HR: 16:45h
AN: H24B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Effects of soil moisture and snow cover initialization on simulations of atmospheric boundary layer flow over complex terrain
AU: * Daniels, M H
EM: mdaniels@ce.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States
AU: Chow, F K
EM: chow@ce.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, United States
AB: Soil moisture affects flow in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) through changes in surface heat fluxes. These fluxes are also affected by the presence or absence of snow cover. Standard surface boundary condition initialization procedures often rely on coarse grid data sets that are unable to capture variation over topography resolved by finer grids. To investigate this issue, high resolution simulations of ABL flow over Owens Valley, CA are carried out using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS). Owens Valley lies between the Sierra Nevada and White-Inyo mountain ranges, so that the simulation domain covers an area with large variation in land-surface characteristics. Simulations are performed first using standard surface boundary condition initialization procedures, then using field observations of soil moisture and temperature as well as adjusted snow cover. A quiescent and a strongly forced case are considered. Simulation results are compared to observations gathered during the Terrain- Induced Rotor Experiment in March and April, 2006. Preliminary results indicate that more accurate soil moisture and snow cover characterization changes flow evolution under quiescent conditions. The effects of soil moisture and snow cover initialization under strongly forced conditions are also examined.
DE: 1843 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 3322)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 3307 Boundary layer processes
DE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 1843)
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting