Atmospheric moisture budget estimates of regional evapotranspiration from RES‐91

Abstract

Diurnal changes in the local atmospheric moisture budget over the Canadian Prairies are computed using sequential radiosonde soundings from the 1991 Regional Evaporation Study (RES‐91). Previous attempts to estimate evapotranspiration with radiosonde data have used either similarity theory or a moisture budget, but have been confined to the boundary layer in either case. These studies, as well as semi‐empiric operational techniques which use surface‐based data, exclude the effects of moisture advection and energy exchanges between the boundary layer and the free atmosphere, assuming negligible effects on evapotranspiration. The moisture budget method adopted here includes horizontal advection explicitly, and treats vertical fluxes implicitly through a total tropospheric moisture budget.

Comparison of the evapotranspiration estimates with those of other techniques are positive only when results are averaged over several days to weeks. While the advection estimates are a major source of error for the “daily” estimates in this particular study, it is shown that neither advection nor moisture flux through the boundary layer can be ignored in estimating daily evapotranspiration, regardless of the technique used. The results also suggest that evapotranspiration is more variable on a daily basis than other techniques have indicated. With an improved synoptic database now available for advection estimates, the moisture budget technique may provide an excellent ground‐truth method for fine‐tuning techniques for remote sensing of evapotranspiration, and could lead to improved parametrization schemes for both NWP models and GCMs.     

Towards closing the vertical water balance in Canadian atmospheric models: Coupling of the land surface scheme class with the distributed hydrological model watflood

Abstract

Second generation land surface schemes are the subject of much development activity among atmospheric modellers. This work is aimed at, among other things, improving the representation of the soil water balance in order to simulate, more properly, exchanges with the atmosphere and to permit the use of model output to generate streamflow for model validation. The Canadian development program is centred on CLASS, the Canadian Land Surface Scheme, developed at Environment Canada. This paper focuses on the improvement of hydrology in CLASS. This was accomplished by designing a two‐way interface to WATFLOOD, a distributed hydrologic model developed at the University of Waterloo. The two models share many features, which facilitated the coupling procedure.

The interface retains the three‐layer vertical moisture budget representation in CLASS but adds three horizontal runoff possibilities. Runoff from the surface water follows Manning's equation for overland flow. Interflow is generated from the near‐surface soil layer using a parametrization of Richard's equation and base flow is produced by Darcian flow from the bottom of layer 3. An approximation of the internal topography of grid elements is used to supply horizontal gradients for the runoff components.

Tests are in progress in four Canadian study areas. Initial results are presented for the summer of 1993 for the Saugeen River in southwestern Ontario. The new scheme produces realistic hydrographs, whereas the old scheme did not. Bare ground evaporation is reduced by about 17% as a consequence of reduced water availability in layer 1. Evapotranspiration is not affected because the rooting depth extends into layer 3, in which soil moisture does not change appreciably with the new scheme. These results suggest that the new scheme improves the representation of streamflow in WATFLOOD/CLASS and of the soil moisture budget in CLASS. Work is in progress to validate this result over basins, such as the BOREAS study watersheds, where both runoff and evapotranspiration measurements are available.     

Downscaling the hydrological cycle in the Mackenzie basin with the Canadian regional climate model

Abstract

The Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) has been nested within the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ‘ second generation General Circulation Model (GCM), for a single month simulation over the Mackenzie River Basin and environs. The purpose of the study is to assess the ability of the higher resolution CRCM to downscale the hydrological cycle of the nesting GCM. A second 1‐month experiment, in which the CRCM was nested within analyzed fields of a global data assimilation system, was also performed to examine the sensitivity of the basin moisture budget to atmospheric lateral boundary forcing.

