Surface and Boundary Layer Interactions of Energy and Water

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Under this award, Dr. Betts will investigate the thermodynamics of atmospheric energy and water interactions from the land surface to the troposphere. At present, forecast and climate models have serious deficiencies in their physical parameterizations, particularly in the modeling of energy and land transports at the land surface, and in the coupling of the surface and boundary layer to convective processes. The principal investigator will address these issues by analyzing observations from various field programs, and then using them to diagnose and correct errors in the physical parameterizations in large-scale models. Operational forecast models will be used, primarily the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF) model, so that this research directly benefits the forecasting of weather on time-scales from a few days out to the seasonal time-scale. In addition, the research will help to improve the global reanalyses produced by operational forecast centers which are key databases for climate studies. The goals of this research contribute directly to the objectives of NSF's WEAVE program under the USGCRP and to the goals of the International Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) effort.