The NCAR WRF-Hydro® Modeling System Technical Description

Version 5.3.0

Originally Created:

April 14, 2013

Updated:

September 15, 2023

Until further notice, please cite the WRF-Hydro® modeling system as follows:

Gochis, D.J., M. Barlage, R. Cabell, M. Casali, A. Dugger, K. FitzGerald, M. McAllister, J. McCreight, A. RafieeiNasab, L. Read, K. Sampson, D. Yates, Y. Zhang (2020). The WRF-Hydro® modeling system technical description, (Version 5.1.1). NCAR Technical Note. 107 pages. Available online at: https://ral.ucar.edu/sites/default/files/public/WRFHydroV511TechnicalDescription.pdf.

FORWARD

This Technical Description describes the WRF-Hydro® model coupling architecture and physics options, released in Version 5.3 in Oct. 2023. As the WRF-Hydro® modeling system is developed further, this document will be continuously enhanced and updated. Please send feedback to wrfhydro@ucar.edu .

Prepared by:

David Gochis, Aubrey Dugger, Michael Barlage, Ryan Cabell, Katelyn FitzGerald, Molly McAllister, James McCreight, Arezoo RafieeiNasab, Laura Read, Kevin Sampson, David Yates, Yongxin Zhang

Special Acknowledgments:

Development of the NCAR WRF-Hydro system has been significantly enhanced through numerous collaborations. The following persons are graciously thanked for their contributions to this effort:

John McHenry and Carlie Coats, Baron Advanced Meteorological Services

Martyn Clark and Fei Chen, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Zong-Liang Yang, Cedric David, Peirong Lin and David Maidment of the University of Texas at Austin

Harald Kunstmann, Benjamin Fersch and Thomas Rummler of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Alfonso Senatore, University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy

Brian Cosgrove, Ed Clark, Fernando Salas, Trey Flowers, Xia Feng, Yuqiong Liu, Nels Frazier,

Fred Ogden, Dave Mattern, Don Johnson, and Tom Graziano of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Water Prediction

Ismail Yucel, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Erick Fredj, The Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel

Amir Givati, Surface water and Hydrometeorology Department, Israeli Hydrological Service, Jerusalem.

Antonio Parodi, Fondazione CIMA - Centro Internazionale in Monitoraggio Ambientale, Savona, Italy

Blair Greimann, Sedimentation and Hydraulics section, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Z George Xue and Dongxiao Yin, Louisiana State University

Funding support for the development and application of the WRF-Hydro® modeling system has been provided by:

The National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research

The U.S. National Weather Service

The Colorado Water Conservation Board

Baron Advanced Meteorological Services

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Water Prediction (OWP)

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Brief History
  • 1.2 Model Description
• 2. Model Code and Configuration Description
  • 2.1 Brief code overview
  • 2.2 Driver level description
  • 2.3 Parallelization strategy
  • 2.4 Directory Structures
  • 2.5 Model Sequence of Operations
  • 2.6 WRF-Hydro compile-time options
  • 2.7 WRF-Hydro run time options
• 3. Model Physics Description
  • 3.1 Physics Overview
  • 3.2 Land model description: The community Noah and Noah-MP land surface models
  • 3.3 Spatial Transformations
    • 3.3.1 Subgrid disaggregation-aggregation
    • 3.3.2 User-Defined Mapping
      • 3.3.3 Data Remapping for Hydrological Applications
  • 3.4 Subsurface Routing
  • 3.5 Surface Overland Flow Routing
  • 3.6 Channel and Lake Routing
    • 3.6.1. Gridded Routing using Diffusive Wave
    • 3.6.2. Linked Routing using Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge
    • 3.6.3 Compound Channel (currently only functional in NWM)
  • 3.7 Lake and Reservoir routing description
  • 3.8 Conceptual base flow *model description
• 4. Streamflow Nudging Data Assimilation
  • 4.1 Streamflow Nudging Data Assimilation Overview
  • 4.2 Nudging Formulation
  • 4.3 Nudging Workflow
    • 4.3.1 Input Files
    • 4.3.2 Output Files
  • 4.4 Nudging compile-time option
  • 4.5 Nudging run-time options
• 5. Model inputs and preprocessing
  • 5.1 Overview of model inputs
  • 5.2 Domain processing and description of surface physiographic input files
    • 5.2.1 Defining the model domain
    • 5.2.2 Initial land surface conditions
    • 5.2.3 Generating hydrologic routing input files via the WRF-Hydro GIS pre-processing tools
  • 5.3 Description of land surface model and lateral routing parameter files
    • 5.3.1 Spatially distributed parameter files
  • 5.4 Description of channel routing parameter files
  • 5.5 Description of groundwater input and parameter files
  • 5.6 Description of lake and reservoir parameter tables
  • 5.7 Specification of meteorological forcing data
• 6. Description of Output Files from WRF-Hydro
• REFERENCES
• APPENDICES
  • A1. Example of Dependency Installation for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  • A2. Exceptions for Running WRF-Hydro with the Noah LSM
  • A3. Noah namelist.hrldas File with Description of Options
  • A4. Noah-MP namelist.hrldas File with Description of Options
  • A5. WRF-Hydro hydro.namelist File with Description of Options
  • A6. Noah land surface model parameter tables
  • A7. Noah-MP land surface model parameter tables
  • A8. Terrain routing parameter files
  • A9. Channel routing parameter tables (CHANPARM.TBL and Route_Link.nc)
  • A10. Groundwater input and parameter files
  • A11. Spatial weights input file variable description
  • A12. Lake and reservoir parameter tables (LAKEPARM.nc)
  • A13. Restart Files Overview
    • A13.1 RESTART_MP File Variable Table
    • A13.2 HYDRO_RST File Variable Table
  • A14. Streamflow Nudging
  • A15. National Water Model (NWM) Configuration