We have found that the CRCM can produce realistic lee cyclogenesis, preferentially in the Liard sub‐basin, along with associated circulation and precipitation patterns, as well as an improved rainshadow in the lee of the Rocky Mountains compared to the GCM. While these features do quantitatively affect the monthly average climate statistics, the basin scale moisture budgets of the models were remarkably similar, though some of this agreement is due to compensating errors in the GCM. Both models produced excessive precipitation compared to a recent climatology for the region, the cause of which is traced to lateral boundary forcing. A second experiment, identical to the first except that the CRCM was forced with analyzed fields at the lateral boundaries, produced a qualitatively different basin moisture budget, including a much more realistic precipitation field. Errors in the moisture budget of the first experiment appear to be associated with the poor representation of the Aleutian Low in the GCM, and do not appear to be strongly connected to (local) surface processes within the models. This suggests that an effective strategy for modelling the hydrological cycle of the Mackenzie Basin on the fast climate timescale ‐ a major requirement of the Mackenzie GEWEX Study ‐ will involve nesting the CRCM within analyzed (or re‐analyzed) atmospheric fields.     

Atmospheric contribution to hydrologic variations in the Arctic

Abstract

High‐latitude rawinsonde data for 18 years (1973–1990) are used to compute the atmospheric moisture flux convergence over two regions: the Arctic Ocean and the Mackenzie River drainage basin. The primary objectives are to assess the interannual variability and to compare the macroscale hydrologie regimes of the two regions. The moisture flux convergence is positive in all months over the Arctic Ocean, but is occasionally negative during summer over the Mackenzie Basin. The climatological seasonal cycle of the moisture convergence contains a late‐summer (August‐September) maximum over the Arctic Ocean but a late‐summer minimum over the Mackenzie Basin. Evaporation, deduced from the moisture inflow and independent data on precipitation, makes a much greater contribution to the atmospheric moisture budget of the Mackenzie domain, especially during summer. The respective equivalent area averages of the 18‐year annual mean moisture flux convergence, precipitation and derived evaporation are 17.3, 19.5 and 2.2 cm a^‐1 for the Arctic Ocean and 24.9, 33.6 and 8.7 cm a^‐1 for the Mackenzie domain. However, the range of interannual variations of the flux convergence is about ±50% of the annual means and more than twice the monthly means. The annual totals of the flux convergence are correlated with station‐derived precipitation over the Mackenzie domain and with yearly variations of the Mackenzie discharge. The moisture flux convergence over the Mackenzie domain suggests that station reports underestimate precipitation during the winter months by amounts equivalent to several centimetres per annum.     

Thermal features of the Mackenzie basin from NOAA AVHRR observations for summer 1994

Abstract

A series of mid‐afternoon Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) thermal radiance scenes were assembled in order to develop a better understanding of the complex energy and water processes leading to variations in surface temperature. An in‐depth knowledge of the temperature variability is of interest to land surface process modelling and its application to the Mackenzie Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Study (MAGS).

Clear‐sky land surface temperatures are estimated by applying a split window technique to remove atmospheric effects. A maximum land surface temperature map of the Mackenzie basin at 1‐km scale for summer 1994 is produced. The patterns are related to land surface features and elevation. The basin's maximum land surface temperature patterns can be subdivided into three land zones (≥ 35°C, 33–34°C and 27–32°C) and a water dominated zone (20.5°C on average). The highest maximum temperature zone (≥35°C) corresponds to a combination of minimal vegetation, drier soils and low terrain. This zone is not in the southern part of the basin as might be speculated in the absence of these data, but in a wide low elevation corridor from west of Great Bear Lake along the Mackenzie River down to 50°N, 120°W. The maximum land surface temperatures tend to decrease with increasing vegetation density and surface moisture; they also decrease with elevation at a rate of –4.5°C km^–1. This is confirmed by weather station data. The AVHRR data extend this relationship to the 1200 – 2200 m altitude ranges, where there are no station data. The data suggest that elevation and land cover should be taken into account in the objective analysis (spatial interpolation) of station data.     

