Coupling between the University of California, Davis, Advanced Canopy-Atmosphere-Soil Algorithm (ACASA) and MM5: Preliminary Results for July 1998 for Western North America

• Published in: Journal of applied meteorology (1988) 2003-05, Vol.42 (5), p.557-569
• Main Authors: Pyles, R D, Weare, B C, U, K.T.P., Gustafson, W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0894-8763
• DOI: 10.1175/1520-0450(2003)042(0557:CBTUOC)2.0.CO;2

The University of California, Davis, Advanced Canopy-Atmosphere-Soil Algorithm (ACASA) is coupled to the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) as a land surface scheme. Simulations for July 1998 over western North America show that this coupling, the first between a mesoscale model and a land surface model of this complexity, is successful. Comparisons among model output, National Centers for Environmental Prediction-NCAR reanalysis fields, and station data show that MM5-ACASA generally reproduces near-surface temperature in a realistic fashion, but with a stronger diurnal cycle than observations suggest. A control run using the existing Louis/European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts land surface formulation produces unrealistically low temperatures associated with high latent heating and precipitation amounts over much of the model domain. Simulations of heat and moisture fluxes using the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) are generally comparable to ACASA, but near-surface air temperatures reveal excessively warm conditions. Low specific-humidity values over land in both MM5-ACASA and MM5-BATS simulations and low oceanic values in all three simulations suggest a possible dry bias in MM5. Comparison statistics between modeled near-surface climatological behavior and associated fluxes at three sites show that MM5-ACASA, out of the three simulations, agrees most with observations. Sensitivity tests show that MM5 is generally more sensitive to the choice of surface scheme than it is to soil moisture initialization. Comparisons of mean carbon dioxide fluxes reveal that ACASA can be a useful tool in examining the terrestrial carbon cycle.