FORCE_TYPE defines which forcing variables are in the forcing file, and the order in which they appear. These lines must follow either FORCING1 or FORCING2, and N_TYPES so that the model knows which file to associate the columns with and how any columns are present. If the forcing file is in binary format, FORCE_TYPE must also define whether each value is a SIGNED or UNSIGNED short int and the factor by which it needs to be multiplied.
Possible forcing file data types are:
- AIR_TEMP - sub-daily air temperature (C)
- ALBEDO - surface albedo (fraction)
- DENSITY - atmospheric density (kg/m^3)
- PREC - precipitation (mm)
- PRESSURE - atmospheric pressure (kPa)
- SHORTWAVE - shortwave radiation (W/m2)
- TMAX - daily maximum temperature (C)
- TMIN - daily minimum temperature (C)
- VP - atmospheric vapor pressure (kPa)
- WIND - wind speed (m/s)
- SKIP - used to indicate a data column which is not read into the model
Examples. a standard four column daily forcing data file will be defined as:
ASCII File¶
FORCING1 FORCING_DATA/LDAS_ONE_DEGREE/data_
N_TYPES 4
FORCE_TYPE PREC
FORCE_TYPE TMAX
FORCE_TYPE TMIN
FORCE_TYPE WIND
FORCE_FORMAT ASCII
FORCE_DT 24
Binary File¶
FORCING1 FORCING_DATA/LDAS_ONE_DEGREE/data_
N_TYPES 4
FORCE_TYPE PREC UNSIGNED 40
FORCE_TYPE TMAX SIGNED 100
FORCE_TYPE TMIN SIGNED 100
FORCE_TYPE WIND SIGNED 100
FORCE_FORMAT BINARY
FORCE_ENDIAN LITTLE
FORCE_DT 24