Understanding and characterizing land surface-atmosphere exchange and feedbacks

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Axel Kleidon; Dr. Kaniska Mallick; Professor Dr. Karsten Schulz; Professor Dr. Volker Wulfmeyer
• Subject Area: Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 182331427

This project uses three different and complementary approaches to quantify local to regional evapotranspiratlon and surface energy balance partitioning. The first approach uses the seml-physlcal-, Penman-Montelth equation combined with the complementary relationshipand thermal remote sensing to derive high resolution estimates of evapotranspiratlon. The second approach uses hydna-meteorological simulations of the WRF-NOAH-MP model system down to scales of 100 m to study the effects of soll-vegetatlon-atmosphere feedbacksand mesoscale circulations on regional evapotranspiratlon with unprecedented detail. The third approach uses the thermodynamic limit on convectlve exchange to Infer the magnitude of soll-vegetation-atmosphere Interactions, atmospheric mixing processes, and local to regional evapotranspiratlon patterns. A dedicated field campaign performing micrometeorologlcal measurements of the surface energy balance and the CAOS field observations will be used to evaluate these methods. The WRF-NOAH-MP model Is also applied for quantitative precipitation forecasting by assimilating polarization radar data to Improve Initial water budget components. These approaches are evaluated In a joint synthesis activity regarding surface energy balance estimates from local to catchment scale and their closure assumptions. The synthesis of these three approaches of vastly different complexity has the potential to substantially advance our ability to understand and nDbustly predict regional evapotranspiratlon and the surface energy balance.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1598: From Catchments as Organised Systems to Models based on Dynamic Functional Units - CAOS
• International Connection: Austria, Luxembourg
• Partner Organisation: Fonds National de la Recherche; Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Martin Schlerf