Coupling the Land Surface to Radiative and Hydrological Processes in a Climate Model

该研究项目将在气候模拟的背景下研究陆地表面过程与气候之间的物理和生物相互作用。PI的动机是他认识到当前的气候建模目标需要更全面、更现实的地表参数化和数据使用。陆地表面如何通过其通量和辐射特性与大气交流，从而改变云和降水，以及这些如何被气溶胶改变，仍然需要更好地了解。一些具体问题包括：-模拟的陆地过程如何对降水做出贡献？-如何根据敏感性和反馈来描述地表过程？-土壤水分和径流的动态特征是什么？-云和气溶胶是如何与陆地耦合的？-经典气候敏感性的界限是什么？它与下垫面的耦合有何关系？他将以亚马逊地区、中国北部和西北部为重点，探讨这些问题的某些方面。更广泛的影响：赠款资金几乎全部用于支持学生的研究。他们的训练应该为美国和世界在一个非常重要的研究领域提供高素质的新科学家。由于PI目前的所有学生都是非洲人、非裔美国人或华人，其中大多数是女性，因此该项目应促进未被充分代表的少数民族的教育。此外，它特别针对的广泛问题是改进气候模式的内容和应用，以便在国家努力中更好地预测气候变率，以及在国际上评估人类对气候变化的影响。

This research project will investigate physical and biological interactions between land surface processes and climate in the context of climate modeling. The PI's motivation is his recognition that current climate modeling objectives require much more comprehensive and realistic land surface parameterizations and data use. How the land surface communicates to the atmosphere through its flux and radiative properties and so modifies clouds and precipitation, and how these are modified by aerosols, still needs to be better understood. Some specific questions include: - How do the modeled land processes contribute to precipitation? - How can land surface processes be characterized in terms of sensitivity and feedbacks? - What characterizes the dynamics of soil moisture and runoff? - How are clouds and aerosols coupled to land? - What bounds can be placed on the classical climate sensitivity and how is it related to coupling to the underlying surface? He will address some aspects of these questions with regional foci, the Amazon and northern and northwest China. Broader Impacts:The grant funding is almost entirely to support student research. Their training should provide the US and the world will highly capable new scientists in a very important research area. Since all of the PI's current students are either of African, African-American, or Chinese origin and the majority of them are female, the project should promote the education of underrepresented minorities. Moreover, the broad issue to which it is specifically targeted is improvement of content and application of climate models for use in national efforts to provide better forecasts of climate variability and in international assessments of the human contributions to climate change.