HR: 0800h
AN: H11B-1263    [Abstracts]
TI: The Diurnal Cycle of Monsoon Rainfall in the Himalayas Using a Coupled Land-Cloud Model
AU: * Bhushan, S
EM: sbhushan@duke.edu
AF: Civil and Enviornmental Engineering, 121 Hudson Hall Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AU: Barros, A P
EM: barros@duke.edu
AF: Civil and Enviornmental Engineering, 121 Hudson Hall Box 90287, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AB: The objective of this research is to investigate the role of surface latent heating and evapotranspiration in the diurnal cycle of rainfall in mountainous regions. Existing cloud resolving models do not account for land-atmosphere interactions in general, and in particular for the surface processes associated with water and energy budgets (e.g., surface energy fluxes and evapotranspiration). Here we present results from a nested grid simulation (24, 4, 2 and 1 km resolutions) of the 1999 monsoon onset in the Himalayan range using a coupled land-cloud model. The results show that the coupled model captures the development of surface convergence zones along the Himalayan range leading to a nocturnal rainfall maximum. The rainfall peak is linked with the occurrence of low-level moisture and high instability in accordance with the MOHPREX (Monsoon Himalayan Precipitation Experiment, 2001) observations.
DE: 1218 Mass balance (0762, 1223, 1631, 1836, 1843, 3010, 3322, 4532)
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1847 Modeling
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005