NEWS FY07 Latest Updates: NASA Model and Observation Products for the Study of Land Atmosphere Coupl

1
NEWS FY07 Latest Updates NASA Model and
Observation Products for the Study of Land
Atmosphere Coupling and its Impact on Water and
Energy Cycles

• PIs C. D. Peters-Lidard (NASA/GSFC), W-K. Tao
  (NASA/GSFC) J. Santanello, Jr. (UMCP/ESSIC), S.
  Kumar (UMBC/GEST),
• B. Shen (UMCP/ESSIC), J. Chern (UMBC/GEST), M.
  Bosilovich (NASA/GSFC),
• M. Rodell (NASA/GSFC), J. Geiger (NASA/GSFC), W.
  Lau (NASA/GSFC)

2
Monthly Precipitation and Local Time of
Precipitation Frequency Maximum over West Africa
The GSFC Multiscale Modeling Framework (MMF),
which is a cloud resolving model embedded within
a general circulation model, captures
TRMM-observed surface precipitation and its
diurnal variation.
TRMM TMI
TRMM Combined
MMF
fvGCM
fvGCM
MMF
TRMM

• Geographical distribution of the local solar time
  (LST) of non-drizzle precipitation frequency
  maximum over West Africa in summer 1999 as
  simulated with the Goddard MMF (upper panel) and
  the fvGCM (middle panel) and as observed by the
  TRMM TMI (bottom panel). Blank regions indicate
  no precipitation.

Monthly precipitation rates (mm/day) over West
Africa for September 1999 from TRMM observations
(TMI, top-left, and Combined, top-right) and
simulations from the Goddard MMF (lower-left
panel) and the fvGCM (lower-right panel).
3
A Modeling and Observational Framework for
Diagnosing Local Land-Atmosphere Coupling on
Diurnal Time Scales

• Overarching Goal
• To accurately understand, model, and predict the
  role of Local Coupling (LoCo) of landatmosphere
  interactions in the evolution of land-atmosphere
  and Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) fluxes and
  state variables.
• International Linkages
• The NEWS-sponsored framework will be used to
  support WCRP-GEWEX studies of factors controlling
  LoCo.

