VIC Run-Time Options - Global Parameter File

VIC Administrator · run-time

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# VIC Model Parameters - 4.1.x
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# $Id: global.param.sample,v 5.7.2.12 2009/06/16 06:27:02 vicadmin Exp $
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# Simulation Parameters
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NLAYER          3       # number of soil layers
NODES           10      # number of soil thermal nodes
TIME_STEP       3       # model time step in hours (set to 24 if FULL_ENERGY = FALSE, set to < 24 if FULL_ENERGY = TRUE)
SNOW_STEP       3       # time step in hours for which to solve the snow model (should = TIME_STEP if TIME_STEP < 24)
STARTYEAR       2000    # year model simulation starts
STARTMONTH      01      # month model simulation starts
STARTDAY        01      # day model simulation starts
STARTHOUR       00      # hour model simulation starts
ENDYEAR         2000    # year model simulation ends
ENDMONTH        12      # month model simulation ends
ENDDAY          31      # day model simulation ends
FULL_ENERGY     TRUE    # TRUE = calculate full energy balance; FALSE = compute water balance only
FROZEN_SOIL     TRUE    # TRUE = calculate frozen soils
QUICK_FLUX      FALSE   # TRUE = use simplified ground heat flux method of Liang et al (1999); FALSE = use finite element 
				method of Cherkauer et al (1999)
QUICK_SOLVE     FALSE   # TRUE = Use Liang et al., 1999 formulation for iteration, but explicit finite difference method for final step.
NO_FLUX         FALSE   # TRUE = use no flux lower boundary for ground heat flux computation; FALSE = use constant flux 
				lower boundary condition.  If NO_FLUX = TRUE, QUICK_FLUX MUST = FALSE
IMPLICIT        FALSE   # TRUE = use implicit solution for soil heat flux equation of Cherkauer et al (1999), otherwise uses 
				original explicit solution.
EXP_TRANS       FALSE   # TRUE = exponentially distributes the thermal nodes in the Cherkauer et al. (1999) finite difference 
				algorithm, otherwise uses linear distribution
SNOW_ALBEDO     USACE   # USACE = use traditional VIC algorithm based on US Army Corps of Engineers empirical snow albedo 
				decay curves, using hard-coded dates for transitions from snow accumulation to melting; 
				SUN1999 = use algorithm of Sun et al 1999, in which albedo decay depends on snow cold content 
				(more appropriate for simulations outside the US).
SNOW_DENSITY    DENS_BRAS       # DENS_BRAS = use traditional VIC algorithm taken from Bras, 1990; DENS_SNTHRM = use 
				algorithm taken from SNTHRM model.
BLOWING         FALSE   # TRUE = compute evaporative fluxes due to blowing snow
DIST_PRCP       FALSE   # TRUE = use distributed precipitation
PREC_EXPT       0.6     # exponent for use in distributed precipitation eqn (only used if DIST_PRCP is TRUE)
CORRPREC        FALSE   # TRUE = correct precipitation for gauge undercatch
MIN_WIND_SPEED  0.1     # minimum allowable wind speed (m/s)
MAX_SNOW_TEMP   0.5     # maximum temperature (C) at which snow can fall
MIN_RAIN_TEMP   -0.5    # minimum temperature (C) at which rain can fall
CONTINUEONERROR FALSE   # TRUE = continue simulation on cell error; TFALLBACK = when energy balance fails to converge, use previous T value
COMPUTE_TREELINE        FALSE   # Can be either FALSE or the id number of an understory veg class; FALSE = turn 
				treeline computation off; VEG_CLASS_ID= replace any overstory veg types with the this 
				understory veg type in all snow bands for which the average July Temperature <= 10 C 
				(e.g. "COMPUTE_TREELINE 10" replaces any overstory veg cover with class 10)
EQUAL_AREA      FALSE   # TRUE = grid cells are from an equal-area projection; FALSE = grid cells are on a regular lat-lon grid
RESOLUTION      0.125   # Grid cell resolution (degrees if EQUAL_AREA is FALSE, km^2 if EQUAL_AREA is TRUE); ignored if LAKES is FALSE
AERO_RESIST_CANSNOW     AR_410  # Options for aerodynamic resistance in snow-filled canopy:
                                # AR_406 = multiply by 10 for latent heat but do NOT multiply by 10 for sensible heat
                                #          and do NOT apply stability correction (as in VIC 4.0.6).
                                #          When no snow in canopy, use surface aero_resist for ET.
                                # AR_406_LS = multiply by 10 for latent heat AND sensible heat
                                #             and do NOT apply stability correction.
                                #             When no snow in canopy, use surface aero_resist for ET.
                                # AR_406_FULL = multiply by 10 for latent heat AND sensible heat
                                #               and do NOT apply stability correction;
                                #               Additionally, always use overstory aero_resist for
                                #               ET (as in 4.1.0).
                                # AR_410 = apply stability correction but do NOT multiply by 10 (as in VIC 4.1.0)
                                #          Additionally, always use overstory aero_resist for
                                #          ET (as in 4.1.0).
                                # AR_COMBO = multiply by 10 AND apply stability correction
                                #            Additionally, always use overstory aero_resist for
                                #            ET (as in 4.1.0).
                                # default = AR_410
GRND_FLUX_TYPE  GF_FULL # Options for ground flux:
                        # GF_406  = use (flawed) formulas for ground flux, deltaH, and fusion
                        #           from VIC 4.0.6 and earlier
                       # GF_410  = use formulas from VIC 4.1.0 (ground flux is correct,
                        #           but deltaH and fusion ignore surf_atten)
                        # GF_FULL = use correct ground flux formula from VIC 4.1.0 and
                        #           also take surf_atten into account in deltaH and fusion
MIN_LIQ         FALSE   # TRUE = use temperature-dependent minimum for liquid soil moisture instead of residual moisture
PLAPSE          FALSE   # This controls how VIC computes air pressure when air pressure is not supplied as an input forcing:
                        # TRUE = set air pressure to sea level pressure, lapsed to grid cell average elevation;
                        # FALSE = set air pressure to constant 95.5 kPa (as in all versions of VIC pre-4.1.1)

