skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Land-atmosphere coupling manifested in warm-season observations on the U.S. southern great plains

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020492· OSTI ID:1254389
 [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

This study examines several observational aspects of land-atmosphere coupling on daily average time scales during warm seasons of the years 1997 to 2008 at the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility site near Lamont, Oklahoma. Characteristics of the local land-atmosphere coupling are inferred by analyzing the covariability of selected land and atmospheric variables that include precipitation and soil moisture, surface air temperature, relative humidity, radiant and turbulent fluxes, as well as low-level cloud base height and fractional coverage. For both the energetic and hydrological aspects of this coupling, it is found that large-scale atmospheric forcings predominate, with local feedbacks of the land on the atmosphere being comparatively small much of the time. The weak land feedbacks are manifested by 1) the inability of soil moisture to comprehensively impact the coupled land-atmosphere energetics, and 2) the limited recycling of local surface moisture under conditions where most of the rainfall derives from convective cells that originate at remote locations. There is some evidence, nevertheless, of the local land feedback becoming stronger as the soil dries out in the aftermath of precipitation events, or on days when the local boundary-layer clouds are influenced by thermal updrafts known to be associated with convection originating at the surface. Finally, we also discuss potential implications of these results for climate-model representation of regional land-atmosphere coupling.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1254389
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-557575
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 119, Issue 2; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (54)

Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review journal May 2010
The Transpose-AMIP II Experiment and Its Application to the Understanding of Southern Ocean Cloud Biases in Climate Models journal May 2013
Spatiotemporal Variations in Soil Water: First Results from the ARM SGP CART Network journal February 2003
Probability of afternoon precipitation in eastern United States and Mexico enhanced by high evaporation journal June 2011
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program journal January 2003
Recurrent Supersynoptic Evolution of the Great Plains Low-Level Jet journal January 2011
Diurnal Variations in Precipitation and Thunderstorm Frequency over the Conterminous United States journal May 1975
Contribution of land-atmosphere coupling to recent European summer heat waves journal January 2007
Regions of Strong Coupling Between Soil Moisture and Precipitation journal August 2004
Analysis of soil moisture memory from observations in Europe: SOIL MOISTURE MEMORY IN OBSERVATIONS journal August 2012
Diagnosis of the summertime warm and dry bias over the U.S. Southern Great Plains in the GFDL climate model using a weather forecasting approach: GFDL CLIMATE MODEL SUMMERTIME BIAS journal September 2006
Great Plains Hydroclimate Variability: The View from North American Regional Reanalysis journal June 2006
Soil moisture-temperature coupling: A multiscale observational analysis: SOIL MOISTURE-TEMPERATURE COUPLING journal November 2012
Precipitation intensity and variation during MC3E: A numerical modeling study: DIURNAL VARIATION OF PRECIPITATION journal July 2013
GLACE: The Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part I: Overview journal August 2006
Investigation of Large-Scale Atmospheric Moisture Budget and Land Surface Interactions over U.S. Southern Great Plains including for CLASIC (June 2007) journal December 2012
Persistence of heat waves and its link to soil moisture memory: PERSISTENCE OF HEAT WAVES journal May 2010
The land surface-atmosphere interaction: A review based on observational and global modeling perspectives journal March 1996
Orogenic Propagating Precipitation Systems over the United States in a Global Climate Model with Embedded Explicit Convection journal August 2011
Impact of soil moisture–atmosphere coupling on European climate extremes and trends in a regional climate model journal April 2010
Understanding Hydrometeorology Using Global Models journal November 2004
A Modeling and Observational Framework for Diagnosing Local Land–Atmosphere Coupling on Diurnal Time Scales journal June 2009
The Second Phase of the Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment: Soil Moisture Contributions to Subseasonal Forecast Skill journal October 2011
The Diurnal Variability of Precipitation across the Central Rockies and Adjacent Great Plains journal June 1987
Evidence for Enhanced Land–Atmosphere Feedback in a Warming Climate journal June 2012
The terrestrial segment of soil moisture-climate coupling: SOIL MOISTURE-CLIMATE COUPLING journal August 2011
Atmosphere–Land Surface Interactions over the Southern Great Plains: Characterization from Pentad Analysis of DOE ARM Field Observations and NARR journal February 2013
Energy Balance Bowen Ratio Station (EBBR) Instrument Handbook report April 2018
Variability of the Great Plains Low-Level Jet: Large-Scale Circulation Context and Hydroclimate Impacts journal April 2008
Factors Controlling the Vertical Extent of Fair-Weather Shallow Cumulus Clouds over Land: Investigation of Diurnal-Cycle Observations Collected at the ARM Southern Great Plains Site journal April 2013
Observed and model-simulated diurnal cycles of precipitation over the contiguous United States journal March 1999
Evaluating Parameterizations in General Circulation Models: Climate Simulation Meets Weather Prediction journal December 2004
CLOUDS AND MORE: ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data: A New Data Product for Climate Studies journal January 2010
Role of eastward propagating convection systems in the diurnal cycle and seasonal mean of summertime rainfall over the U.S. Great Plains journal January 2006
Diagnosing the Sensitivity of Local Land–Atmosphere Coupling via the Soil Moisture–Boundary Layer Interaction journal October 2011
On the diurnal cycle of deep convection, high-level cloud, and upper troposphere water vapor in the Multiscale Modeling Framework journal January 2008
Mechanisms Affecting the Transition from Shallow to Deep Convection over Land: Inferences from Observations of the Diurnal Cycle Collected at the ARM Southern Great Plains Site journal September 2010
Investigation of the 2006 drought and 2007 flood extremes at the Southern Great Plains through an integrative analysis of observations journal January 2011
Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe journal September 2006
Evolving Land–Atmosphere Interactions over North America from CMIP5 Simulations journal October 2013
Observed Land–Atmosphere Coupling from Satellite Remote Sensing and Reanalysis journal December 2011
GLACE: The Global Land–Atmosphere Coupling Experiment. Part II: Analysis journal August 2006
Do Global Models Properly Represent the Feedback between Land and Atmosphere? journal December 2006
FIFE atmospheric boundary layer budget methods journal January 1992
The Relationship between Relative Humidity and the Dewpoint Temperature in Moist Air: A Simple Conversion and Applications journal February 2005
A Global Intercomparison of Modeled and Observed Land–Atmosphere Coupling journal June 2012
A regional perspective on trends in continental evaporation: EVAPORATION TRENDS journal January 2009
The Arm Climate Research Facility: A Review of Structure and Capabilities journal March 2013
Moisture and temperature balances at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains Site in forecasts with the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM2) journal January 2005
Impact of a revised convective triggering mechanism on Community Atmosphere Model, Version 2, simulations: Results from short-range weather forecasts journal January 2004
Land-Surface-Atmosphere Coupling in Observations and Models: LAND-SURFACE-ATMOSPHERE COUPLING journal March 2009
Afternoon rain more likely over drier soils journal September 2012
An Analysis of the Warm-Season Diurnal Cycle over the Continental United States and Northern Mexico in General Circulation Models journal June 2007
An Automated Quality Assessment and Control Algorithm for Surface Radiation Measurements journal April 2008

Cited By (2)

Global Investigation of Soil Moisture and Latent Heat Flux Coupling Strength journal October 2018
Causes of model dry and warm bias over central U.S. and impact on climate projections journal October 2017

Similar Records

Boundary Layer Climatology at ARM Southern Great Plains
Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · OSTI ID:1254389
+1 more
Boundary Layer Climatology at ARM Southern Great Plains
Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · OSTI ID:1254389
+1 more
Regional Moisture Budget and Land-Atmosphere Coupling Over the U.S. Southern Great Plains Inferred From the ARM Long-Term Observations
Journal Article · Fri Aug 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · OSTI ID:1254389
+4 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES