Investigating the relationship between soil moisture and evapotranspiration at different surfaces. Do we improve fluxes just improving the land use in models?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Román-Cascón ◽  
Marie Lothon ◽  
Fabienne Lohou ◽  
Aurore Brut ◽  
Oscar Hartogensis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Physiological State ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
The South

<p>A correct spatial representation of the surface energy balance is still a challenge. In a first step, and assuming a correct knowledge of the incoming short-wave radiation, it is the land cover that mostly controls the albedo and the long-wave radiation emitted to the atmosphere, influencing significantly the net radiation available at the surface and the surface temperature. In a second step, the partitioning of this energy into evapotranspiration and sensible heat flux is, in part, controlled by the availability of soil moisture but also by the type, characteristics and physiological state of the vegetation covering the surface, since plants provide a pathway for soil moisture to the atmosphere through transpiration.</p><p>Hence, to correctly model the surface energy balance, we face three main challenges: an appropriate representation of the land use, soil moisture and a correct modelling of how plants regulate their stomatal behaviour under different soil-moisture limited conditions.</p><p>In this work, by using <em>in situ</em> data we explore the relations between soil moisture and evapotranspiration from several vegetation types at different soil-moisture limited regions: a wetter area in the south of France and a drier one in the south of Spain. For this, we try to distinguish different periods and vegetation states. Since significant differences are observed for the various plant types, we investigate whether using a more realistic and higher-resolution land-use database in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model improves the simulation of soil moisture and surface fluxes.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Simple Urban Energy Balance Model Using Selected Data from 1-yr Flux Observations at Two Cities

2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toru Kawai ◽  
Mohammad Kholid Ridwan ◽  
Manabu Kanda
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance Model ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
Urban Energy Balance ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Urban Energy

Abstract The authors’ objective was to apply the Simple Urban Energy Balance Model for Mesoscale Simulation (SUMM) to cities. Data were selected from 1-yr flux observations conducted at three sites in two cities: one site in Kugahara, Japan (Ku), and two sites in Basel, Switzerland (U1 and U2). A simple vegetation scheme was implemented in SUMM to apply the model to vegetated cities, and the surface energy balance and radiative temperature TR were evaluated. SUMM generally reproduced seasonal and diurnal trends of surface energy balance and TR at Ku and U2, whereas relatively large errors were obtained for the daytime results of sensible heat flux QH and heat storage ΔQS at U1. Overall, daytime underestimations of QH and overestimations of ΔQS and TR were common. These errors were partly induced by the poor parameterization of the natural logarithm of the ratio of roughness length for momentum to heat (κB−1); that is, the observed κB−1 values at vegetated cities were smaller than the simulated values. The authors proposed a new equation for predicting this coefficient. This equation accounts for the existence of vegetation and improves the common errors described above. With the modified formula for κB−1, simulated net all-wave radiation and TR agreed well with observed values, regardless of site and season. However, at U1, simulated QH and ΔQS were still overestimated and underestimated, respectively, relative to observed values.

scholarly journals Analysing surface energy balance closure and partitioning over a semi-arid savanna FLUXNET site in Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 3401-3415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuhle P. Majozi ◽  
Chris M. Mannaerts ◽  
Abel Ramoelo ◽  
Renaud Mathieu ◽  
Alecia Nickless ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Energy Balance Closure ◽  
Net Radiation ◽  
Wet Season

Abstract. Flux towers provide essential terrestrial climate, water, and radiation budget information needed for environmental monitoring and evaluation of climate change impacts on ecosystems and society in general. They are also intended for calibration and validation of satellite-based Earth observation and monitoring efforts, such as assessment of evapotranspiration from land and vegetation surfaces using surface energy balance approaches. In this paper, 15 years of Skukuza eddy covariance data, i.e. from 2000 to 2014, were analysed for surface energy balance closure (EBC) and partitioning. The surface energy balance closure was evaluated using the ordinary least squares regression (OLS) of turbulent energy fluxes (sensible (H) and latent heat (LE)) against available energy (net radiation (Rn) less soil heat (G)), and the energy balance ratio (EBR). Partitioning of the surface energy during the wet and dry seasons was also investigated, as well as how it is affected by atmospheric vapour pressure deficit (VPD), and net radiation. After filtering years with low-quality data (2004–2008), our results show an overall mean EBR of 0.93. Seasonal variations of EBR also showed the wet season with 1.17 and spring (1.02) being closest to unity, with the dry season (0.70) having the highest imbalance. Nocturnal surface energy closure was very low at 0.26, and this was linked to low friction velocity during night-time, with results showing an increase in closure with increase in friction velocity. The energy partition analysis showed that sensible heat flux is the dominant portion of net radiation, especially between March and October, followed by latent heat flux, and lastly the soil heat flux, and during the wet season where latent heat flux dominated sensible heat flux. An increase in net radiation was characterized by an increase in both LE and H, with LE showing a higher rate of increase than H in the wet season, and the reverse happening during the dry season. An increase in VPD is correlated with a decrease in LE and increase in H during the wet season, and an increase in both fluxes during the dry season.

