Alan K. Betts

Modeling of land surface evaporation by four schemes and comparison with FIFE observations

We tested four land surface parameterization schemes against long-term (5 months) area-averaged observations over the 15 km × 15 km First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) area. This approach proved to be very beneficial to understanding the performance and limitations of different land surface models. These four surface models, embodying different complexities of the evaporation/hydrology treatment, included the traditional simple bucket model, the simple water balance (SWB) model, the Oregon State University (OSU) model, and the simplified Simple Biosphere (SSiB) model. The bucket model overestimated the evaporation during wet periods, and this resulted in unrealistically large negative sensible heat fluxes. The SWB model, despite its simple evaporation formulation, simulated well the evaporation during wet periods, but it tended to underestimate the evaporation during dry periods. Overall, the OSU model ably simulated the observed seasonal and diurnal variation in evaporation, soil moisture, sensible heat flux, and surface skin temperature. The more complex SSiB model performed similarly to the OSU model. A range of sensitivity experiments showed that some complexity in the canopy resistance scheme is important in reducing both the overestimation of evaporation during wet periods and underestimation during dry periods. Properly parameterizing not only the effect of soil moisture stress but also other canopy resistance factors, such as the vapor pressure deficit stress, is critical for canopy resistance evaluation. An overly simple canopy resistance that includes only soil moisture stress is unable to simulate observed surface evaporation during dry periods. Given a modestly comprehensive time-dependent canopy resistance treatment, a rather simple surface model such as the OSU model can provide good area-averaged surface heat fluxes for mesoscale atmospheric models.

The land surface-atmosphere interaction : A review based on observational and global modeling perspectives

This review discusses the land-surface-atmosphere interaction using observations from two North American field experiments (First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project Field Experiment (FIFE) and Boreal Ecosystem Atmosphere Study (BOREAS)) and the application of research data to the improvement of land surface and boundary layer parameterizations in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) global forecast model. Using field data, we discuss some of the diurnal and seasonal feedback loops controlling the net surface radiation and its partition into the surface sensible and latent heat fluxes and the ground heat flux. We consider the impact on the boundary layer evolution and show the changes in the diurnal cycle with soil moisture in midsummer. We contrast the surface energy budget over the tropical oceans with that over both dry and wet land surfaces in summer. Results from a new ECMWF model with four predicted soil layers illustrate the interaction between the soil moisture reservoir, evaporation and precipitation on different timescales and space scales. An analysis of an ensemble of 30-day integrations for July 1993 (the month of the Mississippi flood) showed a large sensitivity of the monthly precipitation pattern (and amount) to different initial soil moisture conditions. Short-range forecasts with old and new land surface and boundary layer schemes showed that the new scheme produced much better precipitation forecasts for the central United States because of a more realistic thermodynamic structure, which in turn resulted from improved evaporation in an area that is about 1-day upstream. The results suggest that some predictability exists in the extended range as a result of the memory of the soil moisture reservoir. We also discuss briefly the problem of soil moisture initialization in a global forecast model and summarize recent experience with nudging of soil moisture at ECMWF and improvements in the surface energy budget coming from the better prediction of clouds.

The Anomalous Rainfall over the United States during July 1993: Sensitivity to Land Surface Parameterization and Soil Moisture Anomalies

Abstract This paper discusses the sensitivity of short- and medium-range precipitation forecasts for the central United States to land surface parametrization and soil moisture anomalies. Two forecast systems with different land surface and boundary layer schemes were running in parallel during the extreme rainfall events of July 1993. One forecast system produces much better precipitation forecasts due to a more realistic thermodynamic structure resulting from improved evaporation in an area that is about 1 day upstream from the area of heaviest rain. The paper also discusses two ensembles of 30-day integrations for July 1993. In the first ensemble, soil moisture is initialized at field capacity (100% availability); in the second ensemble it is at 25% of soil moisture availability. It is shown that the moist integrations produce a much more realistic precipitation pattern than the dry integrations. These results suggest that there may be some predictive skill in the monthly range related to the time-scal...

A Revised Hydrology for the ECMWF Model: Verification from Field Site to Terrestrial Water Storage and Impact in the Integrated Forecast System

Abstract The Tiled ECMWF Scheme for Surface Exchanges over Land (TESSEL) is used operationally in the Integrated Forecast System (IFS) for describing the evolution of soil, vegetation, and snow over the continents at diverse spatial resolutions. A revised land surface hydrology (H-TESSEL) is introduced in the ECMWF operational model to address shortcomings of the land surface scheme, specifically the lack of surface runoff and the choice of a global uniform soil texture. New infiltration and runoff schemes are introduced with a dependency on the soil texture and standard deviation of orography. A set of experiments in stand-alone mode is used to assess the improved prediction of soil moisture at the local scale against field site observations. Comparison with basin-scale water balance (BSWB) and Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) datasets indicates a consistently larger dynamical range of land water mass over large continental areas and an improved prediction of river runoff, while the effect on atmospheric...

