Evaluation of land surface spin-up and their impacts on hi-resolution convective modeling

In this work we will present results on the impact of different land surface spin-up methods on convective modling. We employed the Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF) coupled to the Land Information System (LIS) through the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF). LIS can ingest numerous satellite and land based observations and use them as forcing in order to spin-up the initial conditions for a land surface model over multi-year periods. We will present a series of case day studies from the coupled modeling system that occurred during the International H2O Project (IHOP). Results indicate a strong sensitivity to length of the LIS spin-up and the resolution of the forcing data used by LIS. The results demonstrate a large improvement in the results using LIS instead of the default initialization system currently in WRF.