Atmospheric and terrestrial water budgets: sensitivity and performance of configurations and global driving data for long term continental scale WRF simulations

Driving data and physical parametrizations can significantly impact the performance of regional dynamical atmospheric models in reproducing hydrometeorologically relevant variables. Our study addresses the water budget sensitivity of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model System WRF (WRF-ARW) with respect to two cumulus parametrizations (Kain–Fritsch, Betts–Miller–Janji?), two global driving reanalyses (ECMWF ERA-INTERIM and NCAR/NCEP NNRP), time variant and invariant sea surface temperature and optional gridded nudging. The skill of global and downscaled models is evaluated against different gridded observations for precipitation, 2 m-temperature, evapotranspiration, and against measured discharge time-series on a monthly basis. Multi-year spatial deviation patterns and basin aggregated time series are examined for four globally distributed regions with different climatic characteristics: Siberia, Northern and Western Africa, the Central Australian Plane, and the Amazonian tropics. The simulations cover the period from 2003 to 2006 with a horizontal mesh of 30 km. The results suggest a high sensitivity of the physical parametrizations and the driving data on the water budgets of the regional atmospheric simulations. While the global reanalyses tend to underestimate 2 m-temperature by 0.2–2 K, the regional simulations are typically 0.5–3 K warmer than observed. Many configurations show difficulties in reproducing the water budget terms, e.g. with long-term mean precipitation biases of 150 mm month^?1 and higher. Nevertheless, with the water budget analysis viable setups can be deduced for all four study regions.     

A surface energy budget view of the 1988 midwestern United States drought

Measurements of the surface energy budget over an Illinois corn field during the summer drought of 1988 yielded Bowen ratio values around 1 compared to potential values of 0.2–0.3 if soil moisture had not been limiting. An analysis of the atmospheric water vapor budget for the upper midwestern United States suggests that the measured decrease in evapotranspiration was significant and may have played a role in the persistence and severity of the drought by reducing the atmospheric water vapor supply and increasing the atmospheric heating rate.     

Prairie agroclimate boundary‐layer model: A simulation of the atmosphere/crop‐soil interface

Abstract

This paper describes a 1‐D agroclimatic model of the atmosphere/crop‐soil interface. Vertical profiles of wind, potential temperature and water vapour are constructed twice daily for the overnight‐low and maximum temperature times by combining 1200 and 0000 UTC upper‐air standard‐level grid‐point data with climatological observations. The vertical structure of the atmospheric boundary layer has a surface constant‐flux layer that is usually topped by a mixed layer by day but not at night. The crop‐soil boundary layer consists of a shallow top‐zone and a growing root‐zone. Vegetation cover and root depth depend upon crop type and phenological stage. Water‐balance accounting tracks the moisture contents of both the top‐ and root‐zones. Evapotranspiration or the vertical flux of water vapour in the atmospheric boundary layer is tied to the evolution of the crop‐soil boundary layer.

The model was calibrated using field data from the Regional Evaporation Study's primary site in an agricultural area of central Saskatchewan. The evolution of 1991's wheat‐soil boundary layer from the crop's heading to ripe stages was then successfully simulated at two additional sites in the same geographical area.     

Systematic Hydrological Evaluation of the Noah-MP Land Surface Model over China

We evaluate water budget components—namely, soil moisture, runoff, evapotranspiration, and terrestrial water storage (TWS)—simulated by the Noah land surface model with multi-parameterization options (Noah-MP) in China, a large geographic domain challenging for hydrological modeling due to poor observational data and a lack of one single parameterization that can fit for complex hydrological processes. By comparing the model simulations with multi-source reference data, we show that Noah-MP can generally reproduce the overall spatiotemporal patterns of runoff and evapotranspiration over six major river basins, with the annual correlation coefficients generally greater than 0.8 and the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient exceeding 0.5. Among the six basins evaluated, the best model performance is seen over the Huaihe River basin. The temporal trend of the modeled TWS anomalies agrees well with GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) observations, capturing major flood and drought events in different basins. Experiments with 12 selected physical parameterization options show that the runoff parameterization has a stronger impact on the simulated soil moisture–runoff–evapotranspiration relationships than the soil moisture factor for stomatal resistance schemes, a result consistent with previous studies. Overall, Noah-MP driven by GLDAS forcing simulates the hydrological variables well, except for the Songliao basin in northeastern China, likely because this is a transitional region with extensive freeze–thaw activity, while representations of human activities may also help improve the model performance.     

气候变化、植被改变及人类用水与黄河流域水循环的研究进展

受气候增暖和人类活动的双重影响,黄河流域的水循环正在发生显著变化,水资源供需矛盾突出。陆地水循环是一个复杂的非线性系统,为清晰认识水循环变化的全貌,并合理高效利用有限的水资源量,需要综合考虑水循环各个要素之间的协同变化机制。同时,在“人类世”背景下,黄河流域水循环研究必须考虑人类活动的影响,主要包括植被变化和人类用水,其中人类用水主体为农业灌溉。自从实施生态恢复工程以来,黄土高原植被覆盖明显改善的同时也引发了对径流、蒸散发、降水、土壤湿度以及地下水的一系列影响,且研究结论还存在一些争议,但黄土高原植被覆盖改善使得该地区蒸散发量增加基本达成共识,大多数研究支持植被改善减少径流的结论。黄河流域的农业灌溉方式主要为大水漫灌,其对地表蒸散发、地表水及地下水多个过程具有重要影响。本文主要针对黄河流域的水循环研究,讨论相关研究进展以及发展方向。     

Effects of increased CO2 on land water balance from 1850 to 1989

Numerous studies have shown that increased atmospheric CO₂ concentration is one of the most important factors altering land water balance. In this study, we investigated the effects of increased CO₂ on global land water balance using the dataset released by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 derived from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis second-generation Earth System Model. The results suggested that the radiative effect of CO₂ was much greater than the physiological effect on the water balance. At the model experiment only integrating CO₂ radiative effect, the precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET) and runoff had significantly increased by 0.37, 0.12 and 0.31 mm year^?2, respectively. Increases of ET and runoff caused a significant decrease of soil water storage by 0.05 mm year^?2. However, the results showed increases of runoff and decreases of precipitation and ET in response to the CO₂ fertilisation effect, which resulted into a small, non-significant decrease in the land water budget. In the Northern Hemisphere, especially on the coasts of Greenland, Northern Asia and Alaska, there were obvious decreases of soil water responding to the CO₂ radiative effect. This trend could result from increased ice–snow melting as a consequence of warmer surface temperature. Although the evidence suggested that variations in soil moisture and snow cover and vegetation feedback made an important contribution to the variations in the land water budget, the effect of other factors, such as aerosols, should not be ignored, implying that more efforts are needed to investigate the effects of these factors on the hydrological cycle and land water balance.     

On the sensitivity of predictions of maritime cyclogenesis to convective precipitation and sea temperature

Abstract

The influences of surface fluxes and convective precipitation are investigated for two 36‐h periods of cyclogenesis over the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Three methods are tested of specifying the fraction of moisture supply that produces convective precipitation in a modified form of Kuo's (1974) parametrization scheme using an 8‐level primitive equations model.

When convection is included, precipitation amounts are greater and the cyclone deepening is better predicted than when convection is not included. Predicted cyclogenesis is very sensitive to sea temperature. As the low moves over warmer water, the effect of sensible heating is to increase the moisture convergence in the atmospheric boundary layer. This increases the precipitation rates and accelerates deepening. It is concluded that the CISK mechanism plays an important role in extratropical cyclogenesis.     

