Abstract
The surface sensible heat flux is a major component of the heat source over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and it has experienced significant changes during the past three decades. The mechanism for how these changes occur remains a controversial issue. This study estimates the sensible heat flux and its trend during 1981–2010 using in situ data and the Noah-MP land surface model. Five newly implemented parameterization schemes and one Noah-MP-based scheme for the thermal roughness length (z0h) were evaluated against in situ measurements to show how these schemes influence the simulation of the sensible heat flux. The results show that the sensible heat flux is very sensitive to the z0h parameterization scheme. Although z0h is different from the momentum roughness length (z0m), a simple scheme that neglects the difference between them can result in reasonable daily variations of the sensible heat flux. The scheme proposed by Zeng and Dickinson (1998) (hereafter, Z98) performed well in terms of simulating the annual mean sensible heat flux. We analyzed the climatic features of the sensible heat fluxes that were simulated using the Z98 scheme. The results indicated that the inter-annual variations of the sensible heat flux in the western and central TP were larger than those in the eastern TP. The sensible heat flux over the TP exhibited a significant decreasing trend during 1981–2010. The weakening trends over the western and central TP were higher than those in the eastern TP, and the TP-averaged weakening trend was ~ 2.7 Wm−2 per decade. Different schemes show some uncertainties in annual mean sensible heat flux, but all the schemes result in a decreasing trend.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brutsaert WH (1982) Evaporation into the atmosphere: theory, history, and applications. Reidel Publishing Co, Dordrecht
Chen LX, Reiter ER, Feng ZQ (1985) The atmospheric heat source over the Tibetan Plateau: May-August 1979. Mon Wea Rev 113: 1771–1790
Chen F, Janjic Z, Mitchell K (1997) Impact of atmospheric surface layer parameterization in the new land-surface scheme of the NCEP mesoscale Eta numerical model. Bound-Layer Meteorol 185:391–421
Chen F, Zhang Y (2009) On the coupling strength between the land surface and the atmosphere: from viewpoint of surface exchange coefficients. Geophys Res Letters 36:L10404. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL037980
Chen LT, Wu RG (2000) Interannual and decadal variations of snow cover over Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and their relationships to summer monsoon rainfall in China. Adv Atmos Sci 17:18–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-000-0040-7
Chen YY, Yang K, Zhou DG (2010) Improving the Noah land surface model in arid regions with an appropriate parameterization of the thermal roughness length. J Hydrometeorol 11:995–1006. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JHM1185.1
Chen YY, Yang K, He J (2011) Improving land surface temperature modeling for dry land of China. J Geophys Res 116:D20104. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD015921
Chen XL, Su ZB, Ma YM (2013) An improvement of roughness height parameterization of the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) over the Tibetan Plateau. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 52:607–622. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-12-056.1
Duan AM, Wu GX (2005) Role of the Tibetan Plateau thermal forcing in the summer climate patterns over subtropical Asia. Clim Dyn 24:793–807. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0488-8
Duan AM, Wu GX (2008) Weakening trend in the atmospheric heat source over the Tibetan Plateau during recent decades. Part I: observations. J Climate 21: 3149–3164, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1912.1
Duan AM, Liu YM, Wu GX (2003) Heating status of the Tibetan Plateau from April to June and rainfall and atmospheric circulation anomaly over East Asia in midsummer. Sci China Ser D 48:250–257
Duan AM, Wu GX, Liang XY (2008) Influence of the Tibetan Plateau on the summer climate patterns over Asia in the IAP/LASG SAMIL model. Adv Atmos Sci 25:518–528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-008-0518-2
Duan AM, Wang MR, Lei YH, Cui Y (2013) Trends in summer rainfall over China associated with the Tibetan Plateau sensible heat source during 1980–2008. J Clim 26:261–275. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00669.1
Dyer AJ (1974) A review of flux-profile relationships. Bound-Layer Meteor 7:363–372. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00240838
Guo X, Yang K, Chen Y (2011) Weakening sensible heat source over the Tibetan Plateau revisited: effects of the land-atmosphere thermal coupling. Theor Appl Climatol 104:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-010-0328-1
Högström U (1996) Review of some basic characteristics of the atmospheric surface layer. Bound-Layer Meteor 78:215–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120937
Hopwood WP (1995) Surface transfer of heat and momentum over an inhomogeneous vegetated land. Quart J Roy Meteorol Soc 121:1549–1574
Kanda M, Kanega M, Kawai T (2007) Roughness lengths for momentum and heat derived from outdoor urban scale models. J Appl Meteor Climatol 46:1067–1079. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAM2500.1
Li MS, Babel W, Chen XL, Zhang L, Sun F, Wang B, Ma Y, Hu Z, Foken T (2015) A 3-year dataset of sensible and latent heat fluxes from the Tibetan Plateau, derived using eddy covariance measurements. Theor Appl Climatol 122:457–469. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1302-0
Liu SM, Lu L, Mao D, Jia L (2007) Evaluating parameterizations of aerodynamic resistance to heat transfer using field measurements. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 11:769–783. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-11-769-2007
