TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of lateral flow on the convective environment in a coupled hydrometeorological modeling system in a semiarid environment
AU - Lahmers, Timothy M.
AU - Castro, Christopher L.
AU - Hazenberg, Pieter
N1 - Funding Information:
Observation data, including NCEP Stage IV Precipitation, SMAP-Sentinel soil moisture, and surface observations are available online. Surface station observations and CFSR forcing are available through theNational Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), and flux tower observations are available through AmeriFlux. All model outputs are permanently archived on a server maintained by The University of Arizona Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences are available upon request. This work was supported by NOAAJoint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Federal Grant Number: NA17OAR4590183. We acknowledge Russ Scott (USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center) for providing WGEW flux tower data records from the 2017 and 2018 NAM seasons.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments. Observation data, including NCEP Stage IV Precipitation, SMAP–Sentinel soil moisture, and surface observations are available online. Surface station observations and CFSR forcing are available through the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), and flux tower observations are available through AmeriFlux. All model outputs are permanently archived on a server maintained by The University of Arizona Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences are available upon request. This work was supported by NOAA Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) Federal Grant Number: NA17OAR4590183. We acknowledge Russ Scott (USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center) for providing WGEW flux tower data records from the 2017 and 2018 NAM seasons.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Meteorological Society.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Evidence for surface and atmosphere coupling is corroborated in both modeling and observation-based field experiments. Recent advances in high-performance computing and development of convection-permitting regional-scale atmospheric models combined with high-resolution hydrologic models have made modeling of surface-atmosphere interactions feasible for the scientific community. These hydrological models can account for the impacts of the overland flow and subsurface flow components of the hydrologic cycle and account for the impact of lateral flow onmoisture redistribution at the land surface.One such model is theWeather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional atmospheric model that can be coupled to the WRF-Hydro hydrologic model. In the present study, both the uncoupled WRF (WRF-ARW) and otherwise identical WRF-Hydro model are executed for the 2017 and 2018 summertime North American monsoon (NAM) seasons in semiarid central Arizona. In this environment, diurnal convection is impacted by precipitation recycling from the land surface. The goal of this work is to evaluate the impacts that surface runoff and shallow subsurface flow, as depicted inWRF-Hydro, have on surface-atmosphere interactions and convection in a coupled atmospheric simulation. The current work assesses the impact of surface hydrologic processes on 1) local surface energy budgets during the NAMthroughout Arizona and 2) the spectral behavior of diurnally drivenNAMcOnvection.Model results suggest that adding surface and subsurface flow from WRF-Hydro increases soilmoisture and latent heat near the surface. This increases the amount of instability and moisture available for deep convection in the model simulations and enhances the organization of convection at the peak of the diurnal cycle.
AB - Evidence for surface and atmosphere coupling is corroborated in both modeling and observation-based field experiments. Recent advances in high-performance computing and development of convection-permitting regional-scale atmospheric models combined with high-resolution hydrologic models have made modeling of surface-atmosphere interactions feasible for the scientific community. These hydrological models can account for the impacts of the overland flow and subsurface flow components of the hydrologic cycle and account for the impact of lateral flow onmoisture redistribution at the land surface.One such model is theWeather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional atmospheric model that can be coupled to the WRF-Hydro hydrologic model. In the present study, both the uncoupled WRF (WRF-ARW) and otherwise identical WRF-Hydro model are executed for the 2017 and 2018 summertime North American monsoon (NAM) seasons in semiarid central Arizona. In this environment, diurnal convection is impacted by precipitation recycling from the land surface. The goal of this work is to evaluate the impacts that surface runoff and shallow subsurface flow, as depicted inWRF-Hydro, have on surface-atmosphere interactions and convection in a coupled atmospheric simulation. The current work assesses the impact of surface hydrologic processes on 1) local surface energy budgets during the NAMthroughout Arizona and 2) the spectral behavior of diurnally drivenNAMcOnvection.Model results suggest that adding surface and subsurface flow from WRF-Hydro increases soilmoisture and latent heat near the surface. This increases the amount of instability and moisture available for deep convection in the model simulations and enhances the organization of convection at the peak of the diurnal cycle.
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U2 - 10.1175/JHM-D-19-0100.1
DO - 10.1175/JHM-D-19-0100.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85085048668
VL - 21
SP - 615
EP - 642
JO - Journal of Hydrometeorology
JF - Journal of Hydrometeorology
SN - 1525-755X
IS - 4
ER -