Atmospheric sensitivity to roughness length in a regional atmospheric model over the Ohio–Tennessee River Valley

Arturo I. Quintanar, Rezaul Mahmood, Astrid Suarez, Ronnie Leeper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The response of a regional atmospheric model to small changes in roughness length of two vegetation categories (crops and deciduous broadleaf forest) was analyzed for three synoptic events in June 2006. These were characterized by two convective events (June 11 and 22) and one prefrontal event (June 17). The responses of the model, for precipitation, equivalent potential temperature and wind field were notable in general. However, the response became muted as roughness lengths were increased or decreased. Atmospheric response to these changes varied for different convective events. A small dependence on roughness length was found for the sensible and latent heat fluxes and planetary boundary layer heights during the convective event of June 11. For the June 22 event, the model response was weaker for the crop-only and forest-only roughness length experiments compared to the response when both the crop and forest-only roughness length were changed in combination.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)315-330
Number of pages16
JournalMeteorology and Atmospheric Physics
Volume128
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2016
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atmospheric Science

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