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Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC)
Macroscale Hydrologic Model

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Dept. of Civil and Env. Engineering
University of Washington
Box 352700
Seattle, WA 98195-2700
206.685.1796
vicadmin@hydro.washington.edu

VIC Model Calibration Using Parameters Other Than Soil or Snow

For grid cells with an overstory the model calculates a windspeed profile through the canopy. The wind profile through the canopy is controlled by

Shortwave radiation attenuation trough the canopy is calculated as a function of LAI and an exponential decay coefficient. A value of 0.5 is set as default but values in the range 0.1 to 0.6 have been used in our simulations. Care must be taken so that manipulation of the vegetation attenuation parameters for shortwave radiation and wind reflect real conditions and values. These parameters should be treated as calibration parameters only as needed to correctly describe under-canopy radiation and wind. Both the wind and the shortwave radiation under the canopy should be in the range from 0.1 to 0.5 of the above canopy values.


VIC Administrator
Last modified: Mon Aug 24 15:42:06 PDT 2009