.20; upper right panel) is the
same width as the nominal, but is four times longer (basin
area of 1.08 km2). The “wider” basin (Figure 11.20; lower left
panel) is the same length as the nominal, but is four times For simplicity, results from a Hortonian or infiltration
wider (basin area of 1.08 km2). The “larger” basin (Figure excess runoff (Chapter 10, Section 3) event (occurring
11.20; lower right panel) is both four times longer and wider uniformly over the basin) are used for illustration. Such events
than the nominal (basin area of 4.32 km2). provide a much more straightforward way to gain insight into
the sensitivity of the runoff hydrograph to basin
406
characteristics. This is because all pixels in the watershed are
contributing flow. In the case of events dominated by
saturation excess runoff (e.g. the results shown in Section 4),
the contributing streamflow generation areas are often isolated
to small regions around the main channel (Figure 11.17).
Hence, in such cases the size, shape, slope, roughness, etc. of
the basin may have limited or unexpected impact on the
runoff hydrograph. One should be careful to note however
that, generally speaking, saturation excess runoff is generally
more common and hence runoff response is a complicated
function of both basin characteristics and climatology.

For infiltration excess runoff to occur, soils generally

need to have very low saturated conductivity and/or
precipitation events need to be very intense (i.e. P >> Ks). To
construct such a scenario, the soil surface transmissivity
parameter (T0) was reduced significantly from that used in the
previous section (where the new value of Ks was set equal to
0.03 mm/h) and a single storm event of constant intensity of 3
mm/h was used. The storm event started six hours after the
beginning of the simulation and lasted for six hours (Figure
11.21). Additionally the saturation deficit (proportional to
average depth to water table) was increased such that all
stormflow runoff was the result of infiltration excess runoff.
The expected flow paths can be conceptualized as follows:
Each cross-section in the north-south direction consists of the
two hillslopes flowing to the main stream channel. One can
think of the hillslope cross-section as a unit that quickly
contributes flow to the stream and then flow will be translated
downstream. Hence the hillslopes near the outlet will quickly
F IGURE 11.21 Storm and resulting hydrographs for the basin
shapes and sizes shown in Figure 11.20.
contribute flow to the hydrograph while those upstream will
have a delayed contribution.
The nominal basin outlet hydrograph is shown in Figure
11.21 (black line). The streamflow hydrograph increases
almost immediately after the start of the storm and peaks
with a flow of approximately 0.005 m3/s before the end of the
storm. The hydrograph is relatively constant for a few hours
before receding and returning to near-zero baseflow by
approximately six hours after the end of the storm. The

407
hydrographs for the other basins are also shown in Figure
11.21.

Generally speaking, as the size of the watershed increases

it is expected that the integrated runoff (i.e. area under the
curve) and the peak flow will increase. The time to peak and
shape of the hydrograph will depend on other basin
characteristics. For the wider basin (Figure 11.21; blue line),
the primary difference is expected to be an increased area of
hillslope contributing flow to each unit of the main stream
reach. Hence the overall response time (from beginning to end
of runoff response) between the wider and nominal basins are
very similar (since the basin length is the same). The peak
however is between 5 and 6 times that of the nominal case
and the flow peaks later, near the end of the storm. The
longer basin is the same area as the wider basin, but the
hydrograph shape (Figure 11.21; cyan line) differs F IGURE 11.22 Storm and resulting hydrographs for the
significantly. The longer basin hydrograph has a peak that is larger basin in Figure 11.18 under the nominal parameter set
about 2 times larger than the nominal, but peaks later, and one involving a shallower bed slope for the main channel
and one with lower Manning roughness coefficient. The larger
plateaus for several hours and has a time base that is about basin case used here as a baseline is identical to that shown in
twice as long as the nominal and wider basin hydrographs. Figure 11.21.
The longer time base is simply a result of the larger travel
times associated with the longer basin. Finally, the larger
basin has a much larger peak that is shifted later in time roughness were also perturbed. Specifically cases where the
relative to the nominal (Figure 11.21; magenta line). The time basin-averaged Manning roughness coefficient was reduced
base for the larger basin is very similar to that of the longer from 0.045 to 0.035 (“less rough”) and the bed slope of the
basin, illustrating that the length of the basin primarily main channel was reduced by two orders of magnitude from
controls the overall duration of the stormflow response. 0.01 to 0.0001 (“shallow bed”) are shown in Figure 11.22. The
To illustrate how other basin characteristics impact larger basin case was used for all three simulations since it
stormflow response, bed slope of the main channel and basin more easily illustrates differences. For the case of a shallower

