Land–Atmosphere Interaction in Tropical Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Hohenegger
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Surface State ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Moisture Distribution ◽  
Sahel Region ◽  
The Impact

Even though many features of the vegetation and of the soil moisture distribution over Africa reflect its climatic zones, the land surface has the potential to feed back on the atmosphere and on the climate of Africa. The land surface and the atmosphere communicate via the surface energy budget. A particularly important control of the land surface, besides its control on albedo, is on the partitioning between sensible and latent heat flux. In a soil moisture-limited regime, for instance, an increase in soil moisture leads to an increase in latent heat flux at the expanse of the sensible heat flux. The result is a cooling and a moistening of the planetary boundary layer. On the one hand, this thermodynamically affects the atmosphere by altering the stability and the moisture content of the vertical column. Depending on the initial atmospheric profile, convection may be enhanced or suppressed. On the other hand, a confined perturbation of the surface state also has a dynamical imprint on the atmospheric flow by generating horizontal gradients in temperature and pressure. Such gradients spin up shallow circulations that affect the development of convection. Whereas the importance of such circulations for the triggering of convection over the Sahel region is well accepted and well understood, the effect of such circulations on precipitation amounts as well as on mature convective systems remains unclear. Likewise, the magnitude of the impact of large-scale perturbations of the land surface state on the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere, such as the West African monsoon, has long been debated. One key issue is that such interactions have been mainly investigated in general circulation models where the key involved processes have to rely on uncertain parameterizations, making a definite assessment difficult.

scholarly journals Simulation of Land Surface Climate over China with RegCM4.5: Verification and Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghao Yang ◽  
Ruiting Zuo ◽  
Liqiong Wang ◽  
Xiong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface Temperature ◽  
South China ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Surface Evaporation

The ability of RegCM4.5 using land surface scheme CLM4.5 to simulate the physical variables related to land surface state was investigated. The NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data for the period 1964–2003 were used to drive RegCM4.5 to simulate the land surface temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, latent heat flux, and surface evaporation. Based on observations and reanalysis data, a few land surface variables were analyzed over China. The results showed that some seasonal features of land surface temperature in summer and winter as well as its magnitude could be simulated well. The simulation of precipitation was sensitive to region and season. The model could, to a certain degree, simulate the seasonal migration of rainband in East China. The overall spatial distribution of the simulated soil moisture was better in winter than in summer. The simulation of latent heat flux was also better in winter. In summer, the latent heat flux bias mainly arose from surface evaporation bias in Northwest China, and it primarily arose from vegetation evapotranspiration bias in South China. In addition, the large latent heat flux bias in South China during summer was probably due to less precipitation generated in the model and poor representation of vegetation cover in this region.

scholarly journals The effect of chalk representation in land surface modelling

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostaquimur Rahman ◽  
Rafael Rosolem
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Unsaturated Zone ◽  
Water Movement ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Surface Mass

Abstract. Modelling and monitoring of hydrological processes in the unsaturated zone of the chalk, which is a porous medium with fractures, is important to optimize water resources assessment and management practices in the United Kingdom (UK). However, efficient simulations of water movement through chalk unsaturated zone is difficult mainly due to the fractured nature of chalk, which creates high-velocity preferential flow paths in the subsurface. Complex hydrology in the chalk aquifers may also influence land surface mass and energy fluxes because processes in the hydrological cycle are connected via non-linear feedback mechanisms. In this study, it is hypothesized that explicit representation of chalk hydrology in a land surface model influences land surface processes by affecting water movement through the shallow subsurface. In order to substantiate this hypothesis, a macroporosity parameterization is implemented in the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), which is applied on a study area encompassing the Kennet catchment in the Southern UK. The simulation results are evaluated using field measurements and satellite remote sensing observations of various fluxes and states in the hydrological cycle (e.g., soil moisture, runoff, latent heat flux) at two distinct spatial scales (i.e., point and catchment). The results reveal the influence of representing chalk hydrology on land surface mass and energy balance components such as surface runoff and latent heat flux via subsurface processes (i.e., soil moisture dynamics) in JULES, which corroborates the proposed hypothesis.

Land-atmosphere coupling during compound extreme heat and drought events in the LUCAS experiment: a new coupling metric for climate extremes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita M. Cardoso ◽  
Daniela D. C. A. Lima ◽  
Pedro M. M. Soares ◽  
Diana Rechid ◽  
Marcus Breil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Extreme Heat ◽  
Positive Temperature ◽  
The Impact

