Improving the Coupling between Soil Moisture and
Precipitation over North America through Integrated
Observational and Modeling Approaches
NOAA Climate
Prediction Program for the Americas (CPPA) In Response to
NOAA Climate and Global Change Program FY 2007
Principal
Investigator: Robert E. Dickinson
Tel: 404-385-1509,
Fax: 404-385-1510, Email:
robted@eas.gatech.edu
Co-Investigators:
Wanru Wu (wanru.wu@noaa.gov)
Abstract
This proposed effort
will provide a better understanding of soil moisture profile
variability and improve its coupling to evapotranspiration
(ET) and precipitation. Its specific scientific objectives
are to answer: (1) what new information about soil moisture
variability can be obtained from higher-resolution
larger-area observations? (2) how much of the co-variability
features between soil moisture and precipitation occurring
in reality are captured in model simulations? and (3) what
characterizes the system dynamics of soil moisture profiles
and hence their coupling to the atmosphere? The proposed
work will establish from observations the space (across a
region and in a vertical column) and time (hourly to monthly
time scales) variability of soil moisture and its coupling
to ET and precipitation. This 4-D variability structure
will be compared to simulation results from a land model of
adequate complexity to capture these variations.
Differences most affecting ET variability will be
established and sensitivity to model structure and
parameters will be identified. This analysis will determine
what aspects of the structure of a land model are most
important for ET variability. In doing so, it will provide
concrete guidance to land-surface modelers as to what
aspects of their model most need improvement to provide
better tools for seasonal to inter-annual forecasting. With
the results being applied to improvement of NOAA Noah land
model and statistical designs for future GLACE-like
community model intercomparisons, this work will contribute
to advancing NOAA seasonal prediction efforts.
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