scholarly journals Analysis of effective resistance calculation methods and their effect on modelling evapotranspiration in two different patches of vegetation in semi-arid SE Spain

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Were ◽  
L. Villagarcía ◽  
F. Domingo ◽  
L. Alados-Arboledas ◽  
J. Puigdefábregas

Abstract. Effective parameters are of major importance in modelling surface fluxes at different scales of spatial heterogeneity. Different ways to obtain these effective parameters for their use in meso-scale and GCM models have been studied. This paper deals with patch-scale heterogeneity, where effective resistances were calculated in two patches with different vegetation (Retama sphaerocarpa (L.) Boiss shrubs, and herbaceous plants) using different methods: aggregating soil and plant resistances in parallel, in series or by an average of both. Effective aerodynamic resistance was also calculated directly from patch fluxes. To assess the validity of the different methods used, the Penman-Monteith equation was used with effective resistances to estimate the total λ E for each patch. The λ E estimates found for each patch were compared to Eddy Covariance system measurements. Results showed that for effective surface resistances, parallel aggregation of soil and plant resistances led to λ E estimates closer to the measured λ E in both patches (differences of around 10%). This may be due to the fact that in semi-arid areas, with very sparse vegetation, soil resistances are much higher than plant resistances, and therefore parallel aggregation attenuates the effect of the high soil resistances on λ E modelling. Results for effective aerodynamic resistances differed depending on the patch considered and the method used to calculate them. The use of effective aerodynamic resistance calculated from fluxes provided less accurate estimates of λ E compared to the measured λ E, than the use of effective aerodynamic resistances aggregated from soil and plant resistances. The results reported in this paper show that the best way of aggregating soil and plant resistances depend on the type of resistance, and the type of vegetation in the patch.

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1529-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Were ◽  
L. Villagarcía ◽  
F. Domingo ◽  
L. Alados-Arboledas ◽  
J. Puigdefábregas

Abstract. Effective parameters are of major importance in modelling surface fluxes at different scales of spatial heterogeneity. Different ways to obtain these effective parameters for their use in meso-scale and GCM models have been studied. This paper deals with patch-scale heterogeneity, where effective resistances were calculated in two patches with different vegetation (Retama sphaerocarpa (L.) Boiss shrubs, and herbaceous plants) using different methods: aggregating soil and plant resistances in parallel, in series or by an average of both. Effective aerodynamic resistance was also calculated directly from patch fluxes. To assess the validity of the different methods used, the Penman-Monteith equation was used with effective resistances to estimate the total λE for each patch. The λE estimates found for each patch were compared to Eddy Covariance system measurements. Results showed that for effective surface resistances, parallel aggregation of soil and plant resistances led to λE estimates closer to the measured λE in both patches (differences of around 10%). Results for effective aerodynamic resistances differed depending on the patch considered and the method used to calculate them. The use of effective aerodynamic resistances calculated from fluxes provided less accurate estimates of λE compared to the measured values, than the use of effective aerodynamic resistances aggregated from soil and plant resistances. The results reported in this paper show that the best way of aggregating soil and plant resistances depends on the type of resistance, and the type of vegetation in the patch.


1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Boulet ◽  
A. Chehbouni ◽  
I. Braud ◽  
M. Vauclin

Abstract. Two-layer parameterisation of the surface energy budget proves to be realistic for sparse but homogeneously distributed vegetation. For semi-arid land surfaces however, sparse vegetation is usually interspersed by large patches of unshaded bare soil which may interact directly with the atmosphere with little interference with the vegetation. Therefore such surfaces might not be realistically represented by a two-layer parameterisation. The objective of this study is to investigate the issue of representing water and energy transfer processes in arid and semi-arid regions. Two different surface schemes, namely the classic two layer (one-compartment) approach and a two adjacent compartment ("mosaic") approach are used. The performance of both schemes is documented using data sets collected over two sparsely vegetated surfaces in the San Pedro river basin: homogeneously distributed grassland and heterogeneously distributed shrubs. In the latter case the mosaic scheme seems to be more realistic given the quality of the temperature estimates. But no clear statement can be made on the efficiency of both schemes for the total fluxes. Over each site, we investigate the possibility of artificially modifying some of the surface parameters in order to get the surface fluxes simulated by the one-compartment scheme to reproduce the two-compartment ones. The "cost" associated with this process in terms of surface temperature estimates is eventually discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1621) ◽  
pp. 20130124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin L. Dennis ◽  
Donna B. Schwede ◽  
Jesse O. Bash ◽  
Jon E. Pleim ◽  
John T. Walker ◽  
...  

