A11N-01:
Understanding Land-Surface-Atmosphere Coupling in the Warm Season

Monday, 15 December 2014: 8:00 AM
Alan K Betts, Atmospheric Research, Pittsford, VT, United States; Institute of Global Environment and Society Calverton, Calverton, MD, United States
Abstract:
This talk will develop an observational framework for understanding the fully coupled land-surface-atmosphere system in the warm season using some 600 station years of hourly data from the Canadian Prairies. Using BSRN data to calibrate the opaque/reflective cloud data to give daily mean SWCF and LWCF, enables the separation of the forcing of the surface climate by radiative and precipitation processes. Sub-stratifying as well by wind-speed and RH further separates the physical processes driving the surface thermodynamic diurnal cycle, giving insight into the climate drivers of the night-time BL and the daytime diurnal convection in the warm season.