An observational‐data based evapotranspiration function for general circulation models

Abstract

In this paper Nappo’ s (1975) formulation of the moisture availability function was used to derive the ß function of the form employed in the evapotranspiration calculations of various GCMs (Carson, 1981). An inverse calculation using the planetary boundary‐layer parameterizations of the GLAS general circulation model was made to derive this function. For this purpose two ground temperatures, namely those of saturated and naturally dry ground, were prognostically carried in a 47‐day integration with the model. The form of the calculated ß function is different from those reviewed by Carson. An example of global evapotranspiration obtained with the derived ß function is shown. Two separate five‐day simulations, one using ß as derived here and the other using Nappo's (1975) M function as a ß function, are compared. Large differences in the calculated evapotranspiration occur in dry regions.     

The calculation of view factors from fisheye‐lens photographs: Research note

Abstract

Two soil water models, the Versatile Soil Moisture Budget and the Aridity Index Model were used to investigate differences in modelling results as a consequence of using as input mean‐daily data, derived from historical monthly values, instead of actual daily data. Four different available water‐holding capacities, six different initial soil water contents and 30‐year precipitation and potential evapotranspiration data from 16 climate stations across Canada were used as input to the models. Using mean‐daily data as opposed to daily data resulted in model predictions that underestimated deep drainage and aridity indices and overestimated actual evapotranspiration. The differences in model output decreased when the available water‐holding capacity increased and the initial soil water content decreased. The use of mean‐daily data in the soil water models investigated is not recommended, until improved techniques that retain the characteristics of the highly variable weather conditions can be ascertained.     

Estimating Global Distribution of Evapotranspiration and Water Balance Using Complementary Methods

ABSTRACT

The authors propose a modified complementary method to estimate regional evapotranspiration (ET) under different climatic and physical conditions using only meteorological data. The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of the modified complementary method for estimating global ET distribution and corresponding water balance. Gridded data from the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, with 30 min spatial resolution and monthly time steps are used. Using the Thornthwaite water budget, monthly maps of global water surplus (precipitation minus ET) are produced. The results show good agreement with many previous studies. The average annual precipitation, ET, and water surplus are 690, 434, and 256?mm, respectively. The results show that the modified model can predict regional ET using meteorological data and can be used to assess global water resources. Consequently, the proposed method has strong potential for projecting water resource balance under future climate change.     

基于CMADS驱动SWAT模型的富春江水库控制流域水量平衡模拟

以富春江水库控制流域为研究区域,利用中国大气同化驱动数据集（CMADS V1.1）驱动SWAT水文模型,对富春江水库控制流域进行了逐日径流模拟,探讨了流域2008-2016年径流变化及水量平衡过程。结果表明：CMADS V1.1数据集驱动SWAT模型对研究区域的径流变化具有较好的模拟效果,在验证期,逐日模拟的效率系数大于0.70,决定系数大于0.75,达到了模型评价标准。在流域水量平衡各项中,地表径流和蒸散发为主要的输出项,分别占降水量的57.2%和36.2%,其中蒸散发量年际变化较为平稳。降水量、地表径流量、土壤对地下水补给、地下侧流量、蒸散发量最大值均出现在6月,最小值均出现在1月。流域径流量以地表径流为主,其在各个月份与月降水变化趋势基本一致。而基流量较小,且各月基流量对降水量的响应并不显著。     

Estimating the error in vertically interpolated forecast‐observation differences: U‐ and v‐wind components

Abstract

Data assimilation in numerical weather forecasting corrects current forecast values by subtracting a portion of interpolated forecast‐minus‐observation differences at the points of a three‐dimensional grid. Deviations used in updating a forecast data field are forecast errors obtained or derived from observations available at update time. When observations are missing at mandatory levels, construction of full vertical soundings by interpolation introduces extraneous errors. The present paper is concerned with determination of the error in vertical extrapolations of surface winds, and of aircraft and satellite cloud‐tracked winds. In addition it examines the effect on accuracy of using location‐specific statistics compared to averaged statistics as the basis for the interpolation weighting scheme and compares errors of one‐ and two‐variable interpolations.

