Abstract
A regional atmospheric climate model is used toexamine the effect of changes in the roughnesslengths of momentum (z0m) and heat (z0h)on the structure of the lower atmosphere and on thesurface energy fluxes over Antarctica. Fourexperiments were carried out in which z0mand/or z0h were altered with respect to acontrol experiment. The changes consisted of (1) alowering of z0m from a field aggregated froma vegetation map with an orographic correction basedon the European Centre for Medium-Range WeatherForecasts z0m field, to a constant value of10-3 m; and (2) a lowering of z0h from a valueequal to z0m to a constant value of 10-3 mor a value dependent on the wind speed via a surfacerenewal model. A reduction of z0m results in theexpected increase in near-surface wind speed. It alsoresults in an increase in the depth of the layer in whichsouth-easterly near-surface winds prevail, and in adecrease in the strength of the large-scale flow overthe continent, in particular in summer. In theescarpment region a decrease of z0m is foundto result in too high wind speeds. Surface temperatureson average decrease while atmospheric temperaturesincrease, resulting in an increase of near-surfacestatic stability. Changes in roughness lengths donot significantly change the temperature profiles.The surface fluxes, on average found reduced, aremodelled best by using the z0h based on thesurface renewal method.
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Reijmer, C.H., Van Meijgaard, E. & Van Den Broeke, M.R. Numerical Studies with a Regional Atmospheric Climate Model Based on Changes in the Roughness Length for Momentum and Heat Over Antarctica. Boundary-Layer Meteorology 111, 313–337 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BOUN.0000016470.23403.ca
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BOUN.0000016470.23403.ca