HR: 1340h
AN: H13C-0416    [Abstracts]
TI: Effects of Implementing MODIS Land Cover Data in MM5
AU: * Yucel, I
EM: ismail.yucel@hamptonu.edu
AB: A new land-cover classification from the Moderate-resolution Imaging-Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was incorporated in the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU-NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5). Surface parameter sets are determined by translating 17-category MODIS classes into the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Simple Biosphere (SiB) categories available in MM5. MODIS surface albedo was also used in this study as one of the surface parameters. Current MM5 relies on 1-km global land-cover map produced using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) from 1992 to1993. By updating this last decade changes in land cover from MODIS, their impacts on the regional diagnosis of near-surface atmospheric state variables as well as characteristics of the planetary boundary layer were investigated. Simulation results show that MODIS land-cover replacement showed significant influence on the magnitudes of air temperature (up to ñ5oC) and humidity (up to ñ1gkg-1). Area-averaged comparisons with ground measurements showed a small but persistent improvement with a further enhancement on a clear-sky day when MM5 was simulated with MODIS land-cover classification. Such improvements were more significant at a localized scale. MODIS albedo addition did not alter the results much obtained with the inclusion of the MODIS land-cover map. This suggests that the model needs more spin up time to adjust new albedo values.
DE: 1878 Water/energy interactions
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting