Some phenomena of the interaction between vegetation and a atmosphere on multiple scales

This article studies the response of the distribution pattern and the physiological characteristics of the ecosystem to the spontaneous precipitation and the interaction between vegetation and the atmosphere on multiple scales in arid and semi-arid zones, based on measured data of the ecological physiological parameters in the Ordas Plateau of northern China. The results show that the vegetation biomass and the energy use efficiency of photosynthesis are especially sensitive to the annual precipitation; strong and complex interactions exist between the vegetation and the atmosphere on multiple scales leading to supernormal thermal heterogeneity of the underlying surface, the strong vortex movement and turbulence. This study can facilitate understanding of the land surface processes and the influences of global climate change as well as human activities on the human environment in the arid and semi-arid zones. It also aids in improving the parameterization schemes of turbulent fluxes of a heterogeneous underlying surface for land surface processes in climate models.     

Testing and Improving the Performance of the Common Land Model:A Case Study for the Gobi Landscape

Land surface processes take place on the interface between the earth and atmosphere, exerting significant influences on the weather and climate. Correct modeling of these processes is important to numerical weather forecast and climate prediction. In order to obtain a more thorough understanding of the land surface processes over the Gobi landscape, we evaluated the performance of the Common Land Model(Co LM) at Dunhuang station in Gansu Province of China to determine whether the model formulation, driven by observational data, is capable of simulating surface fluxes over the underlying desert surface. In comparison with the enhanced observation data collected at Dunhuang station over the period 22–28 August 2008, the results showed that the surface albedo simulated by Co LM was larger than that in the observation, and the simulated surface temperature was lower than the observed. After the measured values were used to correct the surface albedo, the solar radiation absorbed by the ground surface was more consistent with the measurements. A new empirical relationship of the surface thermal exchange coefficient rah was used to modify the thermal aerodynamic impedance. The simulated soil surface temperature became significantly closer to the observed value, and the simulated surface sensible heat as well as net radiative fluxes were also improved.     

Effects of Crop Growth and Development on Land Surface Fluxes

In this study, the Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis model (CERES3.0) was coupled into the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS), which is called BATS CERES, to represent interactions between the land surface and crop growth processes. The effects of crop growth and development on land surface processes were then studied based on numerical simulations using the land surface models. Six sensitivity experiments by BATS show that the land surface fluxes underwent substantial changes when the leaf area index was changed from 0 to 6 m2 m-2. Numerical experiments for Yucheng and Taoyuan stations reveal that the coupled model could capture not only the responses of crop growth and development to environmental conditions, but also the feedbacks to land surface processes. For quantitative evaluation of the effects of crop growth and development on surface fluxes in China, two numerical experiments were conducted over continental China: one by BATS CERES and one by the original BATS. Comparison of the two runs shows decreases of leaf area index and fractional vegetation cover when incorporating dynamic crops in land surface simulation, which lead to less canopy interception, vegetation transpiration, total evapotranspiration, top soil moisture, and more soil evaporation, surface runoff, and root zone soil moisture. These changes are accompanied by decreasing latent heat flux and increasing sensible heat flux in the cropland region. In addition, the comparison between the simulations and observations proved that incorporating the crop growth and development process into the land surface model could reduce the systematic biases of the simulated leaf area index and top soil moisture, hence improve the simulation of land surface fluxes.     

The Interannual Variability of Climate in a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Model

In this paper, the interannual variability simulated by the coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP CGCM) in 40 year integrations is analyzed, and compared with that by the corresponding IAP AGCM which uses the climatic sea surface temperature as the boundary condition in 25 year integrations.The mean climatic states of January and July simulated by IAP CGCM are in good agreement with that by IAP AGCM, i.e., no serious ‘climate drift’ occurs in the CGCM simulation. A comparison of the results from AGCM and CGCM indicates that the standard deviation of the monthly averaged sea level pressure simulated by IAP CGCM is much greater than that by IAP AGCM in tropical region. In addition, both Southern Oscillation (SO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) can be found in the CGCM simulation for January, but these two oscillations do not exist in the AGCM simulation.The interannual variability of climate may be classified into two types: one is the variation of the annual mean, another is the variation of the annual amplitude. The ocean-atmosphere interaction mainly increases the first type of variability. By means of the rotated EOF, the most important patterns corresponding to the two types of interannual variability are found to have different spatial and temporal characteristics.     

