Land Surface Modeling in the Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®)

The Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) is the U. S. Department of Defense's high-resolution mesoscale weather prediction system, used for operational short range weather prediction as well as numerical weather prediction research. Recent changes to COAMPS include the introduction of new land surface modeling (LSM) schemes developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. The new LSM schemes replace the simple single layer slab/bucket scheme. Multi-week data assimilation results for January and July 2006 demonstrate that the introduction of the LSM schemes reduces the COAMPS land surface cold bias and improves the low-level boundary layer structure. Results will be presented comparing the new schemes to the current WRF LSM schemes (such as NOAH) in COAMPS and assessing the effects on high-impact weather for the continental United States.