67 research outputs found
Vegetation and Topographic Control of Wind-blown Snow Distributions in Distributed and Aggregated Simulations for an Arctic Tundra Basin
In the Pacific Northwest (PNW), concern about the impacts of climate and land cover change on water resources and flood-generating processes emphasizes the need for a mechanistic understanding of the interactions between forest canopies and hydrologic processes. Detailed measurements during the 1999 and 2000 hydrologic years were used to modify the Simultaneous Heat and Water (SHAW) model for application in forested systems. Major changes to the model include improved representation of rainfall interception and stomatal conductance dynamics. The model was developed for the 1999 hydrologic year and tested for the 2000 hydrologic year without modification of the site parameters. The model effectively simulated throughfall, soil water content profiles, and shallow soil temperatures for both years. The largest discrepancies between soil moisture and temperature were observed during periods of discontinuous snow cover due to spatial variability that was not explicitly simulated by the model. Soil warming at bare locations was delayed until most of the snow cover ablated because of the large heat sink associated with the residual snow patches. During the summer, simulated transpiration decreased from a maximum monthly mean of 2.2 mm dayâ»Âč in July to 1.3 mm dayâ»Âč in September as a result of decreasing soil moisture and declining net radiation. The results indicate that a relatively simple representation of the vegetation canopy can accurately simulate seasonal hydrologic fluxes in this environment, except during periods of discontinuous snow cover
Effects of needleleaf forest cover on radiation and snowmelt dynamics in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Abstract: Radiation is the main energy source for snowpack warming and melt in mountain needleleaf forests, and runoff from these forests is the main contributor to spring river flows in western North America. Utilizing extensive field obser-vations, the effect of needleleaf forest cover on radiation and snowmelt timing was quantified at pine and spruce forest sites and nearby clearings of varying slope and aspect in an eastern Canadian Rocky Mountain headwater basin. Compared with open clearing sites, shortwave radiation was much reduced under forest cover, resulting in smaller differences in melt timing between forested slopes relative to open slopes with different aspects. In contrast, longwave radiation to snow was substantially enhanced under forest cover, especially at the dense spruce forest sites where longwave radiation dominated total energy for snowmelt. In both pine and spruce environments, forest cover acted to substantially reduce total radiation to snow and delay snowmelt timing on south-facing slopes while increasing total radiation and advancing snowmelt timing on north-facing slopes. Results strongly suggest that impacts on radiation to snow and snowmelt timing from changes in mountain forest cover will depend much on the slope and aspect at which changes occur. ReÌsume Ì : Le rayonnement est la principale source dâeÌnergie qui reÌchauffe et fait fondre la couche de neige dans les foreÌts alpines de conifeÌres ou Ì le ruissellement contribue dans une large mesure au deÌbit printanier des rivieÌres dans lâouest de lâAmeÌrique du Nord. A ` lâaide de nombreuses observations sur le terrain, dans un bassin de teÌte de la partie est des monta-gnes Rocheuses canadiennes, lâeffet du couvert de foreÌt de conifeÌres sur le rayonnement et sur le moment de la fonte d
The International Urban Energy Balance Models Comparison Project: First Results from Phase 1
A large number of urban surface energy balance models now exist with different assumptions about the
important features of the surface and exchange processes that need to be incorporated. To date, no com-
parison of these models has been conducted; in contrast, models for natural surfaces have been compared
extensively as part of the Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization Schemes. Here, the
methods and ïŹrst results from an extensive international comparison of 33 models are presented. The aim of
the comparison overall is to understand the complexity required to model energy and water exchanges in
urban areas. The degree of complexity included in the models is outlined and impacts on model performance
are discussed. During the comparison there have been signiïŹcant developments in the models with resulting
improvements in performance (root-mean-square error falling by up to two-thirds). Evaluation is based on a
dataset containing net all-wave radiation, sensible heat, and latent heat ïŹux observations for an industrial area in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The aim of the comparison is twofold: to identify those modeling ap-
proaches that minimize the errors in the simulated ïŹuxes of the urban energy balance and to determine the