Effects of a Remotely Sensed Land Cover Dataset with High Spatial Resolution on the Simulation of Secondary Air Pollutants over China Using the Nested-grid GEOS-Chem Chemical Transport Model简

A number of remotely sensed land cover datasets with spatial resolutions ~〈 1 km have recently become available or are in the process of being mapped. The application of these higher resolution and more up-to-date land cover datasets in chemical transport models （CTMs） is expected to improve the simulation of dry deposition and biogenic emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds （NMVOCs）, which affect ozone and other secondary air pollutants. In the present study, we updated the land cover dataset in the nested-grid GEOS-Chem CTM with the 1 km resolution GLC2000 land cover map and examined the resulting changes in the simulation of surface ozone and sulfate over China in July 2007. Through affecting the dry deposition velocities of ozone and its precursors, using GLC2000 in the dry deposition module can decrease the simulated surface ozone by 3% （up to 6 ppb） over China. Simulated surface sulfate shows an increase of 3% in northwestern China and a decrease of 1% in northern China. Applying GLC2000 in the biogenic emissions of the NMVOC module can lead to a 0.5--4.5 ppb increase in simulated surface ozone over East China, mainly driven by the larger cove~：age of broadleaf trees in East China in the GLC2000 dataset. Our study quantifies the large sensitivity to land cover dataset~ with different spatial resolutions and time periods of simulated secondary air pollutants over China, supporting ongoing research efforts to produce high resolution and dynamically updated land cover datasets over China, as well as for the globe.     

A Numerical Study on Effects of Land-Surface Heterogeneity from ‘Combined Approach’ on Atmospheric Process Part II: Coupling-Model Simulations

Two land surface schemes, one the standard Biosphere / Atmosphere Transfer Scheme Version le (B0Z) and the other B1Z based on B0Z and heterogeneously-treated by ‘combined approach’ , were coupled to the meso-scale model MM4, respectively. Through the calculations of equations from the companion paper, parameters representing land surface heterogeneity and suitable for the coupling models were found out. Three cases were simulated for heavy rainfalls during 36 hours, and the sensitivity of short-term weath-er modeling to the land surface heterogeneity was tested. Through the analysis of the simulations of the three heavy rainfalls, it was demonstrated that B1Z, compared with B0Z, could more realistically reflect the features of the land surface heterogeneity, therefore could more realistically reproduce the circulation and precipitation amount in the heavy rainfall processes of the three cases. This shows that even short-term weather is sensitive to the land surface heterogeneity, which is more obvious with time passing, and whose influence is more pronounced in the lower layer and gradually extends to the middle and upper layer. Through the analysis of these simulations with B1Z, it is suggested that the bulk effect of smaller-scale fluxes (i.e., the momentum, water vapor and sensible heat fluxes) near the significantly-heterogeneous Land surface is to change the larger-scale (i.e., meso-scale) circulation, and then to influence the development of the low-level jets and precipitation. And also, the complexity of the land-atmosphere interaction was shown in these simulations.     

An Updated Coupled Model for Land-Atmosphere Interaction. Part I： Simulations of Physical Processes

A new two-way land-atmosphere interaction model （R42_AVIM） is fulfilled by coupling the spectral atmospheric model （SAMIL_R42L9） developed at the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences （LASG/IAP/CAS） with the land surface model, Atmosphere-Vegetation-Interaction-Model （AVIM）. In this coupled model, physical and biological components of AVIM are both included. Climate base state and land surface physical fluxes simulated by R42_AVIM are analyzed and compared with the results of R42_SSIB [which is coupled by SAMIL_R42L9 and Simplified Simple Biosphere （SSIB） models]. The results show the performance of the new model is closer to the observations. It can basically guarantee that the land surface energy budget is balanced, and can simulate June-July-August （JJA） and December-January- February （DJF） land surface air temperature, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, precipitation, sea level pressure and other variables reasonably well. Compared with R42_SSIB, there are obvious improvements in the JJA simulations of surface air temperature and surface fluxes. Thus, this land-atmosphere coupled model will offer a good experiment platform for land-atmosphere interaction research.     

