Can we use satellite-based soil-moisture products at high resolution to investigate land-use differences and land-atmosphere interactions? a case study in the savanna

The use of soil moisture (SM) measurements from satellites has grown in recent years, fostering the development of new products at high resolution. This opens the possibility of using them for certain applications that were normally carried out using in situ data. We investigated this hypothesis through two main analyses using two high-resolution satellite-based soil moisture (SBSM) products that combined microwave with thermal and optical data: (1) The Disaggregation based on Physical And Theoretical scale Change (DISPATCH) and, (2) The Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity-Barcelona Expert Center (SMOS-BEC Level 4). We used these products to analyse the SM differences among pixels with contrasting vegetation. This was done through the comparison of the SM measurements from satellites and the measurements simulated with a simple antecedent precipitation index (API) model, which did not account for the surface characteristics. Subsequently, the deviation of the SM from satellite with respect to the API model (bias) was analysed and compared for contrasting land use categories. We hypothesised that the differences in the biases of the varied categories could provide information regarding the water retention capacity associated with each type of vegetation. From the satellite measurements, we determined how the SM depended on the tree cover, i.e., the denser the tree cover, the higher the SM. However, in winter periods with light rain events, the tree canopy could dampen the moistening of the soil through interception and conducted higher SM in the open areas. This evolution of the SM differences that depended on the characteristics of each season was observed both from satellite and from in situ measurements taken beneath a tree and in grass on the savanna landscape. The agreement between both types of measurements highlighted the potential of the SBSM products to investigate the SM of each type of vegetation. We found that the results were clearer for DISPATCH, whose data was not smoothed spatially as it was in SMOS-BEC. We also tested whether the relationships between SM and evapotranspiration could be investigated using satellite data. The answer to this question was also positive but required removing the unrealistic high-frequency SM oscillations from the satellite data using a low pass filter. This improved the performance scores of the products and the agreement with the results from the in situ data. These results demonstrated the possibility of using SM data from satellites to substitute ground measurements for the study of land–atmosphere interactions, which encourages efforts to improve the quality and resolution of these measurements

Estudio de la mezcla turbulenta a traves de experimentos de laboratorio y datos micrometeorologicos

En este trabajo se estudia el fenómeno de la mezcla turbulenta a través de dos vías de investigación. Por un lado, la experimentación de laboratorio, modelizando situaciones convectivas que rompen estratificaciones estables fuertes, dando lugar a mezcla, y por otro haciendo un estudio de los coeficientes de intercambio turbulento en la capa superficial atmosférica. Para el análisis de los datos micrometeorologicos se han utilizado dos conjuntos de datos, unos procedentes de una torre de Valladolid, y otros medidos en la Antártida durante el invierno austral de 1986. La memoria, pretende ser un estudio de la influencia de la estratificación o estabilidad sobre la mezcla turbulenta, especialmente la producida en las capas bajas de la atmósfera

Influence of atmospheric stratification on the integral scale and fractal dimension of turbulent flows

In this work the relation between integral scale and fractal dimension and the type of stratification in fully developed turbulence is analyzed. The integral scale corresponds to that in which energy from larger scales is incoming into a turbulent regime. One of the aims of this study is the understanding of the relation between the integral scale and the bulk Richardson number, which is one of the most widely used indicators of stability close to the ground in atmospheric studies. This parameter will allow us to verify the influence of the degree of stratification over the integral scale of the turbulent flows in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The influence of the diurnal and night cycles on the relationship between the fractal dimension and integral scale is also analyzed. The fractal dimension of wind components is a turbulent flow characteristic, as has been shown in previous works, where its relation to stability was highlighted. Fractal dimension and integral scale of the horizontal (u′) and vertical (w′) velocity fluctuations have been calculated using the mean wind direction as a framework. The scales are obtained using sonic anemometer data from three elevations 5.8, 13 and 32 m above the ground measured during the SABLES 98 field campaign (Cuxart et al., 2000). In order to estimate the integral scales, a method that combines the normalized autocorrelation function and the best Gaussian fit (R² ≥ 0.70) has been developed. Finally, by comparing, at the same height, the scales of u′ and w′ velocity components, it is found that the turbulent flows are almost always anisotropic