scholarly journals Updated cloud physics in a regional atmospheric climate model improves the modelled surface energy balance of Antarctica

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. van Wessem ◽  
C. H. Reijmer ◽  
J. T. M. Lenaerts ◽  
W. J. van de Berg ◽  
M. R. van den Broeke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Ice Cloud ◽  
Long Wave ◽  
Regional Atmospheric Climate Model

Abstract. In this study the effects of changes in the physics package of the regional atmospheric climate model RACMO2 on the modelled surface energy balance, near-surface temperature and wind speed of Antarctica are presented. The physics package update primarily consists of an improved turbulent and radiative flux scheme and a revised cloud scheme that includes a parameterisation for ice cloud super-saturation. The ice cloud super-saturation has led to more moisture being transported onto the continent, resulting in more and optically thicker clouds and more downward long-wave radiation. Overall, the updated model better represents the surface energy balance, based on a comparison with >750 months of data from nine automatic weather stations located in East Antarctica. Especially the representation of the turbulent sensible heat flux and net long-wave radiative flux has improved with a decrease in biases of up to 40%. As a result, modelled surface temperatures have increased and the bias, when compared to 10 m snow temperatures from 64 ice-core observations, has decreased from −2.3 K to −1.3 K. The weaker surface temperature inversion consequently improves the representation of the sensible heat flux, whereas wind speed biases remain unchanged. However, significant model biases remain, partly because RACMO2 at a resolution of 27 km is unable to resolve steep topography.

scholarly journals Dependence of Eemian Greenland temperature reconstructions on the ice sheet topography

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 6683-6732
Author(s):  
N. Merz ◽  
A. Born ◽  
C. C. Raible ◽  
H. Fischer ◽  
T. F. Stocker
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Lapse Rate

Abstract. The influence of a reduced Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) on Greenland's surface climate during the Eemian interglacial is studied using a comprehensive climate model. We find a distinct impact of changes in the GrIS topography on Greenland's surface air temperatures (SAT) even when correcting for changes in surface elevation which influences SAT through the lapse rate effect. The resulting lapse rate corrected SAT anomalies are thermodynamically driven by changes in the local surface energy balance rather than dynamically caused through anomalous advection of warm/cold air masses. The large-scale circulation is indeed very stable among all sensitivity experiments and the NH flow pattern does not depend on Greenland's topography in the Eemian. In contrast, Greenland's surface energy balance is clearly influenced by changes in the GrIS topography and this impact is seasonally diverse. In winter, the variable reacting strongest to changes in the topography is the sensible heat flux (SHFLX). The reason is its dependence on surface winds, which themselves are controlled to a large extent by the shape of the GrIS. Hence, regions where a receding GrIS causes higher surface wind velocities also experience anomalous warming through SHFLX. Vice-versa, regions that become flat and ice-free are characterized by low wind speeds, low SHFLX and anomalous cold winter temperatures. In summer, we find surface warming induced by a decrease in surface albedo in deglaciated areas and regions which experience surface melting. The Eemian temperature records derived from Greenland proxies, thus, likely include a temperature signal arising from changes in the GrIS topography. For the NEEM ice core site, our model suggests that up to 3.2 °C of the annual mean Eemian warming can be attributed to these topography-related processes and hence is not necessarily linked to large-scale climate variations.

scholarly journals Local climate, circulation and surface-energy balance of an Antarctic blue-ice area

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Bintanja ◽  
M. R. van den Broeke
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
Local Circulation ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Pressure System ◽  
Continental Scale

Results of measurements performed on and around an Antarctic blue-ice field are presented in this paper. The measurements were carried out in a valley of Heimefrontfjella, Dronning Maud Land, during a 2 month field season in the austral summer of 1992–93. A simple model is used to evaluate the surface-energy balance from measured meteorological quantities. The large differences in the surface-energy-balance values between snow and blue ice are mainly caused by differences inalbedo, surface roughness, thermal conductivity and short-wave radiation extinction coefficient. Taking into account uncertainties in the calculations, it appears that the calculated sublimation rates over ice and snow do not differ much.Furthermore, typical circulation patterns are described. The large continental-scale katabatic flow is forced by radiative cooling of the surface (night-time) and the mesoscale horizontal temperature gradient (daytime). The latter penetrates to the surface due to enhanced mixing in an unstable stratified boundary layer. At night, shallow katabatic layers form along local fall lines. On some occasions the large-scale katabatic winds decrease through the presence of a high-pressure system in the weddell Sea and a local circulation can develop inside the valley.