A Numerical Study on Effects of Land-Surface Heterogeneity from “Combined Approach” on Atmospheric Process Part I: Principle and Method

A method based on Giorgi (1997a, 1997b) and referred to as ‘combined approach’, which is a combination of mosaic approach and analytical-statistical-dynamical approach, is proposed. Compared with those of other approaches, the main advantage of the combined approach is that it not only can represent both interpatch and intrapatch variability, but also cost less computational time when the land surface heterogeneity is considered. Because the independent variable of probability density function (PDF) is extended to the single valued function of basic meteorological characteristic quantities, which is much more universal, the analytical expressions of the characteristic quantities, (e.g., drag coefficient, snow coverage, leaf surface aerodynamical resistance) affected by roughness length are derived, when the roughness length (and/ or the zero plane displacement) heterogeneity has been mainly taken into account with the approach. On the basis of the rule which the PDF parameters should follow, we choose a function y of the roughness length z0 as the PDF independent variable, and set different values of the two parameters width ratio αn and height ratio γ of PDF (here a linear, symmetric PDF is applied) for sensitivity experiments, from which some conclusions can be drawn, e.g., relevant characteristic terms show different sensitivities to the heterogeneous characteristic (i.e., roughness length), which suggests that we should consider the heterogeneities of the more sensitive terms in our model instead of the heterogeneities of the rest, and which also implies that when the land surface scheme is coupled into the global or regional atmospheric model, sensitivity tests against the distribution of the heterogeneous characteristic are very necessary; when the parameterαn is close to zero, little heterogeneity is represented, andαn differs with cases, which have an upper limit of about 0.6; in the reasonable range ofαn, a peak-like distribution of roughness length can be depicted by a small value ofγ, etc..     

Numerical Simulation Experiment of Land Surface Physical Processes and Local Climate Effect in Forest Underlying Surface

Based on the basic principles of atmospheric boundary layer and plant canopy micrometeorology, a forest underlying surface land surface physical process model and a two-dimensional atmospheric boundary layer numerical model are developed and numerical simulation experiments of biosphere and physiological processes of vegetation and soil volumetric water content have been done on land surface processes with local climate effect. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with realistic observations, which can be used to obtain reasonable simulations for diurnal variations of canopy temperature, air temperature in canopy, ground surface temperature, and temporal and spatial distributions of potential temperature and vertical wind velocity as well as relative humidity and turbulence exchange coefficient over non-homogeneous underlying surfaces. It indicates that the model developed can be used to study the interaction between land surface process and atmospheric boundary layer over various underlying surfaces and can be extended to local climate studies. This work will settle a solid foundation for coupling climate models with the biosphere.     

Study on the Effects of Land Surface Heterogeneitiesin Temperature and Moisture on Annual Scale Regional Climate Simulation

The ``combined approach', which is suitable to represent subgrid land surface heterogeneity in both inter-patch and intra-patch variabilities, is employed in the Biosphere/Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) as a land surface component of the regional climate model RegCM3 to consider the heterogeneities in temperature and moisture at the land surface, and then annual-scale simulations for 5 years (1988--1992) were conducted. Results showed that on the annual scale, the models response to the heterogeneities is quite sensitive, and that the effect of the temperature heterogeneity (TH) is more pronounced than the moisture heterogeneity (MH). On the intraannual scale, TH may lead to more (less) precipitation in warm (cold) seasons, and hence lead to larger intraannual variability in precipitation; the major MH effects may be lagged by about 1 month during the warm, rainy seasons, inducing ～6% more precipitation for some sub-regions. Additionally, the modeled climate for the northern sub-regions shows larger sensitivities to the land surface heterogeneities than those for the southern sub-regions. Since state-of-art land surface models seldom account for surface intra-patch variabilities, this study emphasizes the importance of including this kind of variability in the land surface models.     