A Postprocessing methodology for direct normal irradiance forecasting using cloud information and aerosol load forecasts

A method for direct normal irradiance (DNI) forecasting for specific sites is proposed. It is based on the combination of a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model, which provides cloud information, with radiative transfer simulations fed with external aerosol forecasts. The NWP model used is the ECMWF Integrated Forecast System, and the radiative transfer information has been obtained from the Library of Radiative Transfer (libRadtran). Two types of aerosol forecasts have been tested: the global Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) model, which predicts five major components of aerosols, and the Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (BSC-DREAM8b) added to a fixed background calculated as the 20th percentile of the monthly mean of AERONET 2.0 observations from a different year. The methodology employed is valid for all meteorological situations, providing a stable and continuous DNI curve. The performance of the combined method has been evaluated against DNI observations and compared with the pure ECMWF forecasts at eight locations in the southern half of mainland Spain and the Canary Islands, which received high loadings of African dust for 2013 and 2014. Results for 1-day forecasts are presented. Although clouds play a major role, aerosols have a significant effect, but at shorter time scales. The combination of ECMWF and MACC forecasts gives the best global results, improving the DNI forecasts in events with high aerosol content. The regional BSC-DREAM8b yields good results for some extremely high dust conditions, although more reliable predictions, valid for any aerosol conditions, are provided by the MACC model

Estimating fog-top height through near-surface micrometeorological measurements

Fog-top height (fog thickness) is very useful information for aircraft maneuvers, data assimilation/validation of Numerical Weather Prediction models or nowcasting of fog dissipation. This variable is usually difficult to determine, since the fog-layer top cannot be observed from the surface. In some cases, satellite data, ground remote sensing instruments or atmospheric soundings are used to provide approximations of fog-top height. These instruments are expensive and their data not always available. In this work, two different methods for the estimation of fog-top height from field measurements are evaluated from the statistical analysis of several radiation-fog events at two research facilities. Firstly, surface friction velocity and buoyancy flux are here presented as potential indicators of fog thickness, since a linear correlation between fog thickness and surface turbulence is found at both sites. An operational application of this method can provide a continuous estimation of fog-top height with the deployment of a unique sonic anemometer at surface. Secondly, the fog-top height estimation based on the turbulent homogenisation within well-mixed fog (an adiabatic temperature profile) is evaluated. The latter method provides a high percentage of correctly-estimated fog-top heights for well-mixed radiation fog, considering the temperature difference between different levels of the fog. However, it is not valid for shallow fog (~ less than 50 m depth), since in this case, the weaker turbulence within the fog is not able to erode the surface-based temperature inversion and to homogenise the fog layer

The share of the mean turbulent kinetic energy in the near-neutral surface layer for high and low wind speeds

We examine the dependence on wind speed of the share of the mean turbulent kinetic energy among the three velocity components in the near-neutral surface layer. To contrast the general behaviour and the local effects, four datasets are considered, corresponding to different surfaces and environmental conditions. For high wind speeds (i.e., wind speed ≈ 10 ms^(−1)), the shares are well-defined and about the same for all sites. As wind speed decreases (becoming ≈ 1 ms^(−1)), large record-to-record variability occurs giving, on average, an almost isotropic state for the horizontal velocity components. Through spectral analysis, we relate this behaviour to the low-frequency, submeso motions and to the lack of conditions required by Reynolds averaging. The implications for modelling are also discussed, showing that the wind speed, or a related quantity, must be accounted for, besides stability, in second-order closures

Radiation and cloud-base lowering fog events: observational analysis and evaluation of WRF and HARMONIE

