Soil moisture output from land models commonly includes both liquid and solid phases, namely, a total soil water content. This is mainly associated with the representations of soil freezing and thawing processes. Is there any method to separate liquid and solid soil water from the model total soil moisture?
It is a very interesting topic. I think you can check the original sub-model of frozen soil carefully. Because there are so many methods for estimating frozen-thaw processes in the soil. Once you understand the calculation processes, check the output files of the model to find out the data you want.
Hi Mingxing Li ,
What kind of model is being talked about?
How is temperature calculated?
If soil temperature is known/predicted you can use this info to delineate a frozen soil zone. We used a neutron probe to measure the total water (ice and water) content and used TDR method to detect the free water (=unfrozen water).
This is a good question! Total soil water content and liquid water content are measured by neutron moisture meter and TDR/FDR under in-situ field conditions, respectively. Among the existing seasonal frozen soil hydrological models, liquid soil water content is estimated by using soil freezing- thawing characteristic curves (SFCC- relationship between liquid water content and soil negative temperature), which is widely used currently. You can do some lab experiments to measure the SFCC in specific soils. You can also determine SFCC by combine the Clausius-Clapeyron equation with the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC- via VGM or BC model) to make a estimation. Well, soil temperature is essential for Clausius-Clapeyron equation. In this way, liquid soil water content is known. Then soil ice content is determined.
Thank you all for responding the discussion. This can be further think of within land surface models for their representations of physical processes, such as self-consistency within soil water and heat coupling.
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