Noah-MP Model Guide#

Overview#

Noah-MP is a standalone land surface model. SYMFLUENCE integrates the NOAA-OWP noah-owp-modular implementation as a 1-D column model with Fortran-namelist configuration, ASCII forcing input, and NetCDF output.

Key Capabilities:

  • Standalone Noah-MP executable management

  • Configuration schema for common physics options

  • NetCDF runoff, ET, snow, soil moisture, and energy output extraction

  • Installation through symfluence binary install noahmp

Note

Noah-MP is a land surface column model. In SYMFLUENCE, streamflow output is represented by total runoff where available, not routed basin discharge.

Model Selection#

Use Noah-MP as the hydrological model:

HYDROLOGICAL_MODEL: NOAHMP
NOAHMP_INSTALL_PATH: default
NOAHMP_EXE: noah_owp_modular.exe
SETTINGS_NOAHMP_PATH: default
NOAHMP_NAMELIST_FILE: namelist.input

Installation#

Install noah-owp-modular through the binary/tool installer:

symfluence binary install noahmp

The build requires a Fortran compiler and NetCDF-Fortran. By default, SYMFLUENCE installs the model under:

$SYMFLUENCE_DATA_DIR/installs/noah-owp-modular

You can point to an existing build instead:

NOAHMP_INSTALL_PATH: /path/to/noah-owp-modular
NOAHMP_EXE: noah_owp_modular.exe

Configuration Parameters#

Parameter

Default

Description

NOAHMP_INSTALL_PATH

default

noah-owp-modular install directory.

NOAHMP_EXE

noah_owp_modular.exe

Executable name under the model run/ directory.

SETTINGS_NOAHMP_PATH

default

Project settings directory for Noah-MP files.

NOAHMP_NAMELIST_FILE

namelist.input

Main Fortran namelist file.

NOAHMP_FORCING_FILE

forcing.txt

Forcing input file name.

NOAHMP_OUTPUT_FILE

output.nc

NetCDF output file name.

NOAHMP_TIMESTEP

3600

Model timestep in seconds. Supported values are 900, 1800, and 3600.

NOAHMP_NSOIL

4

Number of soil layers.

NOAHMP_NSNOW

3

Number of snow layers.

NOAHMP_RUNOFF_OPTION

1

Runoff physics option.

NOAHMP_SPINUP_LOOPS

0

Number of spinup loops.

NOAHMP_TIMEOUT

7200

Maximum runtime in seconds.

Expected Layout#

The runner expects the namelist here:

<project_dir>/settings/NOAHMP/namelist.input

It executes the model from that settings directory using:

<NOAHMP_INSTALL_PATH>/run/noah_owp_modular.exe

Outputs are read from:

<project_dir>/simulations/<EXPERIMENT_ID>/NOAHMP/

Result Extraction#

The result extractor searches for output.nc and extracts:

  • streamflow / runoff from SFCRNOFF and UGDRNOFF

  • et from ECAN, ETRAN, EDIR, or LH

  • snow from SNEQV, SNOWH, and related snow flux variables

  • soil_moisture from SMC, SH2O, or ZWT

  • energy from LH, FSH, GH, FSA, FIRA, TV, TG, or T2M

Minimal Example#

DOMAIN_NAME: column_site
EXPERIMENT_ID: run_1
HYDROLOGICAL_MODEL: NOAHMP
ROUTING_MODEL: none

NOAHMP_INSTALL_PATH: default
NOAHMP_EXE: noah_owp_modular.exe
NOAHMP_NAMELIST_FILE: namelist.input
NOAHMP_TIMESTEP: 3600
NOAHMP_TIMEOUT: 7200

Run the model step once the Noah-MP namelist and forcing files exist:

symfluence workflow step run_model --config config_column_site.yaml