408
bed slope (Figure 11.22; black line) it is expected that
streamflow velocities will be smaller. As a result the peak flow
is reduced (by about 14%) and the flows are attenuated, with
low flows persisting beyond 1.5 days after the start of the
simulation. Note that this case did not change the slope of the
hillslope pixels (only the main stream channel) and hence flow
still makes its way to the channel at a comparable speed to
that of the baseline case. However once water is in the channel
it takes longer to reach the outlet. A reduction in the hillslope
gradients would be expected to further reduce the peak and
attenuate the hydrograph. For the case of a basin with
reduced roughness (Figure 11.22; blue line), the opposite
behavior is seen. The reduced roughness (which is applied over
the whole basin) speeds up flow in general. As such, the peak
is significantly increased (by about 25%).

The cases shown in this section are meant to be

illustrative and drive home some of the points from earlier in
the book in the context of model simulations. As stated
above, more realistic basins, with a different (or a mixture) of
runoff generation mechanisms will generally have more
complicated responses to perturbations. Nevertheless a basic
understanding of how static parameters may control response
is useful. The reader is encouraged to use the MOD-WET
model to investigate basins of interest (real or synthetic) and
explore sensitivities and hypothesis tests to determine how
hydrologic response is impacted by climatology, basin
morphology, and natural or anthropogenic changes to static or
dynamic inputs.

409
S ECTION 6 Construction of flow network:
flow_network.m

MOD-WET Codes Computation of channel width throughout the network

based on contributing area and a power law:
channel_width.m
Relevant new functions based on concepts intro-
duced in this chapter include: Wrapper to control the routing scheme:
routing_muskingum_cunge.m
Distributed model driver function:
MOD_WET_model_driver.m Muskingum-Cunge routing scheme:
muskingum_cunge.m
Specification of model control parameters:
set_control_parameters.m Distribute mean Manning roughness coefficient to each
pixel:
Specification of physical model parameters: manning_roughness_mean_to_pixel.m
set_static_physical_parameters.m
Routing velocity check and adjustment of time step:
Initialization of model states and distributed parameters: routing_celerity_check.m
initialize_model.m
Basin-averaged mass balance check at each time step:
Topographic index: mass_balance_check.m
topo_index.m
Function to generate animations of mapped outputs from
Topographic-soil index: a MOD-WET model simulation:
topo_soil_index.m create_model_output_maps.m

TOPMODEL wrapper for evolving subsurface states and

fluxes:
TOPMODEL.m

410
S ECTION 7

Conceptual Questions
1. Provide a basic description of the topographic index and
what it represents in the TOPMODEL framework.

2. In the TOPMODEL framework, what is typically assumed

about the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity as a
function of depth?

3. In the TOPMODEL framework, what must the value of

saturation deficit (SD) be at a given pixel for it to generate
saturation excess runoff?

4. In the TOPMODEL framework, what variables control the

baseflow from a given pixel?

5. Describe the meaning of the “wide channel” approximation

and why it is typically invoked?

6. What static channel parameters and dynamic model

variables are needed in the Muskingum-Cunge routing
equations?

411
S ECTION 8

MOD-WET Problems
The MOD-WET Problems throughout the textbook take you
through the setup and analysis of a watershed simulation. The
exercises below are meant to provide suggestions for simple
sensitivity tests that can provide additional insight to your
nominal watershed simulation.

Problem 11.1. Using your watershed model, perturb various

static model parameters and explore how basin runoff and
other variables change as a result. Use the simulations to test
your understanding and/or hypotheses about hydrologic
response to static basin characteristics.