Reactive nitrogen (N r ) is removed by surface fluxes (air–surface exchange) and wet deposition. The chemistry and physics of the atmosphere result in a complicated system in which competing chemical sources and sinks exist and impact that removal. Therefore, uncertainties are best examined with complete regional chemical transport models that simulate these feedbacks. We analysed several uncertainties in regional air quality model resistance analogue representations of air–surface exchange for unidirectional and bi-directional fluxes and their effect on the continental N r budget. Model sensitivity tests of key parameters in dry deposition formulations showed that uncertainty estimates of continental total nitrogen deposition are surprisingly small, 5 per cent or less, owing to feedbacks in the chemistry and rebalancing among removal pathways. The largest uncertainties (5%) occur with the change from a unidirectional to a bi-directional NH 3 formulation followed by uncertainties in bi-directional compensation points (1–4%) and unidirectional aerodynamic resistance (2%). Uncertainties have a greater effect at the local scale. Between unidirectional and bi-directional formulations, single grid cell changes can be up to 50 per cent, whereas 84 per cent of the cells have changes less than 30 per cent. For uncertainties within either formulation, single grid cell change can be up to 20 per cent, but for 90 per cent of the cells changes are less than 10 per cent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-456
Author(s):  
RANI SAXENA ◽  
ATULTIWARI ◽  
PRASOON MATHUR ◽  
N.V.K. CHAKRAVARTY

Trends in reference evapotranspiration (ETo) estimated using Penman-Monteith equation were analysed over arid, semi-arid and humid regions of northwest (NW) India during 1985–2018. The MannKendall is used to determine significance of trends. Theil-Sen’s estimator and least square linear fitting methods are adopted to find slopes of the trend lines. The results indicated a significant decrease in ETo on annual basis for most of the locations and NW India as a whole. However, the trend was not statisticallysignificant for seasonal ETo. The significant decrease in solar radiation and wind speed nullified the impact of increased temperature and resulted in slight decrease in ETo over arid and semi-arid regions of NW India which could probably be attributed to the increased dust hazy conditions prevailing. In NW India, water is a limiting resource the decrease in ETo may help researchers in decision makers to develop water assets and utilize the irrigation systems more effectively. There was also an increasing trend in production of major crops in the study region. Further, in near future, if this decreasing ETo trend were to remain, it would help in intensification of cropping system with the existing water resource. 


1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. White ◽  
P. R. Houser ◽  
A. M. Arain ◽  
Z.-L. Yang ◽  
K. Syed ◽  
...  

Abstract. Meteorological measurements in the Walnut Gulch catchment in Arizona were used to synthesize a distributed, hourly-average time series of data across a 26.9 by 12.5 km area with a grid resolution of 480 m for a continuous 18-month period which included two seasons of monsoonal rainfall. Coupled surface-atmosphere model runs established the acceptability (for modelling purposes) of assuming uniformity in all meteorological variables other than rainfall. Rainfall was interpolated onto the grid from an array of 82 recording rain gauges. These meteorological data were used as forcing variables for an equivalent array of stand-alone Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) models to describe the evolution of soil moisture and surface energy fluxes in response to the prevalent, heterogeneous pattern of convective precipitation. The calculated area-average behaviour was compared with that given by a single aggregate BATS simulation forced with area-average meteorological data. Heterogeneous rainfall gives rise to significant but partly compensating differences in the transpiration and the intercepted rainfall components of total evaporation during rain storms. However, the calculated area-average surface energy fluxes given by the two simulations in rain-free conditions with strong heterogeneity in soil moisture were always close to identical, a result which is independent of whether default or site-specific vegetation and soil parameters were used. Because the spatial variability in soil moisture throughout the catchment has the same order of magnitude as the amount of rain falling in a typical convective storm (commonly 10% of the vegetation's root zone saturation) in a semi-arid environment, non-linearity in the relationship between transpiration and the soil moisture available to the vegetation has limited influence on area-average surface fluxes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanlian Zhou ◽  
Weimin Ju ◽  
Xiaomin Sun ◽  
Xuefa Wen ◽  
Dexin Guan

AbstractAerodynamic roughness length zom is an important parameter for reliably simulating surface fluxes. It varies with wind speed, atmospheric stratification, terrain, and other factors. However, it is usually considered a constant. It is known that uncertainties in zom result in latent heat flux (LE) simulation errors, since zom links LE with aerodynamic resistance. The effects of zom on sensible heat flux (SH) simulation are usually neglected because there is no direct link between the two. By comparing SH simulations with three types of zom inputs, it is found that allowing zom temporal variation in an SH simulation model significantly improves agreement between simulated and measured SH and also decreases the sensitivity of the SH model to the heat transfer coefficient Ct, which in turn determines the linkage between zom and thermal roughness length zoh.


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