Heat and moisture budgets from airborne measurements and high-resolution model simulations

High-resolution simulations with a mesoscale model are performed to estimate heat and moisture budgets of a well-mixed boundary layer. The model budgets are validated against energy budgets obtained from airborne measurements over heterogeneous terrain in Western Germany. Time rate of change, vertical divergence, and horizontal advection for an atmospheric column of air are estimated. Results show that the time trend of specific humidity exhibits some deficiencies, while the potential temperature trend is matched accurately. Furthermore, the simulated turbulent surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat are comparable to the measured fluxes, leading to similar values of the vertical divergence. The analysis of different horizontal model resolutions exhibits improved surface fluxes with increased resolution, a fact attributed to a reduced aggregation effect. Scale-interaction effects could be identified: while time trends and advection are strongly influenced by mesoscale forcing, the turbulent surface fluxes are mainly controlled by microscale processes.     

Subsynoptic vertical heat fluxes from high-resolution synoptic budgets

Summary A recently designed diagnostic model for synoptic heat budgets is reviewed and is applied to selected ALPEX-SOP dates. The model uses the conservation equations for moisture, (sensible) heat and mass. All synoptically observable terms (including moisture and heat tendencies and surface rain) are specified from objective analyses. Quasi-observable terms (including , radiation, surface evaporation and surface heat flux) are also considered synoptic and are specified close to observations. The non-observable terms: rain, moisture and heat fluxes in the free atmosphere are considered subsynoptic; they are determined as residuals. The model includes a submodel for the errors, a closure assumption which couples the vertical moisture and heat fluxes and a variational 3D-mass flux modification. This is the minimum parameterization level possible with these data.Results over the ALPEX-domain are shown for 5 dates from 4–6 March 1982. Each budget is a 24 h-average, each diagnostic box has a horizontal/vertical resolution of 100 km/100 hPa. The presentation focusses upon the three vertical heat fluxes. The model separates signal (=subsynoptic fluxes, 0–600 W m^–2) from error (0–60 W m^–2), the fields are coherent both in space and time, and the different stages of the synoptic development are reproduced by the subsynoptic fields. While the rain is downward and the moisture flux upward everywhere, the heat flux is upward in the trough, weak in the ridge and downward ahead of the next trough. The rain flux vector is usually divergent but can occasionally be convergent in lower levels which indicates reevaporation. The great detail in the fields of rain, moisture and heat flux proves that diagnostic models of this kind are potentially useful for further synoptic research.

---

Subsynoptische vertikale Wärmeflüsse aus hochauflösenden synoptischen Haushalten

Zusammenfassung Ein kürzlich entwickeltes diagnotisches Modell für synoptische Wärmehaushalte wird dargestellt und auf ausgewählte ALPEX-SOP-Termine angewandt. Das Modell verwendet die Erhaltungsgleichungen für Feuchte, (fühlbare) Wärme und Masse. Alle synoptisch beobachtbaren Glieder (einschließlich Feuchte- und Wärmetendenz sowie Bodenniederschlag) werden aus objektiven Analysen spezifiziert. Quasi-beobachtbare Glieder (einschließlich , Strahlung, Bodenverdunstung und Bodenwärmefluß) werden ebenfalls als synoptisch angesehen und beobachtungsnahe spezifiziert. Die nicht-beobachtbaren Glieder: Regen, Feuchtefluß und Wärmefluß in der freien Atmosphäre werden als subsynoptisch angesehen und als Residuum bestimmt. Das Modell enthält ein Untermodell für die Fehler, eine Schließungsannahme, welche den vertikalen Feuchte- und Wärmefluß koppelt, sowie eine, auf dem Variationsprinzip beruhende, Modifikation des 3D-Massenflusses. Dies ist der minimale Parametrisierungsaufwand, der mit den vorliegenden Daten möglich ist.Ergebnisse über dem ALPEX-Gebiet werden gezeigt für 5 Termine vom 4.–6. März 1982. Jeder Haushalt ist ein 24 h-Mittel, jede Diagnosebox hat eine horizontale/vertikale Auflösung von 100 km/100 hPa. Die Darstellung konzentriert sich auf die drei vertikalen Wärmeflüsse. Das Modell trennt Signal (=subsynoptische Flüsse, 0–600 W m^–2) und Fehler (0–60 W m^–2), die Felder sind räumlich und zeitlich kohärent, und die verschiedenen Stadien der synoptischen Entwicklung werden durch die subsynoptischen Felder wiedergegeben. Während der Regen überall abwärts und der Feuchtefluß überall aufwärts gerichtet sind, ist der Wärmefluß aufwärts im Trog, praktisch Null im Rücken und abwärts vor dem nächsten Trog. Der Regenflußvektor ist gewöhnlich divergent, aber kann gelegentlich in unteren Schichten konvergent sein, was Wiederverdunstung anzeigt. Die vielen Einzelheiten der Felder von Regen, Feuchte- und Wärmefluß beweisen, daß diagnostische Modelle dieser Art von potentiellem Nutzen für die weitere synoptische Forschung sind.

---

---

With 14 Figures     

Climate change and the regulation of the surface moisture and energy budgets

The increase in the vigor of the hydrological cycle simulated in a 2 × CO₂ experiment with the Canadian Climate Centre general circulation model is smaller than that obtained by other models which have similar increases in mean surface temperature. The surface energy budget, which encompasses also the moisture budget for the oceans, is analyzed. Changes in the net radiative input to and sensible heat flux from the surface act to warm it. This is balanced, at the new equilibrium, by a change in the latent heat flux which acts to cool it. Although this same general behavior is seen in other models, the increase in radiative input to the surface in the CCC GCM is smaller than in other models while the change in the sensible heat flux is of similar size. As a consequence, the latent heat flux required for balance is smaller. The comparatively small increase in the net radiative input at the surface occurs because of a decrease in the solar component. On average the decrease in solar input in the tropical region outweighs the higher latitude increase associated with the snow/ice albedo feedback. The notable tropical decrease in solar input occurs because the albedo of the clouds increase enough in this region to outweigh a small decrease in cloud amount. The increase in cloud albedo in the warmer and moister tropical atmosphere is a consequence of the parameterized cloud optical properties in the model which play an important role in the regulation of the surface energy and moisture budgets. The results demonstrate some of the consequences of the negative feedback mechanism associated with increasing cloud albedo in the model. They also suggest that the simulated change in the vigor of the hydrological cycle is not a simple function of the average increase in surface temperature but is a consequence of all of the processes in the model which control the available energy at the surface as a function of latitude.     

The heat and water budgets of a beaver pond

Small water bodies create their own characteristic local meteorological environments. The heat and water budgets will generally vary with surface area and water depth. If a small pond gradually becomes covered by vegetation, its meteorological conditions will change. On occasion, a vegetated area may change into a pond, complete with vegetation established in the water and extending above the surface. Such are beaver ponds and other flooded areas.

The paper discusses the main features of the development of beaver ponds and their heat and water budgets at different stages. The energy budget programme used was previously developed by the authors, but it has been modified to account for the different phases of the pond development. The effects of the various physical changes are evaluated by comparing the individual heat and water budget terms for different stages between an open lake surface and a forest cover.

The local heat budget will only be affected on a small scale by the establishment of a beaver pond, but the influence on the water budget has far‐reaching consequences.     

