English Abstract This report contains results from the first two years
of the project "Representation of the seasonal hydrological cycle in climate
and weather prediction models in West Europe", NRP project 951246. Its two
main objectives are: 1)To understand the causes of excessive drying over the
European continental area in the large scale climate and weather forecast
models 2) To improve the representation of the seasonal hydrological cycle
in climate and weather prediction models. The report reviews existing
studies showing that the land surface can be an important factor in
determining weather and climate. A particularly important role plays soil
moisture, because it acts as a long term memory to the system. Analysis is
based around the national Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RAMCO). The
evaluation of the RAMCO Land Surface Model indicated that the introduction
of site specific parameters has a significant effect on simulated water
budgets. This study also shows that implementation of all site specific
information in RAMCO does not automatically lead to the best performance.
Thus, the interaction between different aspects of the LSM stresses the need
for careful analysis of future model adjustments, both off-line and coupled
to the atmospheric model.