Interpolation accuracy tests demonstrate the influence of the interpolation scheme on the quality of interpolated information used in forecast updating. The results show that the level of accuracy exceeds the benchmark provided by monthly mean forecast error values only with bivariate interpolation of wind components from off‐level data sources.     

Can reanalysis datasets describe the persistent temperature and precipitation extremes over China?

This study analyzes the impact of anthropogenic climate change in the hydroclimatology of Senegal with a focus over the lake of Guiers basin for the middle (2041–2060) and late twenty-first century (2080–2099). To this end, high-resolution multimodel ensemble based on regional climate model experiments considering two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) is used. The results indicate that an elevated warming, leading to substantial increase of atmospheric water demand, is projected over the whole of Senegal. In the Lake basin, these increases in potential evapotranspiration (PE) range between 10 and 25 % in the near future and for RCP4.5 while for the far future and RCP8.5, they exceed 50 %. In addition, mean precipitation unveils contrasting changes with wetter (10 to 25 % more) conditions by the middle of the century and drier conditions (more than 50 %) during the late twenty-first century. Such changes cause more/less evapotranspiration and soil moisture respectively during the two future periods. Furthermore, surface runoff shows a tendency to increase in most areas amid few locations including the Lake basin with substantial reduction. Finally, it is found that while semi-arid climates develop in the RCP4.5 scenario, generalized arid conditions prevail over the whole Senegal for RCP8.5. It is thus evident that these future climate conditions substantially threaten freshwater availability for the country and irrigated cropping over the Lake basin. Therefore, strong governmental politics are needed to help design response options to cope with the challenges posed by the projected climate change for the country.

     

Long-term water budget estimation with the modified distributed model – LISFLOOD-WB over the Lushi basin, China

Summary In a modification of the distributed hydrological model, LISFLOOD-WB, a two-source canopy scheme is used to predict both the canopy transpiration and soil evaporation. A revised soil storage capacity curve from the Xinanjiang model is applied to take into account the sub-grid heterogeneity. The modified model is used to estimate the long-term (1980–1997) water budget of the Lushi basin (4423 km²), China. All the input data fields are integrated in a four-dimensional GIS data structure with a raster grid spacing of 1-km. The basin channel network is determined from digital elevation data, and the spatial pattern of canopy leaf area index (LAI) is retrieved from NOAA/AVHRR NDVI images. Generally, the model efficiency for discharge prediction is acceptable, but the discharges are overestimated in the driest years and underestimated in the wettest years. The results indicated that the influence of inter-annual variation of spatial patterns of LAI detected by NOAA/AVHRR NDVI on the estimates of annual evapotranspiration is negligible. Annually averaged ratios of overland flow, infiltration and canopy interception to precipitation are 24±7%, 56±10% and 20±2%, respectively. The inter-annual variations of precipitation and predicted evapotranspiration are relatively high with standard deviations of 5.1 mm day⁻¹ and 2.4 mm day⁻¹, respectively, whereas the inter-annual variation of the net radiation is much less. Monthly temporal patterns of soil moisture follow precipitation strongly. Spatially precipitation and LAI are both significantly correlated with evapotranspiration, although precipitation has a slightly more dominant control. The linear relationship between water yield and LAI is weak on a grid by grid basis.     

Application of a water balance model to estimating hay growth in the peace river region

Abstract

A model that uses daily climate data for calculating hay crop growth in the Peace River region of British Columbia was developed and evaluated using data obtained over four growing seasons. The performances of the ratio of growth to transpiration and the ratio of growth to transpiration (J) divided by vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in estimating crop growth were compared. Transpiration was calculated by subtracting evaporation losses from the soil and foliage from the calculated evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration was calculated using solar radiation and air temperature, and a one‐layer root zone water balance model, which accounted for soil water supply limitation. Soil water storage measurements showed that the water balance model worked well. The model provided satisfactory estimates of growing season yield of above‐ground dry matter. The use of the ratio of growth toT/ vpd showed no improvement in growth estimation over the ratio of growth to transpiration.