scholarly journals Characterization of Turbulent Latent and Sensible Heat Flux Exchange between the Atmosphere and Ocean in MERRA

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 821-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brent Roberts ◽  
Franklin R. Robertson ◽  
Carol A. Clayson ◽  
Michael G. Bosilovich
Keyword(s):  
Surface Wind ◽  
Turbulent Fluxes ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variability ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Heat And Moisture ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture across the atmosphere–ocean interface are fundamental components of the earth’s energy and water balance. Characterizing both the spatiotemporal variability and the fidelity of these exchanges of heat and moisture is critical to understanding the global water and energy cycle variations, quantifying atmosphere–ocean feedbacks, and improving model predictability. This study examines the veracity of the recently completed NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) product in terms of its turbulent surface fluxes. This assessment employs a large dataset of directly measured turbulent fluxes as well as other turbulent surface flux datasets. The spatial and temporal variability of the surface fluxes are examined in terms of their annual-mean climatologies, their seasonal covariability of near-surface bulk parameters, and their representation of extremes. The impact of data assimilation on the near-surface parameters is assessed through evaluation of the incremental analysis update tendencies. It is found that MERRA turbulent surface fluxes are relatively accurate for typical conditions but have systematically weak vertical gradients in moisture and temperature and a weaker covariability between the near-surface gradients and wind speed than found in observations. This results in an underestimate of the surface latent and sensible heat fluxes over the western boundary current and storm-track regions. The assimilation of observations generally acts to bring MERRA closer to observational products by increasing moisture and temperature near the surface and decreasing the near-surface wind speeds.

scholarly journals Assessing the Impact of Changes in Land Surface Conditions on WRF Predictions in Arid Regions

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2829-2853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marouane Temimi ◽  
Ricardo Fonseca ◽  
Narendra Nelli ◽  
Michael Weston ◽  
Mohan Thota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eddy Covariance ◽  
Soil Texture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Abu Dhabi ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Cold Bias ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Impact

AbstractA thorough evaluation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is conducted over the United Arab Emirates, for the period September 2017–August 2018. Two simulations are performed: one with the default model settings (control run), and another one (experiment) with an improved representation of soil texture and land use land cover (LULC). The model predictions are evaluated against observations at 35 weather stations, radiosonde profiles at the coastal Abu Dhabi International Airport, and surface fluxes from eddy-covariance measurements at the inland city of Al Ain. It is found that WRF’s cold temperature bias, also present in the forcing data and seen almost exclusively at night, is reduced when the surface and soil properties are updated, by as much as 3.5 K. This arises from the expansion of the urban areas, and the replacement of loamy regions with sand, which has a higher thermal inertia. However, the model continues to overestimate the strength of the near-surface wind at all stations and seasons, typically by 0.5–1.5 m s−1. It is concluded that the albedo of barren/sparsely vegetated regions in WRF (0.380) is higher than that inferred from eddy-covariance observations (0.340), which can also explain the referred cold bias. At the Abu Dhabi site, even though soil texture and LULC are not changed, there is a small but positive effect on the predicted vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and horizontal wind speed, mostly between 950 and 750 hPa, possibly because of differences in vertical mixing.

scholarly journals The Effects of Assimilating Conventional and ATOVS Data on Forecasted Near-Surface Wind with WRF-3DVAR

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feimin Zhang ◽  
Yi Yang ◽  
Chenghai Wang
Keyword(s):  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Lower Atmosphere ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Initial Field ◽  
Infrared Observation ◽  
Forecast Performance ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract In this paper, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with the three-dimensional variational data assimilation (WRF-3DVAR) system is used to investigate the impact on the near-surface wind forecast of assimilating both conventional data and Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS) radiances compared with assimilating conventional data only. The results show that the quality of the initial field and the forecast performance of wind in the lower atmosphere are improved in both assimilation cases. Assimilation results capture the spatial distribution of the wind speed, and the observation data assimilation has a positive effect on near-surface wind forecasts. Although the impacts of assimilating ATOVS radiances on near-surface wind forecasts are limited, the fine structure of local weather systems illustrated by the WRF-3DVAR system suggests that assimilating ATOVS radiances has a positive effect on the near-surface wind forecast under conditions that ATOVS radiances in the initial condition are properly amplified. Assimilating conventional data is an effective approach for improving the forecast of the near-surface wind.

