PCR-GLOBWB output description

PCR-GLOBWB provides a large number of output variables that capture the terrestrial water cycle and water resources. Here we will describe the most important PCR-GLOBWB output variables. For the complete and latest list of the PCR-GLOBWB output variables, please study the models' output variable definition file on our GitHub repository

Note that the output frequency (e.g. yearly, daily or monthly) and aggregation (e.g. sum, average, minimum or maximum) are specified in the configuration file under the reportingOptions (see also the configure section). For example, all output variables under outMonthTotNC will be provided as monthly totals in a NetCDF file.

Meteorology

Variable	Units	Description
precipitation	m	Rain plus snow fall (downscaled)
temperature	degrees celsius	Air temperature (downscaled)
referencePotET	m	Reference potential evapotranspiration (downscaled)

Storage

Variable	Units	Description
interceptStor	m	Canopy intercepted water storage
snowCoverSWE	m	Snow pack snow water equivalent storage
snowFreeWater	m	Snow pack free water storage
topWaterLayer	m	Top (ponding) water storage
storUppTotal	m	Upper (first) soil layer water storage
storLowTotal	m	Lower (second) soil layer water storage
storGroundwater	m	Non-fossil groundwater storage
storGroundwaterFossil	m	Fossil groundwater storage
surfaceWaterStorage	m	Surface (rivers, lakes and reservoirs) water storage
totalActiveStorageThickness	m	Total water storage (all of the above except for fossile groundwater storage)
totalWaterStorageThickness	m	Total water storage (all of the above)
satDegUpp	m_water.m_capacity-1	Upper (first) soil layer saturation degree
satDegLow	m_water.m_capacity-1	Lower (second) soil layer saturation degree
satDegTotal	m_water.m_capacity-1	Soil saturation degree (upper and lower layers)

Evapotranspiration

Variable	Units	Description
interceptEvap	m	Canopy intercepted water evaporation
actSnowFreeWaterEvap	m	Snow pack free water evaporation
topWaterLayerEvap	m	Top (ponding) water evaporation
actBareSoilEvap	m	Bare upper (first) soil layer water evaporation
actTranspiUppTotal	m	Upper (first) soil layer water transpiration
actTranspiLowTotal	m	Lower (second) soil layer water transpiration
actTranspiTotal	m	Soil water transpiration (upper and lower layers)
waterBodyActEvaporation	m	Water body (rivers, lakes and reservoirs) water evaporation
actualET	m	Land-surface evapotranspiration (all of the above except for water body evaporation)
totalEvaporation	m	Total evapotranspiration (all of the above)

Runoff

Variable	Units	Description
directRunoff	m	Direct surface runoff
interflowTotal	m	Interflow runoff from the soil to the surface
baseflow	m	Baseflow runoff from the groundwater to the surface
local_water_body_flux	m	Runoff from local water bodies
runoff	m	Land-surface runoff (all of the above except for runoff from local water bodies)
totalRunoff	m	Total runoff (all of the above)
discharge	m3.s-1	Discharge (routed upstream accumulated runoff)

Water use

Variable	Units	Description
irrGrossDemand	m	Irrigation water demand
nonIrrGrossDemand	m	Non-irrigation (domestic, industry and livestock) water demand
totalGrossDemand	m	Total water demand (irrigation and non-irrigation)
surfaceWaterAbstraction	m	Surface water (rivers, lakes and reservoirs) water abstraction
nonFossilGroundwaterAbstraction	m	Non-fossil groundwater abstraction
fossilGroundwaterAbstraction	m	Fossil groundwater abstraction
totalGroundwaterAbstraction	m	Groundwater abstraction (non-fossil and fossil)
desalinationAbstraction	m	Desalination water abstraction
totalAbstraction	m	Total abstraction (all of the above)
irrPaddyWaterWithdrawal	m	Paddy irrigation water withdrawal
irrNonPaddyWaterWithdrawal	m	Non-paddy irrigation water withdrawal
irrigationWaterWithdrawal	m	Irrigation water withdrawal (paddy and non-paddy)
domesticWaterWithdrawal	m	Domestic water withdrawal
industryWaterWithdrawal	m	Industry water withdrawal
livestockWaterWithdrawal	m	Livestock water withdrawal
nonIrrReturnFlow	m	Return flow from non-irrigation withdrawals