6. One paragraph description of your model (e.g. abstract from report or paper);
A land surface scheme incorporating three soil layers, a snow layer, and a vegetation canopy with physically-based calculations of heat and moisture transfers at the surface and across layer boundaries. Snow is treated as a variable depth fourth ‘soil’ layer and snow-covered and snow-free areas are treated separately. Canopy snow processes (interception, sublimation, and melt) are also treated in CLASS. The energy balance equation is solved iteratively for the surface temperature and the surface infiltration rate is calculated using a simplified theoretical analysis which allows for surface ponding and runoff.
50. Please provide references relevant to the model description and use.
Verseghy, D.L., 1991: CLASS - A Canadian land surface scheme for GCMs. I. Soil Model. Intl. J. Climatology, 11, 111-133.
Verseghy, D.L., N.A. McFarlane and M. Lazare, 1993: CLASS - A Canadian Land Surface Scheme for GCMs. Part II: Vegetation model and coupled runs, Intl. J. Climatology, 13, 347-370.
Foster, J., G. Liston, R. Koster, R. Essery, H. Behr, L. Dumenil, D. Verseghy, S. Thompson, D. Pollard, J. Cohen, 1996: Snow cover and snow mass intercomparisons of general circulation models and remotely sensed datasets, J. Clim., 9, 409-426.