Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 13 5 2009 10.5194/hess-13-687-2009 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/687/2009/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/687/2009/hess-13-687-2009.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/13/687/2009/hess-13-687-2009.pdf 687 701 2009-05-27 Some practical notes on the land surface modeling in the Tibetan Plateau K. Yang yangk@itpcas.ac.cn Y.-Y. Chen J. Qin Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China The Tibetan Plateau is a key region of land-atmosphere interactions, as it provides an elevated heat source to the middle-troposphere. The Plateau surfaces are typically characterized by alpine meadows and grasslands in the central and eastern part while by alpine deserts in the western part. This study evaluates performance of three state-of-the-art land surface models (LSMs) for the Plateau typical land surfaces. The LSMs of interest are SiB2 (the Simple Biosphere), CoLM (Common Land Model), and Noah. They are run at typical alpine meadow sites in the central Plateau and typical alpine desert sites in the western Plateau. <br><br> The identified key processes and modeling issues are as follows. First, soil stratification is a typical phenomenon beneath the alpine meadows, with dense roots and soil organic matters within the topsoil, and it controls the profile of soil moisture in the central and eastern Plateau; all models, when using default parameters, significantly under-estimate the soil moisture within the topsoil. 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