scholarly journals Isolating effects of terrain and soil moisture heterogeneity on the atmospheric boundary layer: Idealized simulations to diagnose land-atmosphere feedbacks

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 915-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jehan F. Rihani ◽  
Fotini K. Chow ◽  
Reed M. Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture Heterogeneity

scholarly journals Soil Moisture-Boundary Layer Feedbacks on the Loess Plateau in China Using Radiosonde Data with 1-D Atmospheric Boundary Layer Model

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1619
Author(s):  
Yingsai Ma ◽  
Xianhong Meng ◽  
Yinhuan Ao ◽  
Ye Yu ◽  
Guangwei Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Atmospheric Stability ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
The Loess Plateau ◽  
The Impact

The Loess Plateau is one land-atmosphere coupling hotspot. Soil moisture has an influence on atmospheric boundary layer development under specific early-morning atmospheric thermodynamic structures. This paper investigates the sensitivity of atmospheric convection to soil moisture conditions over the Loess Plateau in China by using the convective triggering potential (CTP)—humidity index (HIlow) framework. The CTP indicates atmospheric stability and the HIlow indicates atmospheric humidity in the low-level atmosphere. By comparing the model outcomes with the observations, the one-dimensional model achieves realistic daily behavior of the radiation and surface heat fluxes and the mixed layer properties with appropriate modifications. New CTP-HIlow thresholds for soil moisture-atmosphere feedbacks are found in the Loess Plateau area. By applying the new thresholds with long-time scales sounding data, we conclude that negative feedback is dominant in the north and west portion of the Loess Plateau; positive feedback is predominant in the south and east portion. In general, this framework has predictive significance for the impact of soil moisture on precipitation. By using this new CTP-HIlow framework, we can determine under what atmospheric conditions soil moisture can affect the triggering of precipitation and under what atmospheric conditions soil moisture has no influence on the triggering of precipitation.

scholarly journals Ensemble-based data assimilation of atmospheric boundary layer observations improves the soil moisture analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Sebastian Finn ◽  
Gernot Geppert ◽  
Felix Ament
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Ensemble Kalman Filter ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Surface Component ◽  
Moisture Analysis

Abstract. We revise the potential of assimilating atmospheric boundary layer observations into the soil moisture. Previous studies often stated a negative assimilation impact of boundary layer observations on the soil moisture analysis, but recent developments in physically-consistent hydrological model systems and ensemble-based data assimilation lead to an emerging potential of boundary layer observations for land surface data assimilation. To explore this potential, we perform idealized twin experiments for a seven-day period in Summer 2015 with a coupled atmosphere-land modelling platform. We use TerrSysMP for these limited-area simulations with a horizontal resolution 1.0 km in the land surface component. We assimilate sparse synthetic 2-metre-temperature observations into the land surface component and update the soil moisture with a localized Ensemble Kalman filter. We show a positive assimilation impact of these observations on the soil moisture analysis during day-time and a neutral impact during night. Furthermore, we find that hourly-filtering with a three-dimensional Ensemble Kalman filter results in smaller errors than daily-smoothing with a one-dimensional Simplified Extended Kalman filter, whereas the Ensemble Kalman filter additionally allows us to directly assimilate boundary layer observations without an intermediate optimal interpolation step. We increase the physical consistency in the analysis for the land surface and boundary by updating the atmospheric temperature together with the soil moisture, which as a consequence further reduces errors in the soil moisture analysis. Based on these results, we conclude that we can merge the decoupled data assimilation cycles for the land surface and the atmosphere into one single cycle with hourly-like update steps.

scholarly journals A Scale-Consistent Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform Based on COSMO, CLM, and ParFlow

2014 ◽  
Vol 142 (9) ◽  
pp. 3466-3483 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Shrestha ◽  
M. Sulis ◽  
M. Masbou ◽  
S. Kollet ◽  
C. Simmer
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Groundwater Flow ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Groundwater Flow Model ◽  
Systems Modeling ◽  
Component Models ◽  
Runoff Production

