How are Land Properties in a Climate Model Coupled through the Boundary Layer to Affect the Amazon Hydrological Cycle?
Robert
Earl
Dickinson, Gatech, robted@eas.gatech.edu
(Presenting)
Climate modelers have frequently considered how land use change in the Amazon would impact aspects of the Amazon hydrological cycle such as its precipitation and evapotranspiration. Their simulations have given a wide variety of answers. We look at the processes by which land links to the atmospheric hydrological cycle and argue that these are more complex in detail than what is currently assumed by climate models. Thus, we argue that the parameterizations of boundary layer, clouds, and moist convection in climate models need to be advanced to better match the requirement of their land component. Convection parameterizations need to move beyond a single mass flux controlled by CAPE to pdfs of convective cells with spatial scaling properties. These would allow us to have more confidence in our modeling of the hydrologic response to Amazon land properties.