A Preliminary Study on Land-Atmosphere Interactions over the SGP Site

 

Authors

Peter Daum — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Wei Wu — NOAA National Ocean Service
Martin Schoonen — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Luis Enrique Ortiz — City College of New York

Category

General Topics

Description

Land-atmosphere interactions over the Great Southern Plains (SGP) site are examined by using observations collected by the US Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurements and the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The purpose of this study is to advance our process-level understanding of the interactions between land-surface and atmospheric properties, with a focus on the exchanges of energy and moisture. Preliminary results of modeled land-surface properties (e.g., soil moisture, energy and moisture fluxes) show a close link to atmospheric properties (e.g., cloud amount and precipitation). Observations suggest that land-surface heat and momentum fluxes change with land cover. Results from this study will be useful for strengthening our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions, and for improving parameterizations in weather and climate models.