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EESC V2100 - Surface Energy and Water Balance
EESC V2100 - Surface Energy and Water Balance
EESC V2100 - Surface Energy and Water Balance
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II. Metadata
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In this portion of the lab, you will use data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis project. NCEP generates these datasets using a type of atmospheric model known as a data assimilation model. In general, models predict the future behavior of the atmosphere using information about its current state (i.e., its initial conditions) and solving systems of equations that describe how it will evolve in time given the initial conditions. Data assimilation models work by giving the model updated measurements as it runs, so that the output is a combination of measured values where they are available, and modeled values based on the measurements. These datasets are often used by climate researchers because they provide the sort of continuous, global coverage produced by models, but also contain all of the information available from observations. These data are monthly means of the re-analyses for the period 1948-1998. Coverage is global, with a horizontal resolution of 2.5 degrees longitude by 2.5 degrees latitude. Go to the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project Overview web site to learn more about the reanalysis project.
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question, think about the factors that control the up and down components separately, and the temperature and moisture conditions (warm/cold, dry/humid) that would cause the biggest and smallest difference between upward flux from the surface and downward flux from the atmosphere. B. Non-radiative heat flux (SHF & LHF Task 3: Link to the sensible heat flux climatology. SHF is heat extracted from the surface by turbulent air motion and dry convection. The amount of SHF depends mainly on the temperature difference between surface and the overlying air. The actual temperatures of the surface (land or ocean) and and the overlying air don't matter; it's the gradient between them that controls the magnitude and direction of the heat flux. Describe and explain the following: The differences between the January and July SHF distribution. The differences between the SHF from land and from ocean (i.e., explain why surfaceatmosphere interactions should behave differently over land and ocean and how that gives rise to what you observe). The outstanding features in the pattern of sensible heat flux over the oceans. Choose "draw land" and reset the range of values to -50 to 200 W/m2. Pay particular attention to the ocean areas just east of the east coasts of North America and Asia and the changes that occur there from January to July. The pattern of fluxes in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. To see this more clearly, limit the map boundaries to 30S-30N and 120E-60W, use the map option that masks out land, and set the range of colors and contours to 0 - 60 W/m2. Task 4: Link to the latent heat flux climatology. LHF is heat transferred by evaporation of water from the surface. Water requires a great deal of energy to change phase from liquid to gas. When a molecule of water evaporates, it gets the necessary energy from its surrounding surface, which then lowers the temperature of the surface. The temperature of the newly evaporated vapor molecule doesn't change, since all of the energy goes toward breaking free from the liquid phase. Wet surfaces (ocean, vegetated land, moist soil) can potentially evaporate large quantities of moisture. However, if the overlying air is already humid, evaporation will be decreased. Examine the pattern of LHF in January and July. Describe and explain the following: Winter to summer differences over land. Winter to summer differences over the midlatitude oceans. The relative magnitude of LHF and SHF over the tropical oceans (which is bigger and why). You may want to mask out land for this comparison. C. Earth's surface energy budget (SW, LW, SHF & LHF) Task 5: The difference between absorbed solar and the sum of the three other components you have looked at, is the total rate of exchange of energy between the atmosphere and the surface. Link to the net downward surface heat flux. Make an animation of the seasonal cycle by typing "Jan to Dec" in the time window and clicking "Redraw." Answer the following questions:
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Is the net surface heat flux large or small over land? What does this imply and how would you explain it? Where does the ocean gain heat from the atmosphere? Which component of the surface heat flux is most responsible? Where does the ocean lose heat to the atmosphere, and which component is most responsible? What do the relative magnitudes of net surface heat flux into the ocean and land tell you about their relative ability to store heat? Task 6: Go back to the data page to which you originally linked, activate the Expert Mode, calculate the annual mean net surface heat flux (by adding "[T] average" to the dialog), and view the result. You may want to redefine the limiting values on the color bar to a narrower range such as -100 to 100 to see the features better. From what locations and to what locations does the ocean need to transport heat to balance the surface inequalities of heat input? D. Water balance in the atmosphere Task 7: The source of water vapor for the atmosphere is surface evaporation and evapotranspiration (E). The sink for atmospheric water is precipitation (P). For the humidity to remain constant, averaged over the globe it must be true that P = E. But this need not be true at every individual location. If P > E somewhere, then that excess water was transported from somewhere else. Use the viewer to display the monthly climatological precipitation rate maps for the world. The units of these maps are kilograms of condensed water per second per square meter (i.e., the flux of water) reaching the Earth's surface as rain, hail, or snow, averaged separately for each calendar month. Because these are rates per second, and at most times it is not raining, the values are very small. You can obtain the daily average rainfall amounts by returning to the page from which you originally accessed the data and clicking on "Filters." At the lower end of the window find the small box where you can convert from "kg/m2/s" to "kg/m2/day." Describe the following aspects of the January rainfall distribution: At what latitudes does the greatest precipitation occur? Does precipitation change systematically in one direction as we go from equator to pole, or are there latitudes where rainfall is at a local minimum or maximum? Task 8: We can calculate the evaporation rate from the latent heat flux data by dividing the latter by the latent heat of vaporization L = 2.5 x 106 Joules/Kg. Link again to the latent heat flux climatology. In the Expert Mode window type "2.5E06 div 86400 mul", which divides the LHF by L and converts the units from Kg/m2/s to Kg/m2/day (1 day = 86400 s). Then redefine the units by typing on a new line in the Expert Mode window "/units (kg/m2/day) def". View the result for January and July and answer the following questions: At what latitudes does the greatest surface evaporation occur? Are these the same latitudes at which the maximum precipitation occurs? All other things being equal, water evaporates into drier (lower relative humidity) air faster than it does into wetter (higher relative humidity) air. What does this tell you about the variation of relative humidity with latitude? Task 9: Just as we did for net radiation at the top-of-the-atmosphere last week, we can
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define the atmosphere's net water balance by taking the difference between evaporation and precipitation. Now view the annual average water balance. Answer the following questions: At what latitude P > E, and at what latitudes is E > P? Are there systematic differences between the net water balance over land and over ocean? Since the atmosphere is not systematically drying in some places and moistening in others, what must the circulation be doing? (Be specific: think about what the source region is for the rainfall that defines the ITCZ.)
IV. Data
Surface absorbed solar radiation. Net outgoing surface longwave radiation. Sensible heat flux climatology. Latent heat flux climatology. Net downward surface heat flux. Climatological precipitation rate. Climatological evaporation minus precipitation rate.
http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/ees/climate/labs/balance/
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