Land-atmosphere interactions

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switchgrass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures, unintended consequences on natural water resources via depletion of soil moisture may offset these benefits. The hydroclimatic impacts