Estimated annual regime of energy-balance components,evapotranspiration and soil moisture for a drainage basin in the case of a CO2 doubling

Assuming a doubling of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration, parameters of an empirical formula for calculating the daily net terrestrial radiation under the climatic conditions of Belgium are determined. The developed method takes into account information yielded by climate models about the CO₂ impacts. Annual regimes of the energy-balance components are calculated for a drainage basin in Belgium. A daily step conceptual hydrological model (developed at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) was run to estimate the effective evapotranspiration and the soil moisture in the 2 × CO₂ case; results of this simulation are compared with the present-day conditions.This research was supported by a Commission of the European Communities Grant CLI-104B(RS)]