Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
6380926 Advances in Water Resources 2015 10 Pages PDF
Abstract
The dynamics of the free groundwater table influence land surface soil moisture and energy balance components, and are therefore also linked to atmospheric processes. In this study, the sensitivity of the atmosphere to groundwater table dynamics induced heterogeneity in land surface processes is examined under convective conditions. A fully coupled subsurface-land surface-atmosphere model is applied over a 150 km × 150 km study area located in Western Germany and ensemble simulations are performed over two convective precipitation events considering two separate model configurations based on groundwater table dynamics. Ensembles are generated by varying the model atmospheric initial conditions following the prescribed ensemble generation method by the German Weather Service in order to account for the intrinsic, internal atmospheric variability. The results demonstrate that especially under strong convective conditions, groundwater table dynamics affect atmospheric boundary layer height, convective available potential energy, and precipitation via the coupling with land surface soil moisture and energy fluxes. Thus, this study suggests that systematic uncertainties may be introduced to atmospheric simulations if groundwater table dynamics are neglected in the model.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Earth and Planetary Sciences Earth-Surface Processes
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