Application of the Canadian land surface scheme (class) to the simulation of energy and water fluxes over alpine tundra

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Abstract
The ability of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) to simulate energy and moisture fluxes over tundra surfaces is tested using three dataseis collected at alpine sites in southern Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Initial runs of the model indicate that the ground heat flux tends to be overestimated and the latent heat flux underestimated on average. With the incorporation of minor modifications to the surface thermal conductivity, the vegetation rooting depth and the calculation of the surface soil moisture, the mean bias errors in the latent and ground heat fluxes are reduced to more acceptable levels. Despite the fact that the current version of CLASS does not explicitly take into account the effects of spatial heterogeneity at the sites, the model is found to perform reasonably well with these modifications. It is recommended that the next version of CLASS incorporate a mosaic approach which will allow further subdivision of the modelling area, and that a set of algorithms specific to sparse canopies be implemented into the code.