---
OA_type: closed access
_id: '22497'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: This study evaluates the simulation of water balance components at half-hourly
    time steps from the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) when driven by a 500-year
    stochastic meteorological data set produced by the Advanced WEather GENerator
    (AWE-GEN) at two boreal sites with contrasting water availability. The CLASS was
    driven by ERA5 reanalysis data (CLASS-CTL) over 39 years and its output was used
    as a surrogate for land surface observations. At both sites, the mean monthly
    and annual values of all meteorological variables used to drive CLASS, including
    precipitation, are well captured by AWE-GEN, but their variability is, sometimes,
    biased. In general, CLASS driven by stochastic data (CLASS-WG) tends to produce
    higher evapotranspiration compared to values simulated by CLASS-CTL, especially
    during spring and summer at the wet site. The interannual evapotranspiration-precipitation
    and runoff-precipitation relationships derived from CLASS-WG and those derived
    from CLASS-CTL were very similar to each other at the dry site; they both indicate
    that evapotranspiration and runoff are limited by water availability. At the wet
    site, however, CLASS-WG only captured well the interannual runoff-precipitation
    relationship. The sensitivity analysis shows that CLASS water fluxes are particularly
    affected by the replacement of physically consistent input time series of incoming
    short-wave radiation, precipitation, temperature, and specific humidity. In conclusion,
    the results show that even though a weather generator can produce coherent climate
    time series, the use of this synthetic data as meteorological forcing in a physically
    based land surface model does not necessarily reproduce the complex surface processes,
    such as the surface water fluxes. More studies are encouraged to further analyze
    the constraints of this framework.
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Marco
  full_name: Alves, Marco
  last_name: Alves
- first_name: Daniel F.
  full_name: Nadeau, Daniel F.
  last_name: Nadeau
- first_name: Biljana
  full_name: Music, Biljana
  last_name: Music
- first_name: François
  full_name: Anctil, François
  last_name: Anctil
- first_name: Simone
  full_name: Fatichi, Simone
  id: cf8e546b-a9b0-11f0-a43b-aa89ed1b56d6
  last_name: Fatichi
citation:
  ama: Alves M, Nadeau DF, Music B, Anctil F, Fatichi S. Can we replace observed forcing
    with weather generator in land surface modeling? Insights from long-term simulations
    at two contrasting boreal sites. <i>Theoretical and Applied Climatology</i>. 2021;145:215-244.
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y">10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y</a>
  apa: Alves, M., Nadeau, D. F., Music, B., Anctil, F., &#38; Fatichi, S. (2021).
    Can we replace observed forcing with weather generator in land surface modeling?
    Insights from long-term simulations at two contrasting boreal sites. <i>Theoretical
    and Applied Climatology</i>. Springer Nature. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y</a>
  chicago: Alves, Marco, Daniel F. Nadeau, Biljana Music, François Anctil, and Simone
    Fatichi. “Can We Replace Observed Forcing with Weather Generator in Land Surface
    Modeling? Insights from Long-Term Simulations at Two Contrasting Boreal Sites.”
    <i>Theoretical and Applied Climatology</i>. Springer Nature, 2021. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y</a>.
  ieee: M. Alves, D. F. Nadeau, B. Music, F. Anctil, and S. Fatichi, “Can we replace
    observed forcing with weather generator in land surface modeling? Insights from
    long-term simulations at two contrasting boreal sites,” <i>Theoretical and Applied
    Climatology</i>, vol. 145. Springer Nature, pp. 215–244, 2021.
  ista: Alves M, Nadeau DF, Music B, Anctil F, Fatichi S. 2021. Can we replace observed
    forcing with weather generator in land surface modeling? Insights from long-term
    simulations at two contrasting boreal sites. Theoretical and Applied Climatology.
    145, 215–244.
  mla: Alves, Marco, et al. “Can We Replace Observed Forcing with Weather Generator
    in Land Surface Modeling? Insights from Long-Term Simulations at Two Contrasting
    Boreal Sites.” <i>Theoretical and Applied Climatology</i>, vol. 145, Springer
    Nature, 2021, pp. 215–44, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y">10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y</a>.
  short: M. Alves, D.F. Nadeau, B. Music, F. Anctil, S. Fatichi, Theoretical and Applied
    Climatology 145 (2021) 215–244.
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-07-27T12:30:24Z
date_published: 2021-07-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-08-06T14:08:21Z
day: '01'
doi: 10.1007/s00704-021-03615-y
extern: '1'
intvolume: '       145'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '07'
oa_version: None
page: 215-244
publication: Theoretical and Applied Climatology
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1434-4483
  issn:
  - 0177-798X
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Nature
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Can we replace observed forcing with weather generator in land surface modeling?
  Insights from long-term simulations at two contrasting boreal sites
type: journal_article
user_id: ba8df636-2132-11f1-aed0-ed93e2281fdd
volume: 145
year: '2021'
...