Impacts of inhomogeneous landscapes in oasis interior on the oasis self-maintaining mechanism by integrating numerical model with satellite data
Abstract. Mesoscale meteorological modeling is an important tool to help understand the energy budget of the oasis. While basic dynamic and thermodynamic processes for oasis self-maintaining in the desert environment is well investigated, influence of heterogeneous landscapes of oasis interior on the processes are still important and remain to be investigated. In this study, two simulations are designed for investigating the influence of inhomogeneity. In the first case, land surface parameters including land-use types, vegetation cover fraction, and surface layer soil moisture are derived by satellite remote sensing data from EOS/MODIS, and then be used specify the respective options in the MM5 model, to describe a real inhomogeneity for the oasis interior. In the other run, land use types are set to MM5 default, in which landscapes in the oasis interior is relative uniform, and then surface layer soil moisture and vegetation fraction is set to be averages of the first case for the respective oasis and desert surface lying, to represent a relative homogeneity. Results show that the inhomogeneity leads to a weaker oasis "cold-wet island" effect and a stronger turbulence over the oasis interior, both of which will reduce the oasis-desert secondary circulation and increase the evaporation over the oasis, resulting in a negative impact on the oasis self-protecting mechanism. The simulation of homogeneity indicates that the oasis may be more stable even with relative lower soil moisture if landscapes in the oasis interior are comparatively uniform.