International Research Fellowship Program: Impact of Land Atmosphere Interactions on Convection Associated with the West African Monsoon

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0601817GarvertThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a fifteen-month research fellowship by Dr. Matthew F. Garvert to work with Dr. Miguel A. Gaertner at University of Castillo-La Mancha, in Toldeo, Spain.This study will assist in determining the impact of land-atmosphere interactions on convection associated with the West African Monsoon (WAM). Numerous studies have already demonstrated that convection during the WAM is significantly influenced by land and vegetative properties of West Africa. Yet a clear understanding of the effects of surface properties on the physical processes and life cycles of moist convection is still lacking. The research utilizes a high resolution, state-of-the-art numerical model and an unparalleled, comprehensive observational data-set to analyze cases of convection from the 2006 West African summer monsoon. Model simulations of the convective cases are being performed with the PROMES (PROnostico a MESoescala) model coupled with the ORCHIDEE dynamic global vegetation model. Initial simulations use default assignments of soil moisture, soil types, vegetation and other surface parameters. Sensitivity tests are then performed by modifying the model's soil and vegetation parameters with observations. The results from these sensitivity simulations are analyzed against the reference simulation and the large observational data-set, with a focus on the effect of land-atmosphere interactions on convective processes and precipitation distributions. Additional sensitivity tests focus on the effect of data assimilation on the simulated convection. The research involves close collaboration between the PI and Dr. Miguel Gaertner from the Environment and Climate Modeling group (Grupo De Modelizacion Para el Medio Ambiente y el Clima - MOMAC) at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Dr. Gaertner has extensive first hand experience in the development of numerical models and the analysis of soil-atmosphere interactions on convection. Prof. Gaertner is also the Principal Investigator of MOMACs participation in the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses-European Union (AMMA-EU) Integrated Project. The collaborative nature of AMMA places the PI in contact with some of the best international researchers in the field of convection and numerical modeling.