A Comparison of Model Simulated Surface Energy Budgets to WFIP2 Observational Data

Land-surface models (LSMs) play an important role in creating forecasts of near surface wind, temperature, and moisture, and it has been shown that these forecasts are sensitive to the LSM parameterizations of air-surface exchange. However, given the scarcity of observational surface energy budget data, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the various LSMs. This is especially true in regions of complex terrain where forecast errors are greater and more common. 

In connection with the ongoing Wind Forecast Improvement Project 2 that seeks to improve wind forecasts in complex terrain, the Air Resources Laboratory Field Research Division has deployed three surface flux stations. Each of these stations are coupled with Stevens HydraProbes that observe soil temperature and moisture at various depths. With these data, an analysis of differences between the HRRR model, which uses the RUC LSM, and observational data from surface flux stations will be shown. It has been found that the HRRR model effectively simulates incoming and outgoing long-wave and short-wave radiation, and sensible heat flux. However, biases exist in latent heat and soil heat flux. Comparisons of observational data to other common land surface models will also be shown.