Simulating the Formation of River Runoff and Snow Cover in the Northern West Siberia

The potentialities of a technique for simulating runoff hydrographs of northern rivers, developed earlier, are examined as applied to permafrost areas with high percentage of wetlands represented by the river basins of Taz, Pur, and Nadym in West Siberian Plain. The technique is based on the land surface model SWAP in combination with input data based on global data sets of land surface parameters and meteorological forcing data derived from observations from meteorological stations within or near the river basins. The ability of model SWAP to reproduce the many-year dynamics of basin-averaged snow depth and mean snow water equivalent in the Taz R. basin was also examined.