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# State Files and  Parameters
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#INIT_STATE     (put the initial state path/filename here)      # Initial state path/file
#STATENAME      (put the path/prefix of output state file here) # Output state file path/prefix.  The date 
			(STATEYEAR,STATEMONTH,STATEDAY) will be appended to the prefix automatically in the format yyyymmdd.
#STATEYEAR      2000    # year to save model state
#STATEMONTH     12      # month to save model state
#STATEDAY       31      # day to save model state
#BINARY_STATE_FILE       FALSE  # TRUE if state file should be binary format; FALSE if ascii

#######################################################################
# Forcing Files and Parameters
#
#       All FORCING filenames are actually the pathname, and prefix
#               for gridded data types: ex. DATA/forcing_
#               Latitude and longitude index suffix is added by VIC
#
#       There must be 1 FORCE_TYPE entry for each variable (column) in the forcing file
#
#       If FORCE_TYPE is BINARY, each FORCE_TYPE must be followed by:
#                       SIGNED/UNSIGNED SCALE_FACTOR
#               For example (BINARY):
#                       FORCE_TYPE      PREC    UNSIGNED        40
#               or (ASCII):
#                       FORCE_TYPE      PREC
#######################################################################
FORCING1        (put the forcing path/prefix here)      # Forcing file path and prefix, ending in "_"
FORCE_FORMAT    BINARY  # BINARY or ASCII
FORCE_ENDIAN    LITTLE  # LITTLE (PC/Linux) or BIG (SUN)
N_TYPES         4       # Number of variables (columns)
FORCE_TYPE      PREC    UNSIGNED        40
FORCE_TYPE      TMAX    SIGNED  100
FORCE_TYPE      TMIN    SIGNED  100
FORCE_TYPE      WIND    SIGNED  100
FORCE_DT        24      # Forcing time step length (hours)
FORCEYEAR       2000    # Year of first forcing record
FORCEMONTH      01      # Month of first forcing record
FORCEDAY        01      # Day of first forcing record
FORCEHOUR       00      # Hour of first forcing record
GRID_DECIMAL    4       # Number of digits after decimal point in forcing file names
WIND_H          10.0    # height of wind speed measurement (m)
MEASURE_H       2.0     # height of humidity measurement (m)
ALMA_INPUT      FALSE   # TRUE = ALMA-compliant input variable units; FALSE = standard VIC units

#######################################################################
# Land Surface Files and Parameters
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SOIL            (put the soil parameter path/file here) # Soil parameter path/file
ARC_SOIL        FALSE   # TRUE = read soil parameters from ARC/INFO ASCII grids
#SOIL_DIR        (soil param directory)   # Directory containing ARC/INFO ASCII grids of soil parameters - only valid if ARC_SOIL is TRUE
BASEFLOW        ARNO    # ARNO = columns 5-8 are the standard VIC baseflow parameters; NIJSSEN2001 = columns 5-8 
				of soil file are baseflow parameters from Nijssen et al (2001)
JULY_TAVG_SUPPLIED      FALSE   # TRUE = final column of the soil parameter file will contain average July 
				air temperature, for computing treeline; this will be ignored if COMPUTE_TREELINE 
				is FALSE; FALSE = compute the treeline based on the average July air temperature of 
				the forcings over the simulation period
VEGPARAM        (put the veg parameter path/file here)  # Veg parameter path/file
GLOBAL_LAI      FALSE    # TRUE = read LAI from veg param file; FALSE = read LAI from veg library file
ROOT_ZONES      3       # Number of root zones (must match format of veg param file)
VEGLIB          (put the veg library path/file here)    # Veg library path/file
SNOW_BAND       1       # Number of snow bands; if number of snow bands > 1, you must insert the snow band 
				path/file after the number of bands (e.g. SNOW_BAND 5 my_path/my_snow_band_file)
LAKES           (put lake parameter path/file here)     # Lake parameter path/file
LAKE_PROFILE    FALSE   # TRUE = User-specified depth-area parameters in lake parameter file; FALSE = VIC 
				computes a parabolic depth-area profile