scholarly journals Evaluation and Parameter-Sensitivity Study of a Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM) with Measurements in Nanjing, China

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 1078-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjing Zhao ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Jianning Sun ◽  
Jun Zou
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Single Layer ◽  
Urban Canopy ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Urban Canopy Model ◽  
Canopy Model

Abstract An offline single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) was driven by the surface energy balance observations in winter in Nanjing, China, to evaluate the capability of the model to simulate the urban surface energy balance. The results of the evaluation suggest that the simulated daytime net radiation is approximately 20% lower than the observed and display relatively high systematic error, which is due to the relatively poor capacity of the model to simulate the daytime longwave radiation (which is underestimated by approximately 35%). By contrast, the simulated sensible heat flux shows mainly unsystematic error. Moreover, the one-at-a-time method is used to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the major factors affecting the surface energy balance are the albedo, the thermal conductivity, and the roof and wall volumetric heat capacity. The influences of the shape of the street canyon and the average height of buildings are relatively weaker. The effects of the albedo on the fluxes are nearly linear. The effects of the thermal parameters are approximately logarithmic. Furthermore, the simulated sensible heat flux in the SLUCM is insensitive to the morphological parameters of the buildings.

Surface energy balance algorithm for land-based consumption water use of different land use-cover types in arid-semiarid regions

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1497-1513
Author(s):  
Shereif H. Mahmoud ◽  
A. A. Alazba
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Eastern Province ◽  
Very High ◽  
Coastal Lowlands

Spatiotemporal distributions of water consumption for various land use-cover types over the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia were estimated using Surface Energy Balance Algorithm. Water consumption of various land use and cover classes shows similar seasonal dynamic trends. The spatial distribution of annual actual evapotranspiration (AET) shows low values in the Empty Quarter (231–438 mm/yr), and moderate values in the Eastern Province borders (439–731 mm/yr). Very high AET values were observed in irrigated croplands in the Northern plains, Hafar Al-Batin, the central coastal lowlands, and the southern coastal lowlands, where annual AET ranged from 732 to 1,790 mm/yr, representing the majority of the study area agricultural land. Evaporative behavior of land use-cover types indicated that irrigated cropland, which occupies 0.37% of the study area, has an average daily AET ranging from 9.2 mm/day in January to a maximum value in April (30 mm/day). Average annual water use by irrigated cropland is relatively very high and it is roughly 1,786.9 mm/yr, while water bodies, which cover 0.023% (121.2 km2) of the study area, also had relatively high mean AET (660.8 mm/yr). Overall, AET rates for irrigated cropland are much higher than for other land uses.

scholarly journals The surface energy balance in a cold and arid permafrost environment, Ladakh, Himalayas, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 2273-2293
Author(s):  
John Mohd Wani ◽  
Renoj J. Thayyen ◽  
Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha ◽  
Stephan Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Surface Energy Balance ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Long Wave ◽  
Long Wave Radiation

Abstract. Recent studies have shown the cold and arid trans-Himalayan region comprises significant areas underlain by permafrost. While the information on the permafrost characteristics of this region started emerging, the governing energy regime is of particular interest. This paper presents the results of a surface energy balance (SEB) study carried out in the upper Ganglass catchment in the Ladakh region of India which feeds directly into the Indus River. The point-scale SEB is estimated using the 1D mode of the GEOtop model for the period of 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2017 at 4727 m a.s.l. elevation. The model is evaluated using field-monitored snow depth variations (accumulation and melting), outgoing long-wave radiation and near-surface ground temperatures and showed good agreement with the respective simulated values. For the study period, the SEB characteristics of the study site show that the net radiation (29.7 W m−2) was the major component, followed by sensible heat flux (−15.6 W m−2), latent heat flux (−11.2 W m−2) and ground heat flux (−0.5 W m−2). During both years, the latent heat flux was highest in summer and lowest in winter, whereas the sensible heat flux was highest in post-winter and gradually decreased towards the pre-winter season. During the study period, snow cover builds up starting around the last week of December, facilitating ground cooling during almost 3 months (October to December), with sub-zero temperatures down to −20 ∘C providing a favourable environment for permafrost. It is observed that the Ladakh region has a very low relative humidity in the range of 43 % compared to e.g. ∼70 % in the European Alps, resulting in lower incoming long-wave radiation and strongly negative net long-wave radiation averaging ∼-90 W m−2 compared to −40 W m−2 in the European Alps. Hence, land surfaces at high elevation in cold and arid regions could be overall colder than the locations with higher relative humidity, such as the European Alps. Further, it is found that high incoming short-wave radiation during summer months in the region may be facilitating enhanced cooling of wet valley bottom surfaces as a result of stronger evaporation.

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