Interannual Salinity Variability in the Tropical Pacific in CMIP5 Simulations

Salinity variability and its causes in the tropical Pacific are analyzed using observations, reanalysis products and model simulations. The mixed-layer salinity(MLS) budget analyses from observations and reanalysis products indicate that its interannual evolution is closely related to ENSO and is predominantly governed by surface forcing and surface advection in the western-central equatorial Pacific. It is found that the observed MLS tendency leads Nin?o3.4 by about 12 months due to the effect of negative freshwater flux(evaporation minus precipitation). These observation-based analyses are used to evaluate the corresponding simulation using GFDL-ESM2 M. It is evident that the model can simulate the spatiotemporal variations of MLS with some discrepancies compared to observations. In the warm pool of the equatorial Pacific the MLS tendency in the model is sensitive to ocean dynamics, however model biases cause the tendency to be underestimated. In particular, the freshwater flux is overestimated while the ocean surface zonal current and vertical velocity at the base of the mixed layer are underestimated. Due to model biases in representing the related physics, the effects of surface forcing on the simulated MLS budget are overestimated and those of subsurface and surface advection are relatively weak. Due to weaker surface advection and subsurface forcing than observed, the simulated compensations for surface forcing are suppressed, and the simulated MLS tendency that leads Nin?o3.4 by 8–10 months, which is shorter than the observed lead time. These results are useful for the interpretation of observational analyses and other model simulations in the tropical Pacific.     

Numerical Simulation and Evaluation of a New Hydrological Model Coupled with GRAPES

Hydrological processes exert enormous influences on the land surface water and energy balance, and have a close relationship with human society. We have developed a new hydrological runoff parameterization called XXT to improve the performance of a coupled land surface-atmosphere modeling system. The XXT parameterization, which is based upon the Xinanjiang hydrological model and TOPMODEL, includes an optimized function of runoff calculation with a new soil moisture storage capacity distribution curve(SMSCC). We then couple XXT with the Global/Regional Assimilation Prediction System (GRAPES) and compare it to GRAPES coupled with a simple water balance model (SWB).For the model evaluation and comparison, we perform 72-h online simulations using GRAPES-XXT and GRAPES-SWB during two torrential events in August 2007 and July 2008, respectively. The results show that GRAPES can reproduce the rainfall distribution and intensity fairly well in both cases. Differences in the representation of feedback processes between surface hydrology and the atmosphere result in differences in the distributions and amounts of precipitation simulated by GRAPES-XXT and GRAPES-SWB. The runoff simulations are greatly improved by the use of XXT in place of SWB, particularly with respect to the distribution and amount of runoff. The average runoff depth is nearly doubled in the rainbelt area, and unreasonable runoff distributions simulated by GRAPES-SWB are made more realistic by the introduction of XXT. Differences in surface soil moisture between GRAPES-XXT and GRAPES-SWB show that the XXT model changes infiltration and increases surface runoff. We also evaluate river flood discharge in the Yishu River basin. The peak values of flood discharge calculated from the output of GRAPES-XXT agree more closely with observations than those calculated from the output of GRAPES-SWB.     

Improving Land Surface Hydrological Simulations in China Using CLDAS Meteorological Forcing Data

The accuracy of land surface hydrological simulations using an offline land surface model(LSM) depends largely on the quality of the atmospheric forcing data. In this study, Global Land Data Assimilation System(GLDAS) forcing data and the newly developed China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System(CLDAS)forcing data are used to drive the Noah LSM with multiple parameterizations(Noah-MP) and to explore how the newly developed CLDAS forcing data improve land surface hydrological simulations over mainland China. The monthly soil moisture(SM) and evapotranspiration(ET) simulations are then compared and evaluated against observations. The results show that the Noah-MP driven by the CLDAS forcing data(referred to as CLDAS_Noah-MP)significantly improves the simulations in most cases over mainland China and its eight river basins. CLDAS_NoahMP increases the correlation coefficient(R) values from 0.451 to 0.534 for the SM simulations at a depth range of 0–10 cm in mainland China, especially in the eastern monsoon area such as the Huang–Huai–Hai Plain, the southern Yangtze River basin, and the Zhujiang River basin. Moreover, the root-mean-square error is reduced from 0.078 to0.068 m~3 m~(-3) for the SM simulations, and from 12.9 to 11.4 mm month~(-1) for the ET simulations over mainland China, especially in the southern Yangtze River basin and Zhujiang River basin. This study demonstrates that, by merging more in situ and remote sensing observations in regional atmospheric forcing data, offline LSM simulations can better simulate regional-scale land surface hydrological processes.     

