Simulation and Observation of Land-Precipitation Interactions (SOLPIN)

NSF EPSCoR - Simulation and Observation of Land-Precipitation INteractions

Simulation and Observation of Land-Precipitation Interactions (SOLPIN)

Bart Geerts, Jeff Snider, Zhien Wang, Jeff French, Perry Wechsler, Al Rodi, Bob Kelly …

Dept. of Atmospheric Science


SOLPIN - Motivation

• Cloudiness and precipitation in the Western USA are strongly modulated by the land surface – … at the same time clouds and precip exert much control on

the surface energy balance and vegetation types


Koster et al., Science 305, 1138 -1140 (2004)

Koster et al. (Science, 2004) shows that summertime land-atmosphere coupling is strong in the interior West

Shown is the {Omega} difference, a dimensionless diagnostic that describes the impact of soil moisture on precipitation, averaged across the 12 climate models participating in GLACE


Wintertime precipitation trend over the next 100 years remains highly uncertain


SOLPIN motivation: biosphere-precip coupling examples

• In summer certain ecosystems may release primary organic aerosols that can nucleate ice at unusually warm temperatures, and this can affect the dynamics and the precipitation efficiency of cumulus convection.

• Winter orographic precip appears to be strongly coupled with PBL turbulence, and possibly with surface vegetation. Also, the timing of the springtime snow melt-off and soil moisture spike relative to the onset of summertime quiescent conditions aloft may affect monsoon strength .

• The mean precip intensity may increase in a changing climate

scale dependency of water cycle in climate models

currentclimate

futureclimate


SOLPIN Motivation

• A better understanding of these processes is essential to – their incorporation in climate models– to the prediction of water resources in the West in a

warmer global climate

• Complexity of land surface – atmosphere interactions exceeds the capacity of a single discipline.

• Both focused observations and coupled numerical simulations are needed to move forward.


SOLPIN focus

• cloud and precipitation interactions, over timescales ranging from hours to decades.

• dual approach:– new measurement techniques– the improvement of cloud-resolving, coupled land-

atmosphere weather and climate models

• Geographic focus: Western USA


SOLPIN building blocks

1. UW King Air– 95 GHz cloud radar (WCR)– cloud lidar (WCL)– PMS probes, PCASP, CCN/CN …

http://www-das.uwyo.edu/wcr/mmradar.pix.shtml



1. UWKA: proposed new capabilities – water vapor / temperature Raman lidar (Zhien

Wang)

- temperature and water vapor @ (Dx~1 km, Dz~100 m) - cloud / aerosol backscatter coefficient, extinction, and depolarization ratio

ARM Raman lidar,22 December 2005



1. UWKA: proposed new capabilities – in situ measurements : temperature, water

vapor, cloud and precipitation particles (Jeff French)• ice water content• riming intensity• in-cloud temperature and humidity• larger sample sizes for large particles

– better probe characterization and siting requires airframe flow modelling (Rodi, Mavriplis)


SOLPIN building blocks2. Aerosol measurements New aerosol probes needed for super-m particles (primary

biogenics and dust particles). For an existing technique (PCASP), the sample volume rate is orders of magnitude too small for useful super-m measurement.

New Aerosol Instruments:

Super-m aerosol lidar (infrared)

Bio-APS (Aerodynamic Particle Sizer)



3. Two new decade-long initiatives at NCAR:

4. NCAR Supercomputing Center 5. The new Earth System Science (ESS) undergraduate

degree program at UW

Colorado Headwaters Research Program(Gochis & Rasmussen)

BEACHON (Guenther)


SOLPIN human infrastructure

• faculty position in cloud and precipitation modelling– work closely with UW observationalists and with NCAR– assimilate/ compare field campaign data

• SOLPIN links with other proposed faculty positions– Boundary-layer meteorologist – Dynamic-vegetation modeler

• SOLPIN links with the new WY Excellence Chair in Atmosphere-Biosphere Interaction


SOLPIN observational efforts: field campaigns

wintertime campaign – focused on orographic precipitation processes

• BEACHON campaign – during the growing season ?

• Colorado Headwaters campaign– early summer?

• continuous monitoring (with FoSTER)

Simulation and Observation of Land-Precipitation Interactions (SOLPIN)

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