AMMA Land Surface Model Intercomparison Project

Boone, A., P. de Rosnay, A. Beljaars, J. Polcher, and ALMIP Working Group, 2006: AMMA land surface model intercomparison in West Africa. European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, April 2-7, 2006.

Abstract

Boone, A.and P. deRosnay, 2007: AMMA Land surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP). American Geophysical Union Joint Assembly, Acapulco, Mexico, May 22-25, 2007.

Abstract

Boone, A.and P. deRosnay, 2007: AMMA multi-scale resolution forcing data for a better understanding of the West-African Monsoon surface-atmosphere-hydrology interactions. IUGG XXIV General Assembly, Perugia, Italy, July 9-13, 2007.

Boone, A.and P. deRosnay, 2007: AMMA Land surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP). 2nd International AMMA Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany, November 26-30, 2007.

de Rosnay, P., Boone, A., Drusch, M., Holmes, T., Wigneron, J.-P., Balsamo, G., Pellarin, T., 2007: Modelling approach for remote sensing validation of ALMIP soil moisture products. The AMMA Land surface Models Inter-comparison Project - Microwave Emission Model (ALMIP-MEM). 2nd International AMMA Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany, November 26-30, 2007.

Boone, A. and the ALMIP Working Group, 2008: Applications of ALMIP multi-model land surface model diagnostics for evaluating the surface component of the WAMME GCMs. 1st West African Monsoon Modeling and Evaluation (WAMME) Workshop, 2008 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Jan. 20, 2008.

Boone, A., I. Poccard-Leclercq and Y. K. Xue, 2008: Evaluation of GCM surface processes over West Africa using offline land surface models and observations. 22nd Conference on Hydrology, 2008 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Jan. 20-24, 2008.

de Rosnay P., A. Boone, M. Drusch, G. Balsamo, T. Pellarin, J.-P. Wigneron, 2008: ALMIP-MEM: AMMA Land surface Models Inter-comparison Project - Microwave Emission Model. EGU General Assembly, Vienna, 13-18 April 2008.

de Rosnay P., M. Drusch, J.-P. Wigneron, T. Holmes, G. Balsamo, A. Boone, C. Rüdiger, J.-C. Calvet, Y. Kerr, 2008: Soil Moisture Remote Sensing for Numerical Weather Prediction: L-band and C-band Emission Modeling over Land Surfaces, the Community Microwave Emission Model (CMEM). IGARRS IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium, Boston, 6-11 July 2008.

Boone, A. and the ALMIP Working Group, 2009: The AMMA land surface model inter-comparison project: Summary of Phase 1 and Perspectives for Phase 2. 3rd International AMMA Conference, Ouagadougou, Burkina Fasso, July, 2009.

Boone, A. and the ALMIP Working Group, 2009: The ALMIP experience: Implications for NWP soil schemes, Land Surface Modelling, Data Assimilation and the implications for predictability GEWEX-GLASS Workshop , ECMWF, Reading UK, Nov. 8-11, 2009.

Boone, A. and the ALMIP Working Group, 2009: The African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis land surface model inter-comparison project (ALMIP): Applications in coupled model studies. 90th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, joint Session between the 22nd Conference on Climate Variability and Change, and the 24th Conference on Hydrology, Atlanta, GA, USA, Jan. 17-21, 2010.

Abstracts

AMMA Land Surface Model Intercomparison in West Africa

A.Boone (1), P. de Rosnay (2), A. Beljaars (3), J. Polcher (4) and the ALMIP working group^*

(1) CNRS, GAME/Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Toulouse, France
(2) CNRS, Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère, Toulouse, France
(3) European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, Reading, UK
(4) CNRS, Laboratoire Météorologie Dynamique, Paris, France

There is evidence that the land surface influences the variability of the WAM on daily to inter-annual time scales. There is therefore a need to better understand the land-surface atmosphere coupling mechanisms from the local, to the mesoscale and up to the regional scale. A critical aspect of this coupling is the relationship between the meridional soil moisture gradient and it's feedback with the regional atmospheric circulation. To this end, a multi-scale land-surface model atmospheric and land surface parameter forcing database is being constructed using a variety of sources; NWP forecast data, remote sensing products and local scale observations. The goal of the AMMA Land surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP) is to use this database to drive a family of state-of-the-art land surface schemes "off-line" (i.e. decoupled from an atmospheric model) from local to regional scales over at least one annual cycle. Key aspects of the schemes related to the simulation of the WAM (such as the ability of such schemes to simulate the vegetation response to the atmospheric forcing) and the impact of changing the scale on the simulated surface fluxes and water budget will be evaluated using observations from the AMMA-EOP and SOP campaigns and data from AMMA-SAT (such as MODIS based LAI). This talk will present an overview of the current status of the forcing database, some preliminary off-line LSS results, and an overview of the proposed intercomparison project which begins in 2006.

