Simulation analysis of local land atmosphere coupling in rainy season over a typical underlying surface in the Tibetan Plateau
<p>The local land–atmosphere coupling (LoCo) investigates the interactions between soil conditions, surface fluxes, planetary boundary layer (PBL) growth, and the formations of convective clouds and precipitation. Studying LoCo over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is of great significance for underst...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/24/5937/2020/hess-24-5937-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>The local land–atmosphere coupling (LoCo) investigates the interactions between soil conditions, surface fluxes, planetary boundary layer (PBL) growth, and the formations of convective clouds and precipitation. Studying LoCo over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is of great significance for understanding the TP's role in the Asian water tower. A series of real-case simulations, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with different combinations of land surface model (LSM) schemes and PBL schemes, has been carried out to investigate the LoCo characteristics
over a typical underlying surface in the central TP in the rainy season. The LoCo characteristics in the study area are analyzed by applying a mixing diagram to the simulation results. The analysis indicates that the WRF simulations, using the Noah with BouLac, Mellor-Yamada Nakanishi and Niino Level-2.5 PBL (MYNN), and Yonsei University (YSU) produce closer results to the observation in terms of curves of <span class="inline-formula"><i>C</i><sub>p</sub>⋅<i>θ</i></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><sub>v</sub>⋅<i>q</i></span>, surface
fluxes (<span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>), entrainment fluxes (<span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span>) at site BJ of Nagqu Station (BJ/Nagqu) than those using the Community Land Model (CLM) with BouLac, MYNN, and YSU. The frequency distributions of <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, and
<span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> in the study area confirm this result. The spatial distributions of simulated <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, using WRF with Noah and BouLac, suggest that the spatial distributions of <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span> and
<span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span> in the study area are consistent with that of soil moisture, but the spatial distributions of <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> are quite different from that of soil moisture. A close examination of the relationship between entrainment fluxes and cloud water content (<span class="inline-formula"><i>Q</i><sub>Cloud</sub></span>) reveals that the grids with small <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span> and large <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> tend to have high <span class="inline-formula"><i>Q</i><sub>Cloud</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, suggesting that high <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span> is conducive to convective cloud formation, which leads to small <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span> and large <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span>. A sensitivity analysis of LoCo to the soil moisture at site BJ/Nagqu indicates that, on a sunny day, an increase in soil moisture leads to an increase in <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>
but decreases in <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span>. The sensitivity of the relationship between simulated maximum daytime PBL height (PBLH) and mean daytime evapotranspiration (ET) in the study area to soil moisture indicates the rate at which the maximum daytime PBLH decreases with the mean ET increase as the initial soil moisture goes up. The analysis of simulated <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>sfc</sub></span>, <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span>, and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> under different soil moisture conditions reveals that the frequency of <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span> ranging
from 80 to 240 W m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−2</sup></span> and the frequency of <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> ranging from <span class="inline-formula">−240</span> to <span class="inline-formula">−90</span> W m<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−2</sup></span> both increase as the initial soil moisture increases. Coupled with the changes in <span class="inline-formula"><i>Q</i><sub>Cloud</sub></span>, the changes in <span class="inline-formula"><i>H</i><sub>ent</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula"><i>L</i><i>E</i><sub>ent</sub></span> as the initial soil moisture increases indicate that the rise in soil moisture leads to an increase in the cloud amount but a decrease in <span class="inline-formula"><i>Q</i><sub>Cloud</sub></span>.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1027-5606 1607-7938 |