Noah Land Surface Model
CLM2 Land Surface Model
a)
b)
00Z
Noah
bs
CLM2

• MRF
• YSU
• MYJ

• MRF
• YSU
• MYJ
• ---- Observed

12Z
bs Sfc. Bowen ratio
bi Entrainment Bowen ratio
LIS-WRF Oct 23-26 1999 CASES99 Experiment
Figure 1 Diurnal evolution (12-00Z) of
2m-potential temperature vs. 2m-specific humidity
simulated by LIS-WRF during dry soil moisture
conditions in the Southern Great Plains using
the a) Noah and b) CLM2 land surface models with
the MRF, YSU, and MYJ PBL schemes
Figure 2 Evaporative fraction vs. PBL height
simulated by LIS-WRF using each PBL-LSM pair
along with that observed
The degree of coupling between the land
surface and PBL must be represented accurately in
models, but remains largely unexplored and
undiagnosed due to the complex interactions and
feedback processes (such as entrainment) present
across a range of scales. Here, the
land-atmosphere coupling strength for a given
PBL-land surface scheme pair can be assessed
using mixing diagrams (q vs. q Fig.1). The
diurnal evolution of each q vs. q curve is
integrative of and a direct function of the
surface Bowen ratio and the entrainment rate,
which can then be quantified using a vector
diagram approach. Variability in the
coupling strength of each model pair is also
reflected in the equilibrium between Evaporative
Fraction and PBL Height (Fig. 2).
When compared with observations across a full
range of conditions, the degree of coupling
determines the potential growth of the PBL in
relation to surface fluxes of moisture and heat,
and when compared with observations indicates the
range and accuracy of LoCo within each model.
4
Publications
Atlas, R., O. Reale, B.-W. Shen, S.-J. Lin, J.-D.
Chern, W. Putman, T. Lee, K.-S. Yeh, M.
Bosilovich, and J. Radakovich, 2005 Hurricane
forecasting with the high-resolution NASA
finite-volume General Circulation Model,
Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L03801,
doi10.1029/2004GL021513. Biswas, R., M. J.
Aftosmis, C. Kiris, and B.-W. Shen, 2007
Petascale Computing Impact on Future NASA
Missions. Petascale Computing Architectures and
Algorithms (D. Bader, ed.), Chapman and Hall /
CRC Press, (in press). Kumar et al. An
Integrated High Resolution Hydrometeorogical
Modeling Testbed using LIS and WRF, Environmental
Modeling and Software, (in press). Kumar et al.
A Land Surface Data Assimilation Framework using
the Land Information System Description and
Applications, Special Issue in Advances in Water
Resources (submitted). Shen, B.-W., W.-K. Tao,
R. Atlas, J.-D. Chern, S.-J. Lin, 2007
Multiscale Simulations of a Mei-Yu Front
accompanied by a Drifting Meso-cyclone with a
Global Mesoscale Model, (in preparation). Shen,
B.-W., R. Atlas, O. Oreale, S.-J Lin, J.-D.
Chern, J. Chang, C. Henze, and J.-L. Li, 2006b
Hurricane Forecasts with a Global
Mesoscale-Resolving Model Preliminary Results
with Hurricane Katrina (2005), Geophys. Res.
Lett., L13813, doi10.1029/2006GL026143. Shen,
B.-W., R. Atlas, J.-D. Chern, O. Reale, S.-J.
Lin, T. Lee, and J. Change 2006a The 0.125
degree Finite Volume General Mesoscale
Circulation Model Preliminary simulations of
mesoscale vortices. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33,
L05801, doi10.1029/2005GL024594.
5
Conference Talks
Atlas, R., S.-J. Lin, B.-W. Shen, O. Reale, and
K.-S. Yeh 2007 Improving Hurricane Prediction
through Innovative Global Modeling. Springer.
EXTENDING THE HORIZONS International Impacts of
Computing, Optimization and Decision
Technologies. Presented as Plenary Address by the
1st author. Kumar et al., A Generic
Interoperable Hydrologic Data Assimilation
Framework using the Land Information System,
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall meeting,
11-15 December 2006, San Francisco, CA. Kumar et
al., Evaluation of the influence of fine scale
land surface representation on convective
processes using the coupled LIS-WRF system, 21th
Conference on Hydrology, 87th American
Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting,
14-18 Jan, 2007, San Antonio, TX. Kumar et al.,
An Integrated System for Sequential Hydrologic
Data Assimilation using the Land Information
System, AGU 2007 Joint Assembly, 22-25 May, 2007,
Acapulco, Mexico. Peters-Lidard, C. D., J. A.
Santanello, S. V. Kumar, J. L. Eastman, Land
Atmosphere Coupling Soil Moisture, Vegetation
and the Boundary Layer, AGU Fall meeting, 11-15
Dec 2006, San Francisco, CA. Santanello, J. A.,
and M. A. Friedl, Estimation of Convective
Planetary Boundary Layer Evolution and
Land-Atmosphere Interactions from MODIS and AIRS,
21th Conference on Hydrology, 87th AMS Annual
Meeting, 14-18 Jan, 2007, San Antonio,
TX. Santanello, J. A., C. Peters-Lidard, S.
Kumar, and J. Geiger, A modeling and
observational framework for diagnosing local
land-atmosphere coupling on diurnal time scales.
European Geosciences Union (EGU) 2007 General
Assembly, 15-20 April, 2007, Vienna,
Austria. Shen, B.-W., W.-K. Tao, R. Atlas, T.
Lee, O. Reale, J.-D. Chern, S.-J. Lin, J. Chang,
C. Henze, J.-L. Li, Hurricane Forecasts with a
Global Mesoscale-resolving Model on the NASA
Columbia Supercomputer, AGU 2006 Fall Meeting,
11-15 December 2006, San Francisco, CA.
6
Connections Forged with other Research Communities

• Active collaborations (with NSIT, other NEWS
  projects, etc.)
• Paul Houser/GMU (NSIT, WCSN, GLASS LoCo)
• Bill Lapenta, Jonathan Case/MSFC (NSIT,
  SPORT)
• Mike Bosilovich/GSFC (NEWS, temperature
  assimilation, CEOP)
• Matt Rodell/GSFC (NEWS, snow assimilation,
  GLDAS)
• Randy Koster, Rolf Reichle/GSFC (NEWS, GLASS
  GLACE)
• John Janowiak, Bob Joyce/NOAA CPC

• Important outside linkages/resources (outside the
  NEWS team)
• GEWEX GLASS Panel (Paul Dirmeyer/COLA, Bart van
  den Hurk/KNMI)
• GEWEX GABLS (Bert Holtslag/Waginingen
  Univ.)
• GEWEX GCSS (Wei-Kuo Tao et al./GSFC)
• GEWEX GMPP (Jan Polcher/LMD)
• DoE ARM/CART, CLASIC (Mark Miller/BNL)
• CUAHSI NCHS (Norm Miller/LBL)
• CEOP, AMMA