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF CLOUD COVER OVER EASTERN CHINA AND THE EAST CHINA SEA

Based on data from satellite and surface observations,the horizontal and vertical distributions of clouds over eastern China and the East China Sea are examined.Three maximum centers of cloud cover are clearly visible in the horizontal distribution of total cloud cover.Two of these maxima occur over land.As the clouds mainly originate from the climbing airflows in the southern and eastern slopes of the Tibetan Plateau,they can be classified as dynamic clouds.The third center of cloud cover is over the sea.As the clouds mainly form from the evaporation of the warm Kuroshio Current,they can be categorized as thermodynamic clouds.Although the movement of the cloud centers reflect the seasonal variation of the Asian summer monsoon,cloud fractions of six cloud types that are distinct from the total cloud cover show individual horizontal patterns and seasonal variations.In their vertical distribution,cloud cover over the land and sea exhibits different patterns in winter but similar patterns in summer.In cold seasons,limited by divergent westerlies in the middle troposphere,mid-level clouds prevail over the leeside of the Tibetan Plateau.At the same time,suppressed by strong downdraft of the western Pacific subtropical high,low clouds dominate over the ocean.In warm seasons both continental and marine clouds can penetrate upward into the upper troposphere because they are subject to similar unstable stratification conditions.     

ANNUAL VARIATIONS OF TEMPERATURE ON FOUR URBAN UNDERLYING SURFACES AND FITTING ANALYSIS

Based on the observed 2-year temperature data for four kinds of typical urban underlying surfaces, including asphalt, cement, bare land and grass land, the annual variations and influencing factors of land surface temperature are analyzed. Then fitting equations for surface temperature are established. It is shown that the annual variation of daily average, maximum and minimum temperature and daily temperature range on the four urban underlying surfaces is consistent with the change in air temperature. The difference of temperature on different underlying surfaces in the summer half year (May to October) is much more evident than that in the winter half year (December to the following April). The daily average and maximum temperatures of asphalt, cement, bare land and grass land are higher than air temperature due to the atmospheric heating in the daytime, with that of asphalt being the highest, followed in turn by cement, bare land and grass land. Moreover, the daily average, maximum and minimum temperature on the four urban underlying surfaces are strongly impacted by total cloud amount, daily average relative humidity and sunshine hours. The land surface can be cooled (warmed) by increased total cloud amount (relative humidity). The changes in temperature on bare land and grass land are influenced by both the total cloud amount and the daily average relative humidity. The temperature parameters of the four land surfaces are significantly correlated with daily average, maximum and minimum temperature, sunshine hours, daily average relative humidity and total cloud amount, respectively. The analysis also indicates that the range of fitting parameter of a linear regression equation between the surface temperature of the four kinds of typical land surface and the air temperature is from 0.809 to 0.971, passing the F-test with a confidence level of 0.99.     

Inter-Comparison of lO-year Precipitation Simulated by Several RCMs for Asia

In phase Ⅱ of the Regional Climate Model Inter-comparison Project （RMIP） for Asia, the regional climate has been simulated for July 1988 through December 1998 by five regional climate models and one global variable resolution model. Comparison of the 10-year simulated precipitation with the observations was carried out. The results show that most models have the capacity to reproduce the basic spatial pattern of precipitation for Asia, and the main rainbelt can be reproduced by most models, but there are distinctions in the location and the intensity. Most models overestimate the precipitation over most continental regions. Interannual variability of the precipitation can also be basically simulated, while differences exist between various models and the observations. The biases in the stream field are important reasons behind the simulation errors of the Regional Climate Models （RCMs）. The cumulus scheme and land surface process have large influences on the precipitation simulation. Generally, the Grell cumulus scheme produces more precipitation than the Kuo scheme.     