A highly modular and scale-consistent Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform (TerrSysMP) is presented. The modeling platform consists of an atmospheric model (Consortium for Small-Scale Modeling; COSMO), a land surface model (the NCAR Community Land Model, version 3.5; CLM3.5), and a 3D variably saturated groundwater flow model (ParFlow). An external coupler (Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice Soil, version 3.0; OASIS3) with multiple executable approaches is employed to couple the three independently developed component models, which intrinsically allows for a separation of temporal–spatial modeling scales and the coupling frequencies between the component models. Idealized TerrSysMP simulations are presented, which focus on the interaction of key hydrologic processes, like runoff production (excess rainfall and saturation) at different hydrological modeling scales and the drawdown of the water table through groundwater pumping, with processes in the atmospheric boundary layer. The results show a strong linkage between integrated surface–groundwater dynamics, biogeophysical processes, and boundary layer evolution. The use of the mosaic approach for the hydrological component model (to resolve subgrid-scale topography) impacts simulated runoff production, soil moisture redistribution, and boundary layer evolution, which demonstrates the importance of hydrological modeling scales and thus the advantages of the coupling approach used in this study. Real data simulations were carried out with TerrSysMP over the Rur catchment in Germany. The inclusion of the integrated surface–groundwater flow model results in systematic patterns in the root zone soil moisture, which influence exchange flux distributions and the ensuing atmospheric boundary layer development. In a first comparison to observations, the 3D model compared to the 1D model shows slightly improved predictions of surface fluxes and a strong sensitivity to the initial soil moisture content.

scholarly journals Impact of Lateral Groundwater Flow and Subsurface Lower Boundary Conditions on Atmospheric Boundary Layer Development over Complex Terrain

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1133-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary M. Forrester ◽  
Reed M. Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Lower Boundary ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Water Model ◽  
Moist Convection ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Impact

AbstractCredible soil moisture redistribution schemes are essential to meteorological models, as lower boundary moisture influences the balance of surface turbulent fluxes and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) development. While land surface models (LSMs) have vastly improved in their hydrologic representation, several commonly held assumptions, such as free-draining lower boundary, one-dimensional moisture flux, and lack of groundwater representation, can bias the terrestrial water balance. This study explores the impact of LSM hydrology representation on ABL development in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model. The results of summertime WRF simulations with Noah LSM, characterized by 2-m-thick soil and one-dimensional flow, are shown for a domain in the Colorado Rocky Mountain headwaters region. A reference WRF simulation is compared to 1) the same model with soil moisture initialized by the hydrologic model ParFlow; 2) a deep, free-draining simulation; and 3) WRF coupled to ParFlow, a three-dimensional, integrated groundwater-surface water model. Results show that both lateral transport of groundwater and the rate of drainage from the lower soil layer can weaken or reverse the coupling strength between evaporative fraction and ABL over a 5-month summer period. The resulting shifts in low-level moist convection in river valleys and thermally driven airflows yield strengthened anabatic upslope winds and perturbations to regional precipitation.

scholarly journals Local Land-Atmosphere Interaction: Exploring the Terrestrial Leg with “Little Omega”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ek ◽  
Bert Holtslag
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Free Atmosphere ◽  
Evaporative Fraction ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Atmosphere Interaction ◽  
Downstream Impacts

<p>Land-atmosphere coupling involves the interaction between the land-surface and the overlying atmospheric boundary layer, with effects on and by the free atmosphere above, and then with associated downstream impacts on clouds, convection and precipitation. We focus on the "terrestrial leg" of land-atmosphere coupling, that is, the near-surface land-atmosphere interaction where changing soil moisture affects the surface evapotranspiration. (The "atmospheric leg" of land-atmosphere coupling involves changes in surface fluxes and the effects on the atmospheric boundary layer, with those downstream impacts.) The change in surface evapotranspiration, or evaporative fraction, with changing soil moisture is an indicator of the strength of coupling between the soil/surface and the near-surface atmosphere, where for strong coupling, a given change in soil moisture yields a large change in the evaporative fraction, and for weak coupling, a given change in soil moisture yields a small change in the evaporative fraction. The strength of coupling depends on a number of different conditions and processes, i.e. the nature of the surface-layer turbulence, to what degree the surface is vegetated and by what type of vegetation, what the soil texture is, and how plant transpiration and soil hydraulic and soil thermal processes change with changing soil moisture. We examine this terrestrial leg of land-atmosphere coupling with an analytical development using the Penman-Monteith equation, then evaluate several years of fluxnet data sets from multiple sites to characterize these interactions on the local scale, contrasting different landscapes, e.g. grasslands versus forests, and other surface types. Initial findings show stronger coupling over forests. </p>

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