<p>Land-atmosphere energy and water exchanges are fundamentally linked to soil-moisture. The distribution of the planets’ biomes hinges on the surface-atmosphere coupling since soil moisture and temperature feedbacks have a strong influence on plant transpiration and photosynthesis. Land use/land cover changes (LUC) modify locally land surface properties that control the land-atmosphere mass, energy, and momentum exchanges. The impact of these changes depends on the scale and nature of land cover modifications and is very difficult to quantify. However, large inconsistencies in the LUC impacts are observed between models, highlighting the need for common LUC across a large ensemble of models. The Flagship Pilot Study LUCAS (Land Use & Climate Across Scales) provides a coordinated effort to study LUC using an ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs). In the first phase of the project 3 experiments were performed for continental Europe: EVAL (current climate); GRASS (trees replaced by grassland) and FOREST (grasses and shrubs replaced by trees).  An analysis of the energy and moisture balance for the three experiments is performed, focusing on the relationship between the fluxes partitioning, heat waves and droughts. To better asses the link between extreme temperatures and soil moisture or evapotranspiration, a new coupling metric for short time scales is proposed, the Latent Heat Flux-Temperature Coupling Magnitude (LETCM). This new metric is computed for a specific period, considering the positive temperature extremes and the negative latent heat flux extremes. Areas with positive magnitude values imply higher temperature anomaly, due to a negative latent heat flux anomaly. This new metric only considers periods of strong coupling, with positive signals in areas of high temperatures and evaporative stress, allowing for the detection of events that are extreme for energy and water cycle. Concurrently, a new decile based normalised drought index is used to examine the concurrent heat extremes and droughts. The analysis focuses on the three experiments revealing that the number, amplitude and spatial distribution of compound extreme heat and drought is highly model dependant. The impact of afforestation or deforestation is not consistent across models.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></p><p> The authors wish to acknowledge project LEADING (PTDC/CTA-MET/28914/2017) and FCT - project UIDB/50019/2020 - Instituto Dom Luiz.</p>

The Impact of Vertical Measurement Depth on the Information Content of Soil Moisture for Latent Heat Flux Estimation

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 2419-2430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxiu Qiu ◽  
Wade T. Crow ◽  
Grey S. Nearing
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Information Content ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Flux Estimation ◽  
Vertical Support ◽  
Flux Estimation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study aims to identify the impact of vertical support on the information content of soil moisture (SM) for latent heat flux estimation. This objective is achieved via calculation of the mutual information (MI) content between multiple soil moisture variables (with different vertical supports) and current/future evaporative fraction (EF) using ground-based soil moisture and latent/sensible heat flux observations acquired from the AmeriFlux network within the contiguous United States. Through the intercomparison of MI results from different SM–EF pairs, the general value (for latent heat flux estimation) of superficial soil moisture observations , vertically integrated soil moisture observations , and vertically extrapolated soil moisture time series [soil wetness index (SWI) from a simple low-pass transformation of ] are examined. Results suggest that, contrary to expectations, 2-day averages of and have comparable mutual information with regards to EF. That is, there is no clear evidence that the information content for flux estimation is enhanced via deepening the vertical support of superficial soil moisture observations. In addition, the utility of SWI in monitoring and forecasting EF is partially dependent on the adopted parameterization of time-scale parameter T in the exponential filter. Similar results are obtained when analyses are conducted at the monthly time scale, only with larger error bars. The contrast between the results of this paper and past work focusing on utilizing soil moisture to predict vegetation condition demonstrates that the particular application should be considered when characterizing the information content of soil moisture time series measurements.

scholarly journals Analyzing influence of spatial resolution on the estimated evapotranspiration by using remote sensing data over an oasis area in Northwestern China

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1321-1345
Author(s):  
H. Tian ◽  
J. Wen ◽  
Z. B. Su ◽  
Y. M. Ma ◽  
L. Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northwestern China ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Modis Data ◽  
Relative Errors

Abstract. In this paper, the influence of spatial resolution on the precision of estimates was analyzed through evapotranspiration (ET hereafter) modeling over a typical oasis in northwestern China by using the Landsat-TM and MODIS data. A relatively high consistency was observed between the TM-based latent heat flux and daily ET estimates and in-situ measurements, with relative errors of 9.7% and 8.8%, respectively. Despite lower precision of the relative errors of 22.4% and 17.0%, respectively, the MODIS-based latent heat flux and ET estimates can effectively depict the basic trend of the spatial distribution of the land surface processes. When the visible and near-infrared information of 250 m resolution was syncretized into MODIS LST retrieval algorithm, the precision of latent heat flux prediction was improved evidently. Additionally, the diurnal variation of the reference ET fraction shows that the temporal upscaling method of ET is suitable for the study area. In spite of suffering the influence of the heterogeneity of land surface, the moderate resolution MODIS data, combined with the parameterization model of land surface energy flux applied in this investigation, are suitable for the ET mapping at large scale while high-resolution data can serve as an important supplement.

scholarly journals Influence of Land Cover and Soil Moisture on the Horizontal Distribution of Sensible and Latent Heat Fluxes in Southeast Kansas during IHOP_2002 and CASES-97

