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Overview
The Land Information System is a research project to build a land surface modeling capability that provides appropriate input data to select land surface models, and outputs data in a readily usable form. The image below shows a diagram of the land surface modeling concept. Click the image for a closer view.
Land surface models seek to predict the terrestrial water, energy and biogeochemical processes by solving the governing equations of the soil-vegetation-snowpack medium.
In order to predict water, energy and biogeochemical processes using (typically 1-D vertical) partial differential equations, land surface models require three types of inputs: 1) Initial conditions, which describe the initial state of the land surface; 2) Boundary conditions, which describe both the upper (atmospheric) fluxes or states also known as "forcings" and the lower (soil) fluxes or states; and 3) Parameters, which are a function of soil, vegetation, topography, etc., and are used to solve the governing equations.
Output from the land surface models translates to variables in ALMA standard format such as soil moisture, surface runoffs, and canopy conductance. The Get LIS Data link allows registered users to download data via HTTP. The LIS web site also has a Gallery section that contains visualizations of LIS data.
For more information on the LIS design, please review the Software Design Document. To see how LIS is progressing, see the FY03 Annual Report.
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