A revised land surface parameterization (SiB2) for GCMs. Part III: The greening of the Colorado State University general circulation model

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Journal of Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1996)009<0738:ARLSPF>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:380994

Randall, D A; Dazlich, D A; Zhang, C; Denning, A S ^[1]

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1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); and others

SiB2, the second-generation land-surface parameterization developed by Sellers et al., has been incorporated into the Colorado State University general circulation model and tested in multidecade simulations. The control run uses a {open_quotes}bucket{close_quotes} hydrology but employs the same surface albedo and surface roughness distributions as the SiB2 run. Results show that SiB2 leads to a general warming of the continents, as evidenced in the ground temperature, surface air temperature, and boundary-layer-mean potential temperature. The surface sensible heat flux increases and the latent heat flux decreases. This warming occurs virtually everywhere but is most spectacular over Siberia in winter. Precipitation generally decreases over land but increases in the monsoon regions, especially the Amazon basin in January and equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia in July. Evaporation decreases considerably, especially in dry regions such as the Sahara. The excess of precipitation over evaporation increases in the monsoon regions. The precipitable water (vertically integrated water vapor content) generally decreases over land but increases in the monsoon regions. The mixing ratio of the boundary-layer air decreases over nearly all continental areas, however, including the monsoon regions. The net surface longwave cooling of the surface increases quite dramatically over land, in accordance with the increased surface temperatures and decreased cloudiness. The solar radiation absorbed at the ground also increases. SiB2 has modest effects on the simulated general circulation of the atmosphere. Its most important impacts on the model are to improve the simulations of surface temperature and snow cover and to enable the simulation of the net rate of terrestrial carbon assimilation. 39 refs., 23 figs., 5 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 380994
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 9; ISSN JLCLEL; ISSN 0894-8755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR-BIOSPHERE INTERACTIONS
ALBEDO
BIOSPHERE
CARBON DIOXIDE FIXATION
CLIMATES
CLOUD COVER
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
HEAT FLUX
PERFORMANCE
PHENOLOGY
SIMULATION
SOILS
SOLAR RADIATION
TURBULENCE
WATER VAPOR