Ma YM, Wang JM, Huang RH (2003) Remote sensing parameterization of land surface heat fluxes over arid and semi-arid areas. Adv Atmos Sci 20:530–539
Ma YM, Menenti M, Feddes R (2008a) Analysis of the land surface heterogeneity and its impact on atmospheric variables and the aerodynamic and thermodynamic roughness lengths. J Geophys Res 113:D08113. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009124
Ma YM, Kang SC, Zhu LP et al (2008b) Tibetan observation and research platform atmosphere–land interaction over a heterogeneous landscape. Bull Am Meteor Soc 89:1487–1492
Mauder M, Foken T (2011) Documentation and instruction manual of the eddy covariance software package TK3. Work Report University of, Bayreuth
Niu GY, Yang ZL (2006) Effects of frozen soil on snowmelt runoff and soil water storage at a continental scale. J Hydrometeorol 7:937–952. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM538.1
Niu GY, Yang ZL, Mitchell KE et al (2011) The community Noah land surface mode l with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP): 1. Model description and evaluation with local-scale measurements. J Geophys Res 16:D12109. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD015139
Paulson CA (1970) The mathematical representation of wind speed and temperature profiles in the unstable atmospheric surface layer. J Appl Meteorol 9:857–861. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1970)009<0857:TMROWS>2.0.CO;2
Sun J, Mahrt L (1995) Determination of surface fluxes from the surface radiative temperature. J Atmos Sci 52:1096–1104. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1995)052<1096:DOSFFT>2.0.CO;2
Wang SZ, Ma YM (2011) Characteristics of land-atmosphere interaction parameters over the Tibetan Plateau. J Hydrometeorol 12:702–708. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JHM1275.1
Wu GX, Zhang YS (1998) Tibetan Plateau forcing and the timing of the monsoon onset over South Asia and the South China Sea. Mon Wea Rev 126:913–927. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1998)126<0913:TPFATT>2.0.CO;2
Wu GX, Liu YM, He B (2012) Thermal controls on the Asian summer monsoon. Sci Rep 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00404
Wu TW, Qian ZA (2003) The relation between the Tibetan Plateau winter snow and the Asian summer monsoon and rainfall: an observational investigation. J Clim 16:2038–2051. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<2038:TRBTTW>2.0.CO;2
Yang K, Koike T, Fujii H, Tamagawa K, Hirose N (2002) Improvement of surface flux parameterizations with a turbulence-related length. Quart J Roy Meteor Soc 128:2073–2087
Yang K, Koike T, Ishikawa H, Kim J, Li X, Liu H, Liu S, Ma Y, Wang J (2008) Turbulent flux transfer over bare-soil surfaces: characteristics and parameterization. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 47:276–290. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JAMC1547.1
Yang K, Qin J, Guo XF (2009) Method development for estimating sensible heat flux over the Tibetan Plateau from CMA data. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 48:2474–2486. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JAMC2167.1
Yang K, He J, Tang WJ, Qin J, Cheng CCK (2010) On downward shortwave and longwave radiations over high altitude regions: observation and modeling in the Tibetan Plateau. Agric Forest Meteor 150:38–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.08.004
Yang K, Guo XF, Wu BY (2011a) Recent trends in surface sensible heat flux on the Tibetan Plateau. Sci China Ser D 54:19–28
Yang K, Wu H, Qin J (2014) Recent climate changes over the Tibetan Plateau and their impacts on energy and water cycle: a review. Glob Planet Chang 112:79–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.12.001
Yang ZL, Niu GY, Mitchell KE et al (2011b) The community Noah land surface model with multiple parameterization options (Noah-MP): 2. Evaluation over global river basins. J Geophys Res 116:D12110. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD015140
Zeng XB, Dickinson RE (1998) Effect of surface sublayer on surface skin temperature and fluxes. J Clim 11:537–550. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1998)011<0537:EOSSOS>2.0.CO;2
Zhao P, Chen LX (2000) Study on climatic features of surface turbulent heat exchange coefficients and surface thermal sources over the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau. J Meteor Res 14:13–29
Zhao P, Chen LX (2001) Climate features of atmospheric heat source/sink over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in 35 years and its relation to rainfall in China. Sci China Ser D 4:858–864
Zilitinkevich SS (1995) Non-local turbulent transport: pollution dispersion aspects of coherent structure of convective flows, in Air Pollution III, vol. I, Air Pollution Theory and Simulations, Computational Mechanics Publications, Boston, pp. 53–60
Acknowledgements
The forcing dataset used in this study was developed by the Data Assimilation and Modeling Center for Tibetan Multi-spheres, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thanks are due to members of the center.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41405099, 41661144043), Opening Fund of Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, CAS (Lpcc201206), Opening Fund of Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environmental Changes and Land Surface Processes, CAS (TEL201303), and the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-DQC019).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, S., Ma, Y. On the simulation of sensible heat flux over the Tibetan Plateau using different thermal roughness length parameterization schemes. Theor Appl Climatol 137, 1883–1893 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-018-2704-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-018-2704-1