High-Resolution WRF Model Simulations of Critical Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions Within Arid and Temperate Climates (WRFCLIM)

2016 ◽  
pp. 607-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josipa Milovac ◽  
Oliver-Lloyd Branch ◽  
Hans-Stefan Bauer ◽  
Thomas Schwitalla ◽  
Kirsten Warrach-Sagi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Surface Atmosphere ◽  
Temperate Climates

scholarly journals WRF Model Simulations of the Influence of the Athabasca Oil Sands Development on Convective Storms

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Brown ◽  
Gerhard Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Initiation Time ◽  
Athabasca Oil Sands ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Surface Disturbance

Abstract The Athabasca oil sands development has created a land surface disturbance of almost 900 km2 in northeastern Alberta. Both through industrial processes and the removal of boreal forest vegetation, this surface disturbance impacts meteorology in the vicinity by releasing waste heat, raising the surface temperature, and lowering the surface humidity. To investigate the effects of the Athabasca oil sands development on thunderstorm intensity, initiation time, and duration, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model was employed to simulate the effect of the surface disturbance on atmospheric conditions on 10 case study days. The results suggested the oil sands surface disturbance was not associated with substantial increases in thunderstorm intensity on any of the case study days. On two case study days, however, the WRF Model simulations differed substantially from the observed meteorological conditions and only approached the observations when the oil sands surface disturbance was included in the model simulation. Including the oil sands surface disturbance in the model simulations resulted in thunderstorm initiation about 2 h earlier and increased thunderstorm duration. Data from commercial aircraft showed that the 850–500-mb temperature difference was greater than 30°C (very unstable) only on these 2 days. Such cases are sufficiently rare that they are not expected to affect the overall thunderstorm climatology. Still, in these very unstable cases, the oil sands development appears to have a significant effect on thunderstorm initiation time and duration.

scholarly journals Impacts of land surface model and land use data on WRF model simulations of rainfall and temperature over Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Heliyon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. e02469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achenafi Teklay ◽  
Yihun T. Dile ◽  
Dereje H. Asfaw ◽  
Haimanote K. Bayabil ◽  
Kibruyesfa Sisay
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Lake Tana ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Lake Tana Basin

scholarly journals Effects of shrub and tree cover increase on the near-surface atmosphere in northern Fennoscandia

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 4209-4227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanne H. Rydsaa ◽  
Frode Stordal ◽  
Anders Bryn ◽  
Lena M. Tallaksen
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Positive Feedbacks ◽  
Surface Atmosphere ◽  
Northern Fennoscandia

Abstract. Increased shrub and tree cover in high latitudes is a widely observed response to climate change that can lead to positive feedbacks to the regional climate. In this study we evaluate the sensitivity of the near-surface atmosphere to a potential increase in shrub and tree cover in the northern Fennoscandia region. We have applied the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with the Noah-UA land surface module in evaluating biophysical effects of increased shrub cover on the near-surface atmosphere at a fine resolution (5.4 km  ×  5.4 km). Perturbation experiments are performed in which we prescribe a gradual increase in taller vegetation in the alpine shrub and tree cover according to empirically established bioclimatic zones within the study region. We focus on the spring and summer atmospheric response. To evaluate the sensitivity of the atmospheric response to inter-annual variability in climate, simulations were conducted for two contrasting years, one warm and one cold. We find that shrub and tree cover increase leads to a general increase in near-surface temperatures, with the highest influence seen during the snowmelt season and a more moderate effect during summer. We find that the warming effect is stronger in taller vegetation types, with more complex canopies leading to decreases in the surface albedo. Counteracting effects include increased evapotranspiration, which can lead to increased cloud cover, precipitation, and snow cover. We find that the strength of the atmospheric feedback is sensitive to snow cover variations and to a lesser extent to summer temperatures. Our results show that the positive feedback to high-latitude warming induced by increased shrub and tree cover is a robust feature across inter-annual differences in meteorological conditions and will likely play an important role in land–atmosphere feedback processes in the future.

scholarly journals Radar-based characterisation of heavy precipitation in the eastern Mediterranean and its representation in a convection-permitting model

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 1227-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Armon ◽  
Francesco Marra ◽  
Yehouda Enzel ◽  
Dorita Rostkier-Edelstein ◽  
Efrat Morin
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Heavy Precipitation ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Rain Gauges ◽  
Rainfall Patterns