Field measurements of windbreak effects on airflow, turbulent exchanges and microclimates

2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 665 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. Cleugh
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Water Vapour ◽  
Incident Angle ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Experimental Program ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Speed Reduction ◽  
Temperature And Humidity ◽  
The Impact

While there has been considerable research into airflow around windbreaks, the interaction of this airflow with the exchanges of heat and water vapour has received far less attention. Yet, the effects of windbreaks on microclimates, water use and agricultural productivity depend, in part, on this interaction. A field and wind tunnel experimental program was conducted to quantify the effects of windbreaks on microclimates and evaporation fluxes. This paper describes the field measurements, which were conducted over a 6-week period at a tree windbreak site located in undulating terrain in south-east Australia. The expected features of airflow around porous windbreaks were observed despite the less than ideal nature of the site. As predicted from theory, the air temperature and humidity were elevated, by day, in the quiet zone and the location of the peak increase in temperature and humidity coincided with the location of the minimum wind speed. However, this increase in temperature and humidity was small in size and restricted to the zone within 10 windbreak heights (H) of the windbreak. This pattern contrasts with that for the near surface wind speeds, which were reduced by up to 80% in a sheltered zone that extended from 5 H upwind to over 25 H downwind of the windbreak. Similar differences were found between the turbulent scalar (heat, water vapour) and velocity terms. While both are reduced in the quiet zone, the turbulent scalar terms near the surface were substantially enhanced at the location where the wake zone begins. Here the mean wind speed is reduced by 50% and the turbulent velocity terms return to their upwind values. Wind speed reductions varied linearly with [cos (90 – α)], where α is the incident angle of the wind, for sites located 6 H downwind. This means that the spatial pattern of wind speed reduction applies to all wind directions, provided that distance downwind is expressed in terms of streamwise distance. However, shelter in the near-break region is slightly increased as the wind blows more obliquely towards the windbreak. The atmospheric demand in the quiet zone was reduced when the humidity of the upwind air was low. In such conditions, windbreaks can 'protect' growing crops from the impact of dry air with high atmospheric demand. The corollary is that in humid conditions, the atmospheric demand in the quiet zone can be increased as a result of shelter.

scholarly journals Modeling the Effect of Desert Urbanization on Local Climate and Natural Dust Generation: A Case Study for Erbil, Iraq

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Sherzad T. Tahir ◽  
Huei-Ping Huang
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Slight Reduction ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Surface Dust ◽  
Dust Generation

This study uses a suite of meteorological and land-surface models to quantify the changes in local climate and surface dust fluxes associated with desert urbanization. Formulas connecting friction velocity and soil moisture to dust generation are used to quantify surface fluxes for natural wind-blown dust. The models are used to conduct a series of simulations for the desert city of Erbil across a period of rapid urbanization. The results show significant nighttime warming and weak but robust daytime cooling associated with desert urbanization. A slight reduction in near-surface wind speed is also found in the areas undergoing urbanization. These findings are consistent with previous empirical and modeling studies on other desert cities. Numerical models and empirical formulas are used to produce climatological maps of surface dust fluxes as a function of season, and for the pre- and post-urbanization eras. This framework can potentially be used to bridge the gap in observation on the trends in local dust generation associated with land-use changes and urban expansions.

Combined state-parameter estimation with the LETKF for convective-scale weather forecasting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Ruckstuhl ◽  
Tijana Janjic
Keyword(s):  
Parameter Estimation ◽  
Gaussian Noise ◽  
Roughness Length ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Model Error ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
State Variables ◽  
Augmented State ◽  
The Impact

<p>We investigate the feasibility of addressing model error by perturbing and  estimating uncertain static model parameters using the localized ensemble transform Kalman filter. In particular we use the augmented state approach, where parameters are updated by observations via their correlation with observed state variables. This online approach offers a flexible, yet consistent way to better fit model variables affected by the chosen parameters to observations, while ensuring feasible model states. We show in a nearly-operational convection-permitting configuration that the prediction of clouds and precipitation with the COSMO-DE model is improved if the two dimensional roughness length parameter is estimated with the augmented state approach. Here, the targeted model error is the roughness length itself and the surface fluxes, which influence the initiation of convection. At analysis time, Gaussian noise with a specified correlation matrix is added to the roughness length to regulate the parameter spread. In the northern part of the COSMO-DE domain, where the terrain is mostly flat and assimilated surface wind measurements are dense, estimating the roughness length led to improved forecasts of up to six hours of clouds and precipitation. In the southern part of the domain, the parameter estimation was detrimental unless the correlation length scale of the Gaussian noise that is added to the roughness length is increased. The impact of the parameter estimation was found to be larger when synoptic forcing is weak and the model output is more sensitive to the roughness length.</p>

scholarly journals Parameterization of fluxes over heterogeneous snow cover for GCMs

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 38-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Essery
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Layer Model ◽  
Boundary Layer Model ◽  
Single Column ◽  
Hadley Centre ◽  
Heat And Moisture ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Tile Model

Fluxes of heat and moisture over heterogeneous snow cover are studied using a boundary-layer model. The performance of a “tile” model, suitable for calculating gridbox-average surface fluxes in a GCM, is assessed in comparison with the boundary-layer model. The impact of using a tile representation for heterogeneous snow cover in a single-column version of the Hadley Centre GCM is discussed.

scholarly journals Sensible Heat Fluxes in the Nearly Neutral Boundary Layer: The Impact of Frictional Heating within the Surface Layer

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1039-1053
Author(s):  
J. M. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Surface Layer ◽  
Frictional Heating ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Simple Modification ◽  
Neutral Boundary Layer ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The effect of frictional dissipative heating on the calculation of surface fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer using bulk flux formulas is considered. Although the importance of frictional dissipation in intense storms has been widely recognized, it is suggested here that its impact is also to be seen at more moderate wind speeds in apparently enhanced heat transfer coefficients and countergradient fluxes in nearly neutral conditions. A simple modification to the bulk flux formula can be made to account for its impact within the surface layer. This modification is consistent with an interpretation of the surface layer as one across which the flux of total energy is constant. The effect of this modification on tropical cyclones is assessed in an idealized model, where it is shown to reduce the predicted maximum wind speed by about 4%. In numerical simulations of three individual storms, the impacts are more subtle but indicate a reduction of the sensible heat flux into the storm and a cooling of the surface layer.

scholarly journals Verification of Land–Atmosphere Coupling in Forecast Models, Reanalyses, and Land Surface Models Using Flux Site Observations

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Dirmeyer ◽  
Liang Chen ◽  
Jiexia Wu ◽  
Chul-Su Shin ◽  
Bohua Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Energy ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Surface Flux ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Model Systems ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Flux Tower

Abstract This study compares four model systems in three configurations (LSM, LSM + GCM, and reanalysis) with global flux tower observations to validate states, surface fluxes, and coupling indices between land and atmosphere. Models clearly underrepresent the feedback of surface fluxes on boundary layer properties (the atmospheric leg of land–atmosphere coupling) and may overrepresent the connection between soil moisture and surface fluxes (the terrestrial leg). Models generally underrepresent spatial and temporal variability relative to observations, which is at least partially an artifact of the differences in spatial scale between model grid boxes and flux tower footprints. All models bias high in near-surface humidity and downward shortwave radiation, struggle to represent precipitation accurately, and show serious problems in reproducing surface albedos. These errors create challenges for models to partition surface energy properly, and errors are traceable through the surface energy and water cycles. The spatial distribution of the amplitude and phase of annual cycles (first harmonic) are generally well reproduced, but the biases in means tend to reflect in these amplitudes. Interannual variability is also a challenge for models to reproduce. Although the models validate better against Bowen-ratio-corrected surface flux observations, which allow for closure of surface energy balances at flux tower sites, it is not clear whether the corrected fluxes are more representative of actual fluxes. The analysis illuminates targets for coupled land–atmosphere model development, as well as the value of long-term globally distributed observational monitoring.

A Package of New Universal Non-Iterative Parametrizations for Stable Surface Layer Transfer Coefficients of Momentum, Heat and Moisture in Numerical Earth System Models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Gryanik ◽  
Christof Luepkes ◽  
Andrey Grachev ◽  
Dmitry Sidorenko
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Similarity Theory ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Stability Functions ◽  
Stable Surface Layer ◽  
Heat And Moisture ◽  
The Impact

<p><span>Results of weather forecast, present-day climate simulations and future climate projections depend among other factors on the interaction between the atmosphere and the underlying sea-ice, the land and the ocean. In numerical weather prediction and climate models some of these interactions are accounted for by transport coefficients describing turbulent exchange of momentum, heat and moisture. Currently used transfer coefficients have, however, large uncertainties in flow regimes being typical for cold nights and seasons, but especially in the polar regions. Furthermore, their determination is numerically complex. It is obvious that progress could be achieved when the transfer coefficients would be given by simple mathematical formulae in frames of an economic computational scheme. Such a new universal, so-called non-iterative parametrization scheme is derived for a package of transfer coefficients.</span></p><p><span>The derivation is based on the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory, which is over the years well accepted in the scientific community. The newly derived non-iterative scheme provides a basis for a cheap systematic study of the impact of near-surface turbulence and of the related transports of momentum, heat and moisture in NWP and climate models. </span></p><p><span>We show that often used transfer coefficients like those of Louis et al. (1982) or of Cheng and Brutsaert (2005) can be applied at large stability only with some caution, keeping in mind that at large stability they significantly overestimate the transfer coefficient compared with most comprehensive measurements. The latter are best reproduced by Gryanik et al. (2020) functions, which are part of the package. We show that the new scheme is flexible, thus, new stability functions can be added to the package, if required. </span></p><p> </p><p> <span>Gryanik, V.M., Lüpkes, C., Grachev, A., Sidorenko, D. (2020) New Modified and Extended Stability Functions for the Stable Boundary Layer based on SHEBA and Parametrizations of Bulk Transfer Coefficients for Climate Models, J. Atmos. Sci., 77, 2687-2716</span></p><p><br><br></p>

scholarly journals Flux Replacement as a Method to Diagnose Coupled Land–Atmosphere Model Feedback

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1034-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Dirmeyer ◽  
Mei Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Surface State ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Systematic Errors ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Soil Wetness ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The potential role of the land surface state in improving predictions of seasonal climate is investigated with a coupled land–atmosphere climate model. Climate simulations for 18 boreal-summer seasons (1982–99) have been conducted with specified observed sea surface temperature (SST). The impact on prediction skill of the initial land surface state (interannually varying versus climatological soil wetness) and the effect of errors in downward surface fluxes (precipitation and longwave/shortwave radiation) over land are investigated with a number of parallel experiments. Flux errors are addressed by replacing the downward fluxes with observed values in various combinations to ascertain the separate roles of water and energy flux errors on land surface state variables, upward water and energy fluxes from the land surface, and the important climate variables of precipitation and near-surface air temperature. Large systematic errors are found in the model, which are only mildly alleviated by the specification of realistic initial soil wetness. The model shows little skill in simulating seasonal anomalies of precipitation, but it does have skill in simulating temperature variations. Replacement of the downward surface fluxes has a clear positive impact on systematic errors, suggesting that the land–atmosphere feedback is helping to exacerbate climate drift. Improvement in the simulation of year-to-year variations in climate is even more evident. With flux replacement, the climate model simulates temperature anomalies with considerable skill over nearly all land areas, and a large fraction of the globe shows significant skill in the simulation of precipitation anomalies. This suggests that the land surface can communicate climate anomalies back to the atmosphere, given proper meteorological forcing. Flux substitution appears to have the largest benefit to improving precipitation skill over the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes, whereas use of realistic land surface initial conditions improves skill to significant levels over regions of the Southern Hemisphere. Correlations between sets of integrations show that the model has a robust and systematic global response to SST anomalies.

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