* ALMIP Working Group (alphabetical order): Anton Beljaars (ECMWF, Reading, UK), Aaron Boone (CNRM, Toulouse, France), Bertrand Decharme (CETP, Vezily, France), Patricia deRosnay (CESBIO, Toulouse, France), Chris Harris (CEH, Wallingford, UK), Christine Delire (CEH, Montpellier, France), Laurent Kergoat (CESBIO, Toulouse, France), Tristan d'Orgeval (LMD, Paris, France), Catherine Ottlé (CETP, Vézily, France), Isabelle Poccard-Leclercq (LETG, Nantes, France), Jan Polcher (LMD, Paris, France), Chris Taylor (CEH, Wallingford, UK), Yonkang Xue (UCLA, Los Angeles, USA)

The use of LAND SAF flux products in the AMMA Project

Aaron Boone

CNRS, GAME/Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Toulouse, France

One of the main goals of the African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis (AMMA) Project is to obtain a better understanding of the physical processes influencing the West-African Monsoon (WAM) on daily to inter-annual timescales. There is evidence that the land surface influences the variability of the WAM over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, therefore there is a need to better understand the land-surface atmosphere coupling mechanisms from the local, to the mesoscale and up to the regional scale. A critical aspect of this coupling is the feedback between the regional atmospheric circulation and the strong meridional surface flux gradients of mass and energy. The surface fluxes, in turn, are strongly modulated by the downwelling radiative fluxes via the surface energy budget. In this talk, three applications of the LAND SAF longwave atmospheric and solar radiation products will be presented. The first is the use of this product in conjunction with other satellite-based products (from AMMA-SAT) and numerical weather prediction (NWP) model output in order to create a database of low-level atmospheric forcing which can be used to simulate "realistic" estimates of the soil moisture, near surface hydrology, and surface fluxes (turbulent and radiative). The resulting surface state and fluxes will be used for both evaluation of and use in atmospheric NWP or research models. The second application consists in using the aforementioned forcing data within the AMMA Land surface Intercomparison Project (ALMIP) to drive a family of state-of-the-art land surface schemes "off-line" (i.e. decoupled from an atmospheric model) from local to regional scales over at least one annual cycle. Key aspects of the schemes related to the simulation of the WAM and the impact of changing the scale on the simulated surface fluxes and water budget will be studied. The third and final application is related to the evaluation of the near surface downwelling radiative fluxes simulated by a group of Global Climate Models GCMs over a north-south transect over west Africa within the project AMMA-CROSS (AMMA cross-section).

AMMA Land surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP)

Aaron Boone¹ and Patricia deRosnay²

1: GAME/Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (CNRM), CNRS Meteo-France, Toulouse, France
2: Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphere (CESBIO), CNRS, Toulouse, France

Extreme climatic variability has afflicted West Africa over the last half century, which has resulted in significant socio-economic consequences for the people of this region. There is therefore a need to improve seasonal to inter-annual prediction of the West-African monsoon (WAM), however, difficulties modeling the WAM arise from both the paucity of observations at sufficient space-time resolutions, and due to the complex interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere over this region. In particular, there is evidence that the land surface influences the variability of the WAM over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales. A critical aspect of this coupling is the feedback between the regional atmospheric circulation and the strong meridional surface flux gradients of mass and energy.

One of the main goals of the African Monsoon Multi-disciplinary Analysis (AMMA) Project is to obtain a better understanding of the physical processes influencing the West-African Monsoon (WAM) on daily to inter-annual timescales. An improved comprehension of the relevant land surface processes is being addressed through the construction of a multi-scale atmospheric and land surface parameter forcing database using a variety of sources; numerical weather prediction forecast data, remote sensing products and local scale observations. The goal of this database is to drive land surface, vegetation and hydrological models over a range of spatial scales (local to regional) in order to gain better insights into the attendant processes. This goal is being met under the auspices of the AMMA Land surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP). In the recently completed Phase 1 of this project, an ensemble of state-of-the-art land surface schemes have been run in "off-line" mode (i.e. decoupled from an atmospheric model) at a regional scale over western Africa for four annual cycles (2002-5). In this talk, intercomparison results will be presented. In addition, results from a second experiment will be presented which show the significant impact of including remotely sensed data on the model simulations.