Transports and budgets of volume,heat, and salt from a global eddy-resolving ocean model

The results from an integration of a global ocean circulation model have been condensed into an analysis of the volume, heat, and salt transports among the major ocean basins. Transports are also broken down between the model's Ekman, thermocline, and deep layers. Overall, the model does well. Horizontal exchanges of mass, heat, and salt between ocean basins have reasonable values; and the volume of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) transport is in general agreement with what limited observations exist. On a global basis the zonally integrated meridional heat transport is poleward at all latitudes except for the latitude band 30°S to 45°S. This anomalous transport is most likely a signature of the model's inability to form Antarctic Intermediate (AAIW) and Antarctic bottom water (AABW) properly. Eddy heat transport is strong at the equator where its convergence heats the equatorial Pacific about twice as much as it heats the equatorial Atlantic. The greater heating in the Pacific suggests that mesoscale eddies may be a vital mechanism for warming and maintaining an upwelling portion of the global conveyor-belt circulation. The model's fresh water transport compares well with observations. However, in the Atlantic there is an excessive southward transport of fresh water due to the absence of the Mediterranean outflow and weak northward flow of AAIW. Eddies in the mid-latitudes act to redistribute heat and salt down the mean gradients. Residual fluxes calculated from a sum of the computed advective (including eddies), forced, and stored fluxes of heat and salt represent transport mostly due to vertical sub-grid scale mixing processes. Perhaps the model's greatest weakness is the lack of strong AAIW and AABW circulation cells. Accurate thermohaline forcing in the North Atlantic (based on numerous hydrographic observations) helps the model adequately produce NADW. In contrast, the southern ocean is an area of sparse observation. Better thermohaline observations in this area may be needed if models such as this are to produce the deep convection that will achieve more accurate simulations of the global 3-dimensional circulation.     

Nearly steady convection and the boundary-layer budgets of water vapor and sensible heat

The budgets of water vapor and sensible heat in the convective atmospheric boundary (mixed) layer are analyzed by means of a simple slab approach adapted to steady large-scale advective conditions with radiation and cloud activity. The entrainment flux for sensible heat is assumed to be a linear function of the surface flux. The flux of water vapor at the top of the mixed layer is parameterized by extending the first-order Betts-Deardorff approach, i.e., by adopting linear changes for both the specific humidity and the flux across the mixed layer and across the inversion layer of finite thickness. In this way the dissimilarity of sensible heat and water vapor transport in the mixed layer can be taken into account. The experimental data were obtained from the Air Mass Transformation Experiment (AMTEX). The entrainment constant for sensible heat at the top of the mixed layer was found to have values similar to those observed in other weakly convective situations, i.e., around 0.4 to 0.6. This appears to indicate that the effect of mechanical turbulence was not negligible; however, the inclusion of this effect in the formulation did not improve the correlation. In contrast to the first-order approach, the zero-order approach, i. e., the jump equation commonly used for the flux of a scalar at the inversion, (ovwc ) _h = w_e c (where w _e is the entrainment velocity and c the concentration jump across the inversion), was found to be invalid and incapable of describing the data.     

1998年夏季HUBEX/GAME期间热量和水汽收支(英)

By using the high-resolution GAME reanalysis data, the heat and moisture budgets during the period of HUBEX/GAME in the summer of 1998 are calculated for exploring the thermodynamic features of Meiyu over the Changjiang-Huaihe (CH) valley. During the CH Meiyu period, an intensive vertically-integrated heat source and moisture sink are predominant over the heavy rainfall area of the CH valley, accompanied by strong upward motion at 500 hPa. The heat and moisture budgets show that the main diabatic heating component is condensation latent heat released by rainfall. As residual terms, the evaporation and sensible heating are relatively small. Based on the vertical distribution of the heat source and moisture sink, the nature of the rainfall is mixed, in which the convective rainfall is dominant with a considerable percentage of continuous stratiform rainfall. There are similar time evolutions of the main physical parameters(〈Q1〉,〈Q2〉,and vertical motion ω at 500 hPa).The time variations of〈Q1〉and〈Q2〉are in phase with those of -ω500, and have their main peaks within the CH Meiyu period. This shows the influence of the heat source on the dynamic structure of the atmosphere. The wavelet analyses of those time series display similar multiple timescale characteristics. During the CH Meiyu period, both the synoptic scale(～6 days) and mesoscale (～2 days and ～12 hours) increase obviously and cause heavy rainfall as well as the appearances of the maxima of the main physical parameters. Among them, the mesoscale systems are the main factors.     

Moisture and heat budgets of the south American monsoon system: climatological aspects

The climatology of the moisture and heat budget equation terms for subareas within the South American Monsoon System (SAMS) region is investigated for the 1958–2014 period considering the distinct phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). These budget equations are applied to the data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis project. Sources or sinks of moisture and heat are equation residues, referred to as residue and diabatic terms, respectively. Analyses are done for the Central Amazon Basin (CAM) and Western-Central Brazil (WCB) for three distinct periods, 1958–1976, 1977–1995, and 1996–2014, that correspond to the cold, warm, and undefined PDO phases. The differences among the PDO phases for each term are discussed. The CAM region acts dominantly as a moisture sink and heat source in all months during the three phases. On the other hand, in the WCB region, the monsoon characteristics are better defined, with a moisture sink (source) and a heat source (sink) during the wet (dry) season. The main result of the present analysis is the persistence of SAMS intensification signs in both CAM and WCB areas up to the last analyzed period (1996–2014), which is consistent with intense flooding in the Amazon Basin in 2008/2009, 2012, and 2014.     

水汽和潜热释放对背风波影响的数值试验

利用中尺度数值模式ARPS进行了理想场的数值模拟,分析研究了水汽和潜热释放对大气层结稳定度的影响以及其在背风波的发展和演变过程中的作用,研究发现,潜热释放对大气层结分布的影响要远大于水汽对大气层结分布的直接影响,如果没有潜热的释放,水汽对背风波的发展和演变的作用非常小,而潜热释放可以使湿层结稳定度急剧下降,迅速破坏原有的层结分布,使这个区域出现非拦截的强烈的垂直运动,波动的崩溃更加迅速和明显。但需要说明的是在试验中,将数值模式里控制潜热释放的参数设为:0、1/2、2的假定情况,则在实际的大气运动过程中是不可能存在的。     

An advective mixed-layer model for heat and moisture incorporating an analytic expression for moisture entrainment

A slab mixed-layer model with zero-order entrainment for both temperature and humidity is developed in order to examine the relative magnitude of advective and turbulence flux convergence effects. The model formulation provides an analytic function for the ratio of surface-layer to entrainment-layer humidity flux. Model results are compared with measured mixed-layer properties over one day at a coastal location. It is concluded that the model is highly successful at simulating the mixed-layer depth, and mean mixed-layer humidity. It is suggested that a first-order model may be more appropriate for the latter half of the day when the mixed-layer depth is decreasing due to the dominance of advection over vertical turbulence flux convergence.     

Boundary-layer modification in wintertime cold-air outbreaks from the Arctic sea ice

During the field experiment ARKTIS 1993 ten cases of boundary-layer modification in wintertime cold-air outbreaks from the Arctic sea ice in the Spitsbergen region were observed by aircraft over a distance ranging from about 50 km over the ice to about 300 km over the water. The modification depends decisively on the initial conditions over the ice, the boundary conditions at the bottom and top of the boundary layer and on the conditions of the large-scale flow. The modification of the bulk boundary-layer characteristics in relation to these conditions is presented.Besides the air-sea temperature contrast, the most important role for the boundary-layer modification is played by the stability on top of the boundary layer and by the divergence of the large-scale flow. According to the high variability of these conditions the observed boundary-layer modifications were very variable ranging from 100 to 300 m thick boundary layers with air temperatures between -32 and -22 °C over the ice to thicknesses between 900 and 2200 m and air temperatures between -15 and -5 °C after 300 km fetch over the open water. In most cases the large-scale flow was anticyclonic and divergent over the ice and changed to cyclonic and convergent over the water and an ice-sea breeze was superimposed on it.The sensible and latent heat fluxes are the dominant terms in the surface energy budget over the open water and ranged between 200 and 700 W m^-2 whereas the net longwave radiation is the dominating term over the ice with the heat fluxes only about 10 W m^-2.     