degree of model complexity required for accurate simulations. There is evidence that some classes of models
perform better for individual ïŹuxes but no model performs best or worst for all ïŹuxes. In general, the simpler
models perform as well as the more complex models based on all statistical measures. Generally the schemes
have best overall capability to model net all-wave radiation and least capability to model latent heat ïŹux
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The Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 7.0/7.1 and JULES Global Land 7.0 configurations
We describe Global Atmosphere 7.0 and GlobalLand 7.0 (GA7.0/GL7.0), the latest science configurations of the Met Office Unified Model (UM) and the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) land surface model developed for use across weather and climate timescales. GA7.0 and GL7.0 include incremental developments and targeted improvements that, between them, address four critical errors identified in previous configurations: excessive precipitation biases over India, warm and moist biases in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), a source of energy non-conservation in the advection scheme and excessive surface radiation biases over the Southern Ocean. They also include two new parametrisations, namely the UK Chemistry and Aerosol(UKCA) GLOMAP-mode (Global Model of Aerosol Processes) aerosol scheme and the JULES multi-layer snow scheme, which improve the fidelity of the simulation and were required for inclusion in the Global Atmosphere/Global Land configurations ahead of the 6th Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP6).In addition, we describe the GA7.1 branch configuration, which reduces an overly negative anthropogenic aerosol effective radiative forcing (ERF) in GA7.0 whilst maintaining the quality of simulations of the present-day climate. GA7.1/GL7.0 will form the physical atmosphere/land component in the HadGEM3âGC3.1 and UKESM1 climate model submissions to the CMIP6
Surface Energy Budgets of Arctic Tundra During Growing Season
This study analyzed summer observations of diurnal and seasonal surface energy budgets across several monitoring sites within the Arctic tundra underlain by permafrost. In these areas, latent and sensible heat fluxes have comparable magnitudes, and ground heat flux enters the subsurface during short summer intervals of the growing period, leading to seasonal thaw. The maximum entropy production (MEP) model was tested as an input and parameter parsimonious model of surface heat fluxes for the simulation of energy budgets of these permafrostâunderlain environments. Using net radiation, surface temperature, and a single parameter characterizing the thermal inertia of the heat exchanging surface, the MEP model estimates latent, sensible, and ground heat fluxes that agree closely with observations at five sites for which detailed flux data are available. The MEP potential evapotranspiration model reproduces estimates of the PenmanâMonteith potential evapotranspiration model that requires at least five input meteorological variables (net radiation, ground heat flux, air temperature, air humidity, and wind speed) and empirical parameters of surface resistance. The potential and challenges of MEP model application in sparsely monitored areas of the Arctic are discussed, highlighting the need for accurate measurements and constraints of ground heat flux.Plain Language SummaryGrowing season latent and sensible heat fluxes are nearly equal over the Arctic permafrost tundra regions. Persistent ground heat flux into the subsurface layer leads to seasonal thaw of the top permafrost layer. The maximum energy production model accurately estimates the latent, sensible, and ground heat flux of the surface energy budget of the Arctic permafrost regions.Key PointThe MEP model is parsimonious and well suited to modeling surface energy budget in dataâsparse permafrost environmentsPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150560/1/jgrd55584.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150560/2/jgrd55584_am.pd
ESM-SnowMIP: Assessing snow models and quantifying snow-related climate feedbacks
This paper describes ESM-SnowMIP, an international coordinated modelling effort to evaluate current snow schemes, including snow schemes that are included in Earth system models, in a wide variety of settings against local and global observations. The project aims to identify crucial processes and characteristics that need to be improved in snow models in the context of local- and global-scale modelling. A further objective of ESM-SnowMIP is to better quantify snow-related feedbacks in the Earth system. Although it is not part of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), ESM-SnowMIP is tightly linked to the CMIP6-endorsed Land Surface, Snow and Soil Moisture Model Intercomparison (LS3MIP)
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