Planet4Health Project: mHM Model Runs in South African domain at 0.015625deg resolution - Soil Moisture Layers 4, 5 & 6

Historical Hydrological Simulations over the South African Domain (1990–2024) The mHM's simulations of the Planet4Health project This dataset contains historical hydrological simulations for the South African domain (domain 1020011530) conducted with the Mesoscale Hydrological Model (mHM) at a spatial resolution of 0.015625°. The simulation period spans 1990–2024 and was part of the Planet4Health (P4H) project, utilising the ERA5 meteorological forcing. This archive is prepared for DOI assignment and ensures long-term reproducibility. It includes relevant clipped NetCDF components for soil moisture layers 4, 5 and 6, consistent with the infrastructure provided within the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). The simulations were executed using a specific version of the mHM model with the SCC method for gauges, paired with the mRMv1.0 routing configuration. 🛰️ Simulation Details Model: Mesoscale Hydrological Model (mHM) Codebase: scc_for_gauges branch (git.ufz.de) Spatial resolution: 0.015625° Temporal resolution: Daily Simulation period: 1990–2024 Simulation type: Historical simulation Spin-up: 30-year spin-up using 1990–2019 ERA5 climatology Model version: v1.0 Setup Scope: Model run for domain 1020011530, post-processed and clipped. Configuration & Modules The configuration utilises standard structural components with the SCC methodology. Modules included: Snow processes: Degree-day method Soil moisture: Feddes equation for evapotranspiration reduction Infiltration: Multi-layer Brooks–Corey-like approach Direct runoff: Linear reservoir exceedance method Potential evapotranspiration: Hargreaves–Samani method Interflow: Storage reservoir with nonlinear outflow Groundwater: Linear reservoir Routing: Adaptive time-step routing with mRMv1.0 mechanisms 📥 Input Datasets Meteorological Forcing: ERA5 (Hersbach et al., 2020) at a native input meteorological resolution of 0.25°, dynamically downscaled/mapped to model requirements. Processing Infrastructure: Tracked, processed, and validated under the Planet4Health deployment pipeline (git.ufz.de). Data Interfaces: Climate Data Interface version 2.2.4 (CDI) | Climate Data Operators version 2.2.2 (CDO) | NetCDF Operators version 5.1.7 (NCO). 📤 Output Variables sm_l04: Volumetric soil moisture layer 4 (300–500 mm depth) [mm mm-1, fraction between 0 and 1] sm_l05: Volumetric soil moisture layer 5 (500–1000 mm depth) [mm mm-1, fraction between 0 and 1] sm_l06: Volumetric soil moisture layer 6 (1000–2000 mm depth) [mm mm-1, fraction between 0 and 1] 📫 Contact Ehsan Modiri – ehsan.modiri@ufz.de Pallav Kumar Shrestha – pallav-kumar.shrestha@ufz.de Institution Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Computational Hydrosystems Part of the Planet4Health simulations for South Africa. Data includes soil moisture layers 4, 5 and 6.