Abstract. Heavy precipitation events (HPEs) can lead to natural hazards (e.g. floods and debris flows) and contribute to water resources. Spatiotemporal rainfall patterns govern the hydrological, geomorphological, and societal effects of HPEs. Thus, a correct characterisation and prediction of rainfall patterns is crucial for coping with these events. Information from rain gauges is generally limited due to the sparseness of the networks, especially in the presence of sharp climatic gradients. Forecasting HPEs depends on the ability of weather models to generate credible rainfall patterns. This paper characterises rainfall patterns during HPEs based on high-resolution weather radar data and evaluates the performance of a high-resolution, convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in simulating these patterns. We identified 41 HPEs in the eastern Mediterranean from a 24-year radar record using local thresholds based on quantiles for different durations, classified these events into two synoptic systems, and ran model simulations for them. For most durations, HPEs near the coastline were characterised by the highest rain intensities; however, for short durations, the highest rain intensities were found for the inland desert. During the rainy season, the rain field's centre of mass progresses from the sea inland. Rainfall during HPEs is highly localised in both space (less than a 10 km decorrelation distance) and time (less than 5 min). WRF model simulations were accurate in generating the structure and location of the rain fields in 39 out of 41 HPEs. However, they showed a positive bias relative to the radar estimates and exhibited errors in the spatial location of the heaviest precipitation. Our results indicate that convection-permitting model outputs can provide reliable climatological analyses of heavy precipitation patterns; conversely, flood forecasting requires the use of ensemble simulations to overcome the spatial location errors.

scholarly journals Evaluation of TOPMODEL-Based Land Surface–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS) through a Soil Moisture Simulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolei Fu ◽  
Lifeng Luo ◽  
Ming Pan ◽  
Zhongbo Yu ◽  
Ying Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Absolute Difference ◽  
Coarse Scale ◽  
Transfer Scheme ◽  
Surface Atmosphere ◽  
Spatial Coverage

Abstract Better quantification of the spatiotemporal distribution of soil moisture across different spatial scales contributes significantly to the understanding of land surface processes on the Earth as an integrated system. While observational data for root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) often have sparse spatial coverage, model-simulated soil moisture may provide a useful alternative. TOPMODEL-Based Land Surface–Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS) has been widely studied and actively modified in recent years, while a detailed regional application with evaluation currently is still lacking. Thus, TOPLATS was used to generate high-resolution (30 arc s) RZSM based on coarse-scale (0.125°) forcing data over part of the Arkansas–Red River basin. First, the simulated RZSM was resampled to coarse scale to compare with the results of Mosaic, Noah, and VIC from NLDAS. Second, TOPLATS performance was assessed based on the spatial absolute difference among the models. The comparison shows that TOPLATS performance is similar to VIC, but different from Mosaic and Noah. Last, the simulated RZSM was compared with in situ observations of 16 stations in the study area. The results suggest that the simulated spatial distribution of RZSM is largely consistent with the distribution of topographic index (TI) in most instances, as topography was traditionally considered a major, but not the only, factor in horizontal redistribution of soil moisture. In addition, the finer-resolution RZSM can reflect the in situ soil moisture change at most local sites to a certain degree. The evaluation confirms that TOPLATS is a useful tool to estimate high-resolution soil moisture and has great potential to provide regional soil moisture estimates.

Sensitivity of high resolution WRF model to land surface schemes in simulating boreal summer climate over Central Asia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Lu ◽  
Weidong Guo ◽  
Yongkang Xue ◽  
Fang Huang
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Adjustment Process ◽  
Land Surface Scheme ◽  
Surface Scheme

<p>The Land surface scheme is crucial for the performance of regional climate models in dynamic downscaling application. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of the simulation  with high resolution (10km) WRF model to the land surface schemes over Central Asia. The high resolution WRF simulations for 19 summers from 2000 to 2018 are conducted with four different land surface schemes (hereafter referred to as Exp-CLM, Exp-Noah-MP, Exp-PX and Exp-SSiB, respectively). The initial and boundary conditions for the WRF model simulations are provided from the NCEP-FNL analysis product. The ERA-Interim reanalysis (ERA), the GHCN-CAMS (CAMS) and the CRU gridded data are used to comprehensively evaluate the WRF simulations. Compared with verification data, the WRF model with high resolution can reasonably reproduce the spatial patterns of summer mean large scale atmospheric circulation, 2-m temperature and precipitation. The simulation results, however, are sensitive to the option of land surface scheme. The performance of Exp-CLM4 and Exp-SSiB are better than that of Exp-Noah-MP and Exp-PX assessed by the multivariable integrated evaluation method. To comprehensively understand the dynamic and physical mechanisms behind the WRF model sensitivity to land surface schemes, the differences in the surface energy balance between the ensemble means Ens-CLM4-SSiB and Ens-NoanMP-PX are analyzed in detail. The results demonstrate that the intensity of the simulated sensible heat flux over Central Asia is weaker in Ens-CLM4-SSiB than that in Ens-NoahMP-PX. As a result, large differences in geopotential height occur over the model simulation domain. The simulated wind fields are subsequently affected due to the geostrophic adjustment process, thus the simulation of 2-m temperature, precipitation, surface soil moisture and surface skin temperature are all affected.</p>

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