Coupling the Common Land Model to ECHAM5 Atmospheric General Circulation Model

The ECHAM5 model is coupled with the widely used Common Land Model(CoLM). ECHAM5 is a state-of-theart atmospheric general circulation model incorporated into the integrated weather and climate model of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences(CAMS-CSM). Land surface schemes in ECHAM5 are simple and do not provide an adequate representation of the vegetation canopy and snow/frozen soil processes. Two AMIP(Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project)-type experiments using ECHAM5 and ECHAM5-CoLM are run over 30 yr and the results are compared with reanalysis and observational data. It is found that the pattern of land surface temperature simulated by ECHAM5-CoLM is significantly improved relative to ECHAM5. Specifically, the cold bias over Eurasia is removed and the root-mean-square error is reduced in most regions. The seasonal variation in the zonal mean land surface temperature and the in situ soil temperature at 20-and 80-cm depths are both better simulated by ECHAM5-CoLM. ECHAM5-CoLM produces a more reasonable spatial pattern in the soil moisture content, whereas ECHAM5 predicts much drier soils. The seasonal cycle of soil moisture content from ECHAM5-CoLM is a better match to the observational data in six specific regions. ECHAM5-CoLM reproduces the observed spatial patterns of both sensible and latent heat fluxes. The strong positive bias in precipitation over land is reduced in ECHAM5-CoLM, especially over the southern Tibetan Plateau and middle–lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the summer monsoon rainy season.     

Attributing analysis on the model bias in surface temperature in the climate system model FGOALS-s2 through a process-based decomposition method

This study uses the coupled atmosphere–surface climate feedback–response analysis method(CFRAM) to analyze the surface temperature biases in the Flexible Global Ocean–Atmosphere–Land System model, spectral version 2(FGOALS-s2)in January and July. The process-based decomposition of the surface temperature biases, defined as the difference between the model and ERA-Interim during 1979–2005, enables us to attribute the model surface temperature biases to individual radiative processes including ozone, water vapor, cloud, and surface albedo; and non-radiative processes including surface sensible and latent heat fluxes, and dynamic processes at the surface and in the atmosphere. The results show that significant model surface temperature biases are almost globally present, are generally larger over land than over oceans, and are relatively larger in summer than in winter. Relative to the model biases in non-radiative processes, which tend to dominate the surface temperature biases in most parts of the world, biases in radiative processes are much smaller, except in the sub-polar Antarctic region where the cold biases from the much overestimated surface albedo are compensated for by the warm biases from nonradiative processes. The larger biases in non-radiative processes mainly lie in surface heat fluxes and in surface dynamics,which are twice as large in the Southern Hemisphere as in the Northern Hemisphere and always tend to compensate for each other. In particular, the upward/downward heat fluxes are systematically underestimated/overestimated in most parts of the world, and are mainly compensated for by surface dynamic processes including the increased heat storage in deep oceans across the globe.     

Impacts of land surface and sea surface temperatures on the onset date of the South China Sea summer monsoon

The present study analyzes the differences in spatial and temporal variations of surface temperatures between early and late onset years of the South China Sea summer monsoon (SCSSM). It is found that when the land surface temperature north of 40^oN is lower (higher) and the sea surface temperature over the South China Sea-western North Pacific (SCS-WNP) is higher (lower) in winter, the onset of the SCSSM begins earlier (later). When the land surface temperature north of 40^oN is higher (lower) and the sea surface temperature over the SCS-WNP is lower (higher) in spring, the onset of the SCSSM occurs earlier (later). The reason why the anomalies of the land surface temperatures north of 40^oN can influence the atmospheric circulation is investigated by analysis of the wind and temperature fields. In order to verify the mechanisms of influence over the land and sea surface temperature distribution patterns and test the ability of the p-σ regional climate model (p-σ RCM9) to simulate the SCSSM onset, three types of years with early, normal, and late SCSSM onset are selected and the SCSSM regimes are numerically simulated. According to the results obtained from five sensitive experiments, when the land surface temperature is higher in the eastern part, north of 40^oN, and lower in the western part, north of 40^oN, and it rises faster in the eastern coastal regions and the Indian Peninsula, while the sea surface temperatures over the SCS-WNP are lower, the early onset of the SCSSM can be expected.