#######################################################################
# Output Files and Parameters
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RESULT_DIR      (put the result directory path here)    # Results directory path (with trailing "/")
OUT_STEP        0       # Output interval (hours); if 0, OUT_STEP = TIME_STEP
SKIPYEAR        0       # Number of years of output to omit from the output files
COMPRESS        FALSE   # TRUE = compress input and output files when done
BINARY_OUTPUT   FALSE   # TRUE = binary output files
ALMA_OUTPUT     FALSE   # TRUE = ALMA-format output files; FALSE = standard VIC units
MOISTFRACT      FALSE   # TRUE = output soil moisture as volumetric fraction; FALSE = standard VIC units
PRT_HEADER      FALSE   # TRUE = insert a header at the beginning of each output file; FALSE = no header
PRT_SNOW_BAND   FALSE   # TRUE = write a "snowband" output file, containing band-specific values of snow variables
                        # NOTE: this is ignored if N_OUTFILES is specified below.

#######################################################################
#
# Output File Contents
#
# As of VIC 4.0.6 and 4.1.0, you can specify your output file names and
# contents # in the global param file (see the README.txt file for more
# information).
#
# If you do not specify file names and contents in the global param
# file, VIC will produce the same set of output files that it has
# produced in earlier versions, namely "fluxes" and "snow" files, plus
# "fdepth" files if FROZEN_SOIL is TRUE and "snowband" files if
# PRT_SNOW_BAND is TRUE.  These files will have the same contents and
# format as in earlier versions.
#
# The OPTIMIZE and LDAS_OUTPUT options have been removed.  These
# output configurations can be selected with the proper set of
# instructions in the global param file.  (see the output.*.template
# files included in this distribution for more information.)
#
# If you do specify the file names and contents in the global param file,
# PRT_SNOW_BAND will have no effect.
#
# Format:
#
#   N_OUTFILES    
#
#   OUTFILE               
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#
#   OUTFILE               
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#   OUTVAR               [          ]
#
#
# where
#    = number of output files
#        = name of the output file, NOT including latitude
#                  and longitude
#         = number of variables in the output file
#       = name of the variable (this must be one of the
#                  output variable names listed in vicNl_def.h.)
#        = (for ascii output files) fprintf format string,
#                  e.g.
#                    %.4f = floating point with 4 decimal places
#                    %.7e = scientific notation w/ 7 decimal places
#                    *    = use the default format for this variable
#
#   , , and  are optional.  For a given
#   variable, you can specify either NONE of these, or ALL of
#   these.  If these are omitted, the default values will be used.
#
#          = (for binary output files) data type code.
#                  Must be one of:
#                    OUT_TYPE_DOUBLE = double-precision floating point
#                    OUT_TYPE_FLOAT  = single-precision floating point
#                    OUT_TYPE_INT    = integer
#                    OUT_TYPE_USINT  = unsigned short integer
#                    OUT_TYPE_SINT   = short integer
#                    OUT_TYPE_CHAR   = char
#                    *               = use the default type
#    = (for binary output files) factor to multiply
#                  the data by before writing, to increase precision.
#                    *    = use the default multiplier for this variable
#
#######################################################################

Name	Type	Units	Description
*(1^)** FORCING1	string	pathname and file prefix	First forcing file name, always required. This must precede all other forcing parameters used to define the first forcing file.
*(1^)** FORCING2	string	pathname and file prefix	Second forcing file name, or FALSE if only one file used. This must precede all other forcing parameters used to define the second forcing file, and follow those used to define the first forcing file.
(2) FORCE_FORMAT	string	BINARY or ASCII	Defines the format type for the forcing files.
(3)FORCE_ENDIAN	string	BIG or LITTLE	Identifies the architecture of the machine on which the binary forcing files were created: BIG = big-endian (e.g. SUN) LITTLE = little-endian (e.g. PC/linux) Model will identify the endian of the current machine, and swap bytes if necessary. Required for binary forcing file, not used for ASCII forcing file.
(4) N_TYPES	int	N/A	Number of columns in the current data file.
(5) FORCE_TYPE	string string float	VarName (un)signed multiplier	Defines what forcing types are read from the file, and in what order. For ASCII file only the forcing type needs to be defined, but for Binary file each line must also define whether the column is SIGNED or UNSIGNED short int and by what factor values are multiplied before being written to output. Click here for details.
(6) FORCE_DT	integer	hours	Time step length of the current input files in hours
(7) FORCEYEAR	integer	year	Year meteorological forcing files start
(8) FORCEMONTH	integer	month	Month meteorological forcing files start
(9) FORCEDAY	integer	day	Day meteorological forcing files start
(10) FORCEHOUR	integer	hour	Hour meteorological forcing files start
GRID_DECIMAL	integer	N/A	Number of decimals to use in gridded file name extensions
WIND_H	float	m	Height of wind speed measurement over bare soil and snow cover. Wind measurement height over vegetation is now read from the vegetation library file for all types, the value in the global file only controls the wind height over bare soil and over the snow pack when a vegetation canopy is not defined.
MEASURE_H	float	m	Height of humidity measurement
ALMA_INPUT	string	TRUE or FALSE	This option tells VIC the units to expect for the input variables (default is FALSE): FALSE = Use standard VIC units: for moisture fluxes, use cumulative mm over the time step; for temperature, use degrees C; TRUE = Use the units of the ALMA convention: for moisture fluxes, use the average rate in mm/s (or kg/m^2s) over the time step; for temperature, use degrees K;

Name	Type	Units	Description
RESULT_DIR	string	path name	Name of directory where model results are written
OUT_STEP	integer	hours	Output time step length
SKIPYEAR	integer	years	Number of years to skip before starting to write output file. Used to reduce output by not including spin-up years.
COMPRESS	string	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE compress input and output files when done (uses gzip)
BINARY_OUTPUT	string	TRUE or FALSE	If TRUE write output files in binary (default is ASCII).
ALMA_OUTPUT	string	TRUE or FALSE	Options for output units (default is FALSE): FALSE = standard VIC units. Moisture fluxes are in cumulative mm over the time step; temperatures are in degrees C TRUE = units follow the ALMA convention. Moisture fluxes are in average mm/s (kg/m^2s) over the time step; temperatures are in degrees K Click here for more information.
MOISTFRACT	string	TRUE or FALSE	Options for output soil moisture units (default is FALSE): FALSE = Standard VIC units. Soil moisture is in mm over the grid cell area TRUE = Soil moisture is volume fraction
PRT_HEADER	string	TRUE or FALSE	Options for output file headers (default is FALSE): FALSE = output files contain no headers TRUE = headers are inserted into the beginning of each output file, listing the names of the variables in each field of the file (if ASCII) and/or the variable data types (if BINARY) Click here for more information.
PRT_SNOW_BAND	string	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE then print snow variables for each snow band in a separate output file (snow_band_*). NOTE: this option is ignored if output file contents are specified.
			N_OUTFILES, OUTFILE, and OUTVAR are optional; if omitted, traditional output files are produced. Click here for details on using these instructions.
N_OUTFILES	integer	N/A	Number of output files per grid cell. Click here for more information.
OUTFILE	string integer	prefix nvars	Information about this output file: Prefix of the output file (to which the lat and lon will be appended) Number of variables in the output file This should be specified once for each output file. Click here for more information.
OUTVAR	string string string integer	name format type multiplier	Information about this output variable: Name (must match a name listed in vicNl_def.h) Output format (C fprintf-style format code) Data type (one of: OUT_TYPE_DEFAULT, OUT_TYPE_CHAR, OUT_TYPE_SINT, OUT_TYPE_USINT, OUT_TYPE_INT, OUT_TYPE_FLOAT,OUT_TYPE_DOUBLE) Multiplier - number to multiply the data with in order to recover the original values (only valid with BINARY_OUTPUT=TRUE) This should be specified once for each output variable. Click here for more information.

Option Name	Option Type	Description
PRT_FLUX	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print energy fluxes debugging files
PRT_BALANCE	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print water balance debugging files
PRT_SOIL	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print soil parameter debugging files
PRT_VEGE	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print vegetation parameter debugging files
PRT_GLOBAL	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print global parameter debugging files
PRT_ATMOS	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print forcing data debugging files
PRT_SNOW	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print snow debugging files
PRT_MOIST	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print soil moisture debugging files
PRT_TEMP	TRUE or FALSE	if TRUE print soil thermal debugging files
DEBUG_DIR	char * pathname	debugging files output directory (default directory is the current directory, '.')

VIC Run-Time Options - Global Parameter File

Define Simulation Parameters

Name

Type

Units

Description

Define State Files

Name

Type

Units

Description

Define Meteorological Forcing Files

Name

Type

Units

Description

Define Parameter Files

Name

Type

Units

Description

Define Output Files

Name

Type

Units

Description

Define Debugging Parameters

Option Name

Option Type

Description

Example Global Parameter File


	Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) Macroscale Hydrologic Model