FIFE Surface Climate and Site-Average Dataset 1987-89

This paper analyzes the First ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment site-average datasets for near-surface meteorology, soil moisture, and temperature; the surface fluxes of radiation, sensible, and latent heat; and the ground heat flux, for the period May 1987‐November 1989. The diurnal and seasonal variation of surface albedo for this grassland site are discussed. The coupling of precipitation, soil moisture, evaporation, pressure height to the lifting condensation level, and equivalent potential temperature (uE) on seasonal and diurnal timescales is also discussed. The 1988 data confirm the authors’ result, shown earlier from the 1987 data that over moist soils increased evapotranspiration lowers afternoon lifting condensation level and increases afternoon uE, suggesting a mechanism for a local positive feedback between soil moisture and precipitation on horizontal scales greater than 200 km. The seasonal cycle of ground heat flux and soil temperature is examined and the authors show that the coupling in the warm months between uE and soil temperature on seasonal scales is similar over land to the coupling found over warm oceans despite very different controls on the surface fluxes. The boundary layer equilibrium over the ocean is contrasted with the diurnal cycle over land, which is soil moisture dependent.

Understanding Hydrometeorology Using Global Models

The land surface coupling, a crucial element of the climate system, is explored in the recent 40-yr European Centre for Medium–Range Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA-40) model. In seasonal forecasts for the Northern Hemisphere summer, initialized with idealized soil moisture fields, the ERA-40 model has a large evaporation–precipitation feedback over the continents, and the memory of initial soil moisture is longest at high northern latitudes. Thirty years of hourly data from the ERA-40 reanalysis are averaged over the Madeira, Red–Arkansas, and Athabasca River basins. Although the model fully resolves the diurnal cycle and has an interactive prognostic cloud field, the transitions in the boundary layer climate over land can be mapped with remarkable precision by the daily mean state and daily flux averages. The coupling to cloud processes plays an essential role in the surface and boundary layer equilibrium. Soil moisture, cloud base, cloud cover, radiation fields, and evaporative fraction are coupled q...

Assessment of the Land Surface and Boundary Layer Models in Two Operational Versions of the NCEP Eta Model Using FIFE Data

Abstract Data from the 1987 summer FIFE experiment for four pairs of days are compared with corresponding 48-h forecasts from two different versions of the Eta Model, both initialized from the NCEP–NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research) global reanalysis. One used the late 1995 operational Eta Model physics, the second, with a new soil and land surface scheme and revisions to the surface layer and boundary layer schemes, used the physics package that became operational on 31 January 1996. Improvements in the land surface parameterization and its interaction with the atmosphere are one key to improved summer precipitation forecasts. The new soil thermal model is an improvement over the earlier slab soil model, although the new skin temperature generally now has too large a diurnal cycle (whereas the old surface temperature had too small a diurnal cycle) and is more sensitive to net radiation errors. The nighttime temperature minima are often too low, b...

Climatic equilibrium of the atmospheric convective boundary layer over a tropical ocean

Abstract A one-dimensional thermodynamic model for a partially mixed, partly cloudy, convective boundary layer (CBL) is coupled to a radiation model to compute equilibrium solutions for a tropical CBL and troposphere in energy balance over the ocean. For a sea surface temperature (SST) of 300 K, the model gives an equilibrium cloud base ≈ 950 mb, a CBL top ≈ 800 mb and a low level θe ≈ 347 K, close to climatic values. The CBL deepens and low level θe rises with increasing wind speed and SST. We explore the change in CBL structure and surface fluxes with external parameters on three timescales; namely, the CBL (∼1 day); the tropospheric radiative equilibrium (∼10 days); and the oceanic thermal equilibrium (>100 days). The variation in cloud top decreases with greater coupling to atmosphere and ocean. The slope of the latent heat flux with increasing SST decreases with more tropospheric coupling, and reverse sign with a coupled ocean. This simplified model gives an increase of tropical SST with a doubling o...

Impact on ECMWF forecasts of changes to the albedo of the boreal forests in the presence of snow

A change in the calculation of the albedo for the boreal forests in the presence of snow in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model, which reduces the deep snow albedo from 0.8 to 0.2, greatly reduces the model systematic cold temperature bias both at the surface and in the lower troposphere at high northern latitudes in the spring.

Saturation Point Analysis of Moist Convective Overturning

Abstract A unified approach to the thermodynamics of cloudy air, cloud-clear air mixing processes, atmospheric thermodynamic equilibrium structure and instability is formulated, using a new concept: the Saturation Point. This permits the representation of mixing processes and virtual potential temperature isopleths for clear and cloudy air on a thermodynamic diagram (a tephigram is used here), and their comparison with the atmospheric stratification. Illustrative examples will be given for evaporative mixing instability and convective equilibrium structure for stratocumulus, cumulus and cumulonimbus convection and convection in the incipient severe storm atmosphere.