Generation of the Subsurface Climate Signal by Land Surface Processes in the North American Mid-Continent

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This award is to support a study that addresses the generation of the subsurface geothermal climate signature through the application of a specialized Land Surface Process (LSP) model, investigating the temperature coupling between the atmosphere and the solid earth with the LSP model previously developed to describe the upward-propagating microwave signal seen by satellites. Project members will investigate both the adequacy of this LSP model to generate the downward propagating temperature signal utilized by geothermal scientists for climate reconstructions, and the effects upon the temperature signal induced by changes in landcover or mean precipitation. They will also investigate the generation of the subsurface temperature field in a special setting: the prairie grasslands of the North American mid-continent. The investigators will test the model's performance with an abundant dataset of subsurface temperature profiles already available from Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.