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. LeMone ◽  
Fei Chen ◽  
Joseph G. Alfieri ◽  
Mukul Tewari ◽  
Bart Geerts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Horizontal Distribution ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Green Vegetation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Analyses of daytime fair-weather aircraft and surface-flux tower data from the May–June 2002 International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) and the April–May 1997 Cooperative Atmosphere Surface Exchange Study (CASES-97) are used to document the role of vegetation, soil moisture, and terrain in determining the horizontal variability of latent heat LE and sensible heat H along a 46-km flight track in southeast Kansas. Combining the two field experiments clearly reveals the strong influence of vegetation cover, with H maxima over sparse/dormant vegetation, and H minima over green vegetation; and, to a lesser extent, LE maxima over green vegetation, and LE minima over sparse/dormant vegetation. If the small number of cases is producing the correct trend, other effects of vegetation and the impact of soil moisture emerge through examining the slope ΔxyLE/ΔxyH for the best-fit straight line for plots of time-averaged LE as a function of time-averaged H over the area. Based on the surface energy balance, H + LE = Rnet − Gsfc, where Rnet is the net radiation and Gsfc is the flux into the soil; Rnet − Gsfc ∼ constant over the area implies an approximately −1 slope. Right after rainfall, H and LE vary too little horizontally to define a slope. After sufficient drying to produce enough horizontal variation to define a slope, a steep (∼−2) slope emerges. The slope becomes shallower and better defined with time as H and LE horizontal variability increases. Similarly, the slope becomes more negative with moister soils. In addition, the slope can change with time of day due to phase differences in H and LE. These trends are based on land surface model (LSM) runs and observations collected under nearly clear skies; the vegetation is unstressed for the days examined. LSM runs suggest terrain may also play a role, but observational support is weak.

The Effect of Soil on the Summertime Surface Energy Budget of a Humid Subarctic Tundra in Northern Quebec, Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2547-2564
Author(s):  
Georg Lackner ◽  
Daniel F. Nadeau ◽  
Florent Domine ◽  
Annie-Claude Parent ◽  
Gonzalo Leonardini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Surface Energy Budget ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Turbulent Heat Fluxes

AbstractRising temperatures in the southern Arctic region are leading to shrub expansion and permafrost degradation. The objective of this study is to analyze the surface energy budget (SEB) of a subarctic shrub tundra site that is subject to these changes, on the east coast of Hudson Bay in eastern Canada. We focus on the turbulent heat fluxes, as they have been poorly quantified in this region. This study is based on data collected by a flux tower using the eddy covariance approach and focused on snow-free periods. Furthermore, we compare our results with those from six Fluxnet sites in the Arctic region and analyze the performance of two land surface models, SVS and ISBA, in simulating soil moisture and turbulent heat fluxes. We found that 23% of the net radiation was converted into latent heat flux at our site, 35% was used for sensible heat flux, and about 15% for ground heat flux. These results were surprising considering our site was by far the wettest site among those studied, and most of the net radiation at the other Arctic sites was consumed by the latent heat flux. We attribute this behavior to the high hydraulic conductivity of the soil (littoral and intertidal sediments), typical of what is found in the coastal regions of the eastern Canadian Arctic. Land surface models overestimated the surface water content of those soils but were able to accurately simulate the turbulent heat flux, particularly the sensible heat flux and, to a lesser extent, the latent heat flux.

Sensitivity of Latent Heat Flux from PILPS Land-Surface Schemes to Perturbations of Surface Air Temperature

1998 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 1909-1927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqing Qu ◽  
A. Henderson-Sellers ◽  
A. J. Pitman ◽  
T. H. Chen ◽  
F. Abramopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Air Temperature

scholarly journals Evaluation of functional properties of various types of vegetation cover using remotely sensed data analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (Special Issue 2) ◽  
pp. S49-S58 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brom ◽  
J. Procházka ◽  
A. Rejšková
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Mean Values

The dissipation of solar energy and consequently the formation of the hydrological cycle are largely dependent on the structural and optical characteristics of the land surface. In our study, we selected seven units with different types of vegetation in the Mlýnský and Horský catchments (South-Eastern part of the Šumava Mountains, Czech Republic) for the assessment of the differences in their functioning expressed through the surface temperature, humidity, and energy dissipation. For our analyses, we used Landsat 5 TM satellite data from June 25<SUP>th</SUP>, 2008. The results showed that the microclimatic characteristics and energy fluxes varied in different units according to their vegetation characteristics. A cluster analysis of the mean values was used to divide the vegetation units into groups according to their functional characteristics. The mown meadows were characterised by the highest surface temperature and sensible heat flux and the lowest humidity and latent heat flux. On the contrary, the lowest surface temperature and sensible heat flux and the highest humidity and latent heat flux were found in the forest. Our results showed that the climatic and energetic features of the land surface are related to the type of vegetation. We state that the spatial distribution of different vegetation units and the amount of biomass are crucial variables influencing the functioning of the landscape.

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