Abstract
Climate model validation involves the comparison of model simulations with observed data. River runoff is a major part of the water balance, and represents one of the most important diagnostic variables of a climate model. Compared to other elements of the water balance — precipitation, evaporation and storage — runoff is easy to measure, and furthermore provides data on water fluxes integrated over both time and space. Areal actual evaporation is very difficult to measure, but can be inferred from observed runoff and precipitation. The ability of a climate model to simulate the partitioning of energy at the land surface into latent and sensible heat fluxes can therefore be assessed using observed precipitation and runoff data.
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Arnell, N.W. (1995). River Runoff Data for the Validation of Climate Simulation Models. In: Oliver, H.R., Oliver, S.A. (eds) The Role of Water and the Hydrological Cycle in Global Change. NATO ASI Series, vol 31. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79830-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79830-6_12
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