Most of the effects caused by fog are negative for humans. Yet, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models still have problems to simulate fog properly, especially in operational forecasts. In the case of radiation fog, this is partially caused by the large sensitivity to many aspects that contribute to its formation, evolution and dissipation, such as the synoptic and local conditions, the near-surface turbulence, the aerosol and droplet microphysics, or the surface characteristics, among others. This work focuses on an interesting 8-day period with several alternating radiation and cloud-base lowering (CBL) fog events observed at the Research Centre for the Lower Atmosphere (CIBA) in the Spanish Northern Plateau. The site was appropriately instrumented to characterize fog from the surface up to the height of 100 m. On the one hand, radiation fog events are associated with strong surface cooling leading to high stability close to the surface and low values of turbulence, giving rise to shallow fog. The evolution of this type of fog is markedly sensitive to the dynamical conditions close to the surface (i.e., wind speed and turbulence). On the other hand, CBL fog presents deeper thickness associated with higher values of turbulence and less stability. Subsequently, we evaluated the fog-forecasting skill of two mesoscale models (WRF and HARMONIE) configured as similar as possible. Both models present more difficulties simulating radiation fog events than CBL ones. However, the duration and vertical extension of the CBL fog events is normally overestimated. This extended-fog avoids the surface radiative cooling needed to simulate radiation fog events formed the following nights. Therefore, these periods with alternating CBL and radiation fog are especially challenging for NWP models

Impacts of afternoon and evening sea-breeze fronts on local turbulence, and on CO2 and radon-222 transport

We investigated sharp disruptions of local turbulence and scalar transport due to the arrival of sea-breeze fronts (SBFs). To this end, we employed a comprehensive 10-year observational database from the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR, the Netherlands). Sea-breeze (SB) days were selected using a five-filter algorithm, which accounts for large-scale conditions and a clear mesoscale-frontal signal associated with the land-sea contrast. Among those days (102 in all, 8.3%), based on the value of the sensible-heat flux at the onset of SB, we identified three atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) regimes: convective, transition and stable. In the convective regime, the thermally driven convective boundary layer is only slightly altered by a small enhancement of the shear when the SBF arrives. Regarding the transition regime, we found that the ABL afternoon transition is accelerated. This was quantified by estimating the contributions of shear and buoyancy to the turbulent kinetic energy. Other relevant disruptions are the sharp reduction in ABL depth (similar to 250 m/hr) and the sudden increase in average wind speed (> 2 m/s). In the stable regime, the arrival of the SB leads to disturbances in the wind profile at the surface layer. We observed a deviation of more than 1 m/s in the observed surface-layer wind profile compared with the profile calculated using Monin-Obukhov Similarity Theory (MOST). Our findings furthermore reveal the determinant role of the SB direction in the transport of water vapour, CO2 and Rn-222. The return of continental air masses driven by the SB circulation generates sharp CO2 increases (up to 14 ppm in half an hour) in a few SB events. We suggest that the variability in Rn-222 evolution may also be influenced by other non-local processes such as the large-scale footprint from more remote sources

Performance evaluation of a multiscale modelling system applied to particulate matter dispersion in a real traffic hot spot in Madrid (Spain)

Urban air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems nowadays. Understanding urban pollution is rather challenging due to different factors that produce a strongly heterogeneous pollutant distribution within streets. Observed concentrations depend on processes occurring at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, complex wind flow and turbulence patterns induced by urban obstacles and irregular traffic emissions. The main objective of this paper is to model particulate matter dispersion at microscale while considering the effects of mesoscale processes. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) PM10 simulations were performed taking into account high spatial resolution traffic emissions from a microscale traffic model and inlet vertical profiles of meteorological variables from Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This modelling system is evaluated by using meteorological and PM10 concentration data from intensive experimental campaigns carried out on 25th February and 6th July, 2015 in a real urban traffic hot-spot in Madrid. The effect of uncertainties in the inlet profiles from mesoscale input data on microscale results is assessed. Additionally, the importance of the sensible surface heat fluxes (SHF) provided by WRF and the selection of an appropriate turbulent Schmidt number in the dispersion equation are investigated. The main conclusion is that the modelling system accurately reproduces PM10 dispersion imposing appropriate inputs (meteorological variables and SHF) and a suitable turbulent Schmidt number. Better agreement is found for simulation with a low turbulent Schmidt number. This approach improves the standard microscale modelling alone because more realistic boundary conditions and mesoscale processes are considered