Boundary-layer flow and turbulence near porous obstacles

We derive a set of governing equations for flow through porous obstacles by employing a two-step averaging processes. The Navier-Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation that describe the air space of the porous obstacle are subjected to high-wavenumber a veraging, which leads to a set of high-frequency (wake) turbulence equations. We then use conventional Reynolds-averaging methods to obtain statistically steady mean and turbulence equations that include interactions between wake and shear turbulence. Our method provides a theoretical basis for the cascade of turbulent kinetic energy. We use this approach to analyze the constants and parameters of simpleK-theory and higher-order closure models. We also discuss qualitatively the theory of the turbulence energy generation process and the significance of interactions between different turbulent mechanisms.     

平均经圈环流在大气角动量和感热收支中的作用

本文研究相对座标系中近地表角动量的制造和自由大气中角动量的辐散之间的平衡机制,并与绝对参考系中的机制进行比较。 对1982年元月全球角动量和感热的收支分析证明,被激发的平均经圈环流具有下述特征:其下部水平支施加于大气的惯性矩与近地表角动量的制造相平衡,上部水平支反号的惯性矩与涡动角动量通量的辐合(散)相平衡;而其垂直支的绝热加热效应则平衡着自由大气中热通量的辐散和/或大气的非绝热加热。因而,无论动力上还是热力上,平均经圈环流在大气总环流中都起着重要的作用。     

Parametric representation of heat and moisture fluxes in cloud-topped mixed layers

Aircraft measurements were made from the NCAR Electra in stratus and stratocumulus clouds off the coast of California in June 1976. Several types of cloud conditions were observed, including (1) a broken layer less than 100 m thick, capped by an inversion at ~1000 m, (2) a broken stratocumulus layer ~300 m thick with an inversion at ~500 m, and (3) a solid stratocumulus layer ~250 m thick with an inversion at ~500 m. Although these observations indicate that a variety of cloud conditions may exist in mixed layers, simple one-dimensional mixed-layer models implicitly assume a solid cloud layer with no unsaturated region within the cloud. In order to generalize these simple models, a parametric representation of the heat and moisture fluxes is considered. In this scheme, the fluxes are parameterized in terms of the product of a cloud mass flux and the characteristic difference between the thermodynamic properties of an updraft-downdraft circulation. This representation allows for an explicit representation of the buoyancy flux when the downdraft has no liquid water.Data collected during these flights were used to calculate heat and moisture fluxes and to obtain the mean difference in the thermodynamic properties of the updrafts and downdrafts at a given level. The mass flux was calculated using updraft-downdraft differences and the fluxes. The mass fluxes obtained using various thermodynamic quantities are examined for consistency. The vertical distribution of the mass flux is determined. These results indicate that a mass flux formulation could prove to be useful in modeling applications where cloud conditions may vary between solid and broken.     

Local advection of momentum,heat, and moisture in micrometeorology

The local advection of momentum, heat and moisture in micrometeorology due to a horizontal inhomogeneity in surface conditions is numerically investigated by a higher-order turbulence closure model which includes equations for the mean quantities, turbulent fluxes, and the viscous dissipation rate. The application of the two-dimensional model in this paper deals with the simulation of the flow from an extensive smooth dry area to a grassy wet terrain. The mean wind speed, temperature, and humidity distributions in the resulting internal boundary layer downstream of the surface discontinuity are determined such that the energy and moisture balances at the Earth's surface are satisfied.Numerical calculations of the mean temperature and humidity profiles are compared with available observed ones. The results include the advective effects on turbulent flux distributions, surface energy balance, evaporation rate, and Bowen ratio. The sensitivity of the predicted mean profiles and turbulent flux distributions to the surface relative humidity, thermal stratification, and the roughness change is discussed.NRC-NAS Resident Research Associate at AFCRL.     

