Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Investigating the Impact of Soil Moisture and Atmospheric Stability on Cloud Development and Distribution Using a Coupled Large-Eddy Simulation and Land Surface Model

Hsin-Yuan Huang Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

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Steven A. Margulis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

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Print Publication:
01 Oct 2011
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JHM1315.1
Page(s):
787–804
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Abstract

The influence of soil moisture and atmospheric thermal stability on surface fluxes, boundary layer characteristics, and cloud development are investigated using a coupled large-eddy simulation (LES)–land surface model (LSM) framework. The study day from the Cabauw site in the central part of the Netherlands has been studied to examine the soil moisture–cloud feedback using a parameterized single-column model (SCM) in previous work. Good agreement is seen in the comparison between coupled model results and observations collected at the Cabauw eddy-covariance tower. Simulation results confirm the hypothesis that both surface fluxes and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) states are strongly affected by soil moisture and atmospheric stability, which was proposed by a previous study using an SCM with simple parameterization. While the ABL-top cloud development is a nonmonotonic function of surface water content under different thermal stability conditions, coupled model simulations find that weak thermal stability has significant impacts on both thermal and moisture fluxes and variances near the entrainment zone, especially for the dry surface cases. Additionally, the impacts of ABL-top stability on thermal and moisture entrainment processes are in a different magnitude. The explicitly resolved cloud cover fraction increases with increasing soil moisture only occurs in cases with strong atmospheric stability, and an opposite result is seen when weak atmospheric stability exists. The elevation of cloud base highly depends on the strength of sensible heat flux. However, results of cloud thickness show that a dry surface with weak thermal stability is able to form a large amount of cumulus cloud, even if the soil provides less water vapor.

Corresponding author address: Hsin-Yuan Huang, Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, 9258 Boelter Hall, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7228. E-mail: hyhuang@ucla.edu

Abstract

The influence of soil moisture and atmospheric thermal stability on surface fluxes, boundary layer characteristics, and cloud development are investigated using a coupled large-eddy simulation (LES)–land surface model (LSM) framework. The study day from the Cabauw site in the central part of the Netherlands has been studied to examine the soil moisture–cloud feedback using a parameterized single-column model (SCM) in previous work. Good agreement is seen in the comparison between coupled model results and observations collected at the Cabauw eddy-covariance tower. Simulation results confirm the hypothesis that both surface fluxes and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) states are strongly affected by soil moisture and atmospheric stability, which was proposed by a previous study using an SCM with simple parameterization. While the ABL-top cloud development is a nonmonotonic function of surface water content under different thermal stability conditions, coupled model simulations find that weak thermal stability has significant impacts on both thermal and moisture fluxes and variances near the entrainment zone, especially for the dry surface cases. Additionally, the impacts of ABL-top stability on thermal and moisture entrainment processes are in a different magnitude. The explicitly resolved cloud cover fraction increases with increasing soil moisture only occurs in cases with strong atmospheric stability, and an opposite result is seen when weak atmospheric stability exists. The elevation of cloud base highly depends on the strength of sensible heat flux. However, results of cloud thickness show that a dry surface with weak thermal stability is able to form a large amount of cumulus cloud, even if the soil provides less water vapor.

Corresponding author address: Hsin-Yuan Huang, Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, 9258 Boelter Hall, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7228. E-mail: hyhuang@ucla.edu
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