Problem 11.2. Using your watershed model,, perturb

precipitation, air temperature, or other meteorological
variables to assess how hydrologic response changes as a result
of dynamic forcing inputs. To what extent does precipitation
have to increase to generate more infiltration excess runoff? In
the case that your nominal simulation generated snow
accumulation, how does a change in air temperature impact
the snowmelt and resulting hydrograph?

412
Chapter 12

MATLAB
Basics
 It is generally assumed that the reader has had a course
in basic MATLAB or another programming language. The idea
of this section is not to provide a full primer or reference, but
highlight some key points to help in using MOD-WET
functions and provide pointers to more general references.
First, it should be noted that MATLAB is capable of much
more than covered here, has an extremely useful built-in help
system, and Mathworks provides their own rather extensive
primer for beginners located at: http://www.mathworks.com/
help/pdf_doc/matlab/getstart.pdf. You should consult these
resources and keep them handy for reference. There are also
many textbooks designed to provide more thorough
introductions to MATLAB (e.g. Chapman, 2007; Pratap, 2009).
The best way to find a solution to a problem you have is to
find an example of how such things are done via the help
command, using the primer, or other online resources. You
should also be aware that none of the applications used in this
book need to be solved using MATLAB, it is simply chosen as a
numerical tool since it is readily available and is relatively
easy to learn.
In its simplest form, MATLAB can be used as a calculator
to perform basic arithmetic operations on values stored in
variables, vectors, or multi-dimensional arrays. As a first step,
you need to be comfortable with how variables are stored in
arrays, array operations, indexing in arrays, etc. (see the
“Language Fundamentals” chapter in the MATLAB primer).
The MATLAB search path and m-files
Intrinsic in MATLAB are many built-in functions that
perform more complicated operations built-up from simpler
operations. These built-in functions are “m-files”, which are
simply text files containing instructions that are stored
somewhere on the MATLAB “search path”. The search path is a
list of directories to look through for a specified m-file. For
example, when taking the average of a vector a, i.e. mean(a),
MATLAB looks through the specified path for the file mean.m
and provides it the vector a as an input and returns the mean
as an output, as obtained via the set of instructions to
perform supplied in the mean.m file. For all of the built-in
MATLAB functions and their associated toolboxes, the path to
those functions are loaded by default. Additionally, the
current directory you are working in is always on the path and
is the directory that is searched first. Hence in calling a
function, unless new directories are added to the path, the
function must exist either in the current directory or on the
default MATLAB path. It is useful to keep this in mind because
as you develop your own m-files or use those developed by
others, you will need to add the location of those functions to
your path. Along these lines it is useful to keep your functions
in an organized location that can be added easily to the path.
The idea of specifying a search path is particularly impor-
tant when using the MOD-WET functions. Paths can be
manually added to MATLAB, but the approach described be-
low automates this process with a simple line that you can
add to your own code. MOD-WET has several subdirectories.
Assume that you have the following directory structure:
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter1
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter2
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter3
414
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter5
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter6
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter7
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter8
/Users/username/CEE150/MOD_WET/chapter11
where the individual MOD-WET functions are within each of
the directories listed above. To add all subdirectories within a
specified directory to the search path one could type:
addpath(genpath('/Users/username/CEE150/ ...
MOD_WET')).
The addition of the genpath command will allow MATLAB to
access all functions in the MOD-WET (i.e. Chapters 1 – 11),
since directories chapter1 … chapter11 are all contained in
the MOD_WET parent directory. Adding the path to the MOD-
WET directory or your other functions at the top of all of
your own scripts should help you avoid any problems with
MATLAB’s search path. The use of the genpath command is
highly recommended because you will not have to remember
which toolbox function is associated with a specific chapter or
directory.
MATLAB scripts vs. functions
In performing any analysis, it is usually required to make
use of multiple commands which can be tailored to the desired
task/s. This typically involves usage of basic programming
written in the form of scripts or functions (see the
“Programming” chapter in the MATLAB primer), which allow
for repeated usage and to fully document the process. Both
scripts and functions are written as m-files, with the
distinction coming via the usage of the function command at
the beginning of the file.
Scripts operate as if the commands in the file were being
typed into the command window. As such it does not have
inputs or outputs but operates on variables that either
already exist in the workspace or are created within the
script. At the end of the script, variables that were created
within it are defined in the workspace. Functions can be called
from within scripts.
Functions differ from scripts in an important way;
namely they require inputs and send back outputs. In the case
of functions, all variables are local to the function and are not
explicitly saved in the workspace when complete -- only
inputs/outputs will exist in the workspace after a function
call. A function m-file begins with a function definition line
(without this line you would have a regular script m-file), i.e.:
function [OUTPUT] = function_name (INPUT)
where INPUT is a variable provided to the function, and
OUTPUT is a variable sent back from the function, and
function_name is the name of the function. While not
required, function_name is most often also used in the
filename, i.e. function_name.m. Both the inputs and outputs
can consist of multiple variables.
The primary reason for using functions over scripts is
that they are inherently modular where only inputs/outputs
need to be dealt with. For this reason, the MOD-WET
consists entirely of functions. The value of modularity is
415
particularly apparent in the development of the MOD-WET
model, which is built up from existing MOD-WET functions.
In addition to the MOD-WET functions and those you
develop on your own, there are many community-based
functions that are provided on the MATLAB file exchange.
Visualization in MATLAB:
Visualizing imported data or results of computations are
often a crucial part of understanding and communicating your
work. MATLAB provides many options for visualizing data (see
the “Graphics” chapter in the MATLAB primer). Depending on
the type of data to be plotted, different graphics options exist
(figures can be created and controlled via the figure, clf,
close, and related commands). It is important to choose a
type of graphical representation that is well-suited to the
characteristics you are trying to communicate. When plotting
time series data or one variable vs. another, an x-y line (or
scatter) plot using the plot command is generally most
useful. Annotation of plots is crucial, so you should become
familiar with commands to control labeling and other features
of the plot (i.e. xlabel, ylabel, grid, title, legend,
colorbar, set, etc.). For time series, where date/time labels
are desired, the use of the xtick, ytick, and datetick
commands may be useful. In many cases it might also be
useful to have multiple graphics on the same figure, which can
be done via the subplot command.
In many hydrologic examples (e.g. topography) it is
useful to visualize data as mapped results (i.e. when a variable
depends on geographic x/y coordinates). The most common
functions useful for mapping are: imagesc, surf, contour,
etc. For example, in plotting a DEM one could do the
following (where comments are added for clarity):
% generate 2D map given x and y coordinates (vec-
tors) and map (2D array) of elevations, i.e. dsm
imagesc(x,y,dsm);
% set the correct orientation for the y-axis (other-
wise MATLAB flips it)
set(gca,'YDir','normal');
% impose the proper aspect ratio (i.e. each pixel
should be square not rectangular based on the im-
plicit geographic extent if each pixel is 30m x 30m
for example)
axis image;
% add colorbar
colorbar;
% keep the map on and allows for overlaying plots
hold on
MATLAB provides several colorbar options, with jet
being the default. Other colorbars, or ones you design yourself
may be more useful in other circumstances. For example, the
hsv colormap is useful for plotting maps of aspect or wind
direction (circular/angular directions) because angles of both
0 and 360 degrees should be represented by the same color
since they are actually the same angle. High and low values
are represented with the same color in this colormap which
can be invoked via: colormap(hsv).
Finally, invariably you will need to include graphical
figures into homework assignments or lab reports being
written in a word processing program. There are multiple
ways to save figures. Saving can be done from within a script
or function using the saveas command, e.g.
416
saveas(gcf,'figure_name.png','png')

or manually via: File > Export … (in the MATLAB figure

window). In saving or exporting figures it is very important
that you do so in a way that makes them readable and clear
in the document you are putting it into. You do not want all
of your hard work in generating the figure to go to waste if it
is unreadable in the word processing file! In particular you
should control the font size, line thickness, and graphical
resolution on the export. Note that the default font and line
sizes and rendering do not always make for readable figures
when pasted into a document. These and other figure
characteristics can be done from within your script (using set
or print commands) or via the Export Setup, which can be
customized for your needs.

417
Chapter 13

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