华北-华东地区高温热浪与土壤湿度的关系研究

利用观测站点的日最高气温、土壤湿度旬观测资料以及土壤湿度再分析资料等,分析了华北-华东地区高温热浪次数的时空变化特征及其与土壤湿度的关系。结果表明:1960s以及1990-2010年为高温热浪次数的高值期,1970s-1980s为低值期。利用旋转经验正交函数分解得到土壤湿度的3个气候分区,分区内前期(3-5月)和同期(6-7月)的土壤湿度与6、7月份高温热浪次数基本呈负相关关系,并且同期相关性更显著。在华北-华东北部与中部,5月下旬土壤湿度与6月高温热浪次数、6月上、中旬平均土壤湿度与6月高温热浪次数、7月平均土壤湿度与7月高温热浪次数的相关性均显著。     

Interocean circulation and heat and freshwater budgets of the South China Sea based on a numerical model

The South China Sea (SCS) interocean circulation and its associated heat and freshwater budgets are examined using the results of a variable-grid global ocean model. The ocean model has a 1/6° resolution in the SCS and its adjacent oceans. The model results from 1982 to 2003 show that the western Pacific waters enter the SCS through the Luzon Strait with an annual mean volume transport of 4.80 Sv, of which 1.71 Sv returns to the western Pacific through the Taiwan Strait and East China Sea and 3.09 Sv flows toward the Indian Ocean. The heat in the western Pacific is transported to the SCS with a rate of 0.373 PW (relative to a reference temperature 3.72 °C), while the total heat transport through the outflow straits is 0.432 PW. The net heat transport out of the SCS is thus 0.059 PW, which is balanced by a mean net downward heat flux of 17 W/m² across the SCS air–sea interface. Therefore, the interocean circulation acts as an “air conditioner”, cooling the SCS and its overlaying atmosphere. The SCS contributes a heat transport of 0.279 PW to the Indian Ocean, of which 0.240 PW is from the Pacific Ocean through the Luzon Strait and 0.039 PW is from the SCS interior gained from the air–sea exchange. The Luzon Strait salt transport is greater than the total salt transport leaving the SCS by 3.97 Gg/s, implying a mean freshwater flux of 0.112 Sv (or 3.54 × 10¹² m³/year) from the land discharge and P − E (precipitation minus evaporation). The total annual land discharge to the SCS is estimated to be 1.60 × 10¹² m³/year, the total annual P − E over the SCS is thus 1.94 × 10¹² m³/year, equivalent to a mean P − E of 0.55 m/year. The SCS freshwater contribution to the Indian Ocean is 0.096 Sv. The pattern of the SCS interocean circulation in winter differs greatly from that in summer. The SCS branch of the Pacific-to-Indian Ocean throughflow exists in winter, but not in summer. In winter this branching flow starts at the Luzon Strait and extends to the Karimata Strait. In summer the interocean circulation is featured by a north-northeastward current starting at the Karimata Strait and extending to the Taiwan and Luzon Straits, and a subsurface inflow from the Luzon Strait that upwells into the surface layer in the SCS interior to supply the outward transports.     

Boundary-layer evolution and nocturnal inversion dispersal—Part I

The evolution of boundary layers capped by nocturnal inversions has been studied with an instrumented aircraft. A large sample of the original data obtained on two of the four observation days is presented. Profiles of temperature, humidity and sensible and latent heat flux are compared with the results of numerical models. The sensitivity of simple models for the prediction of nocturnal inversion dispersal is discussed in relation to certain measured input parameters.     

A note on bulk aerodynamic coefficients for sensible heat and moisture fluxes

Values are presented for bulk aerodynamic coefficients which were calculated from two rather extensive sets of estimates of sensible heat and moisture fluxes based on profile measurements. These results are compared with a number of other results mainly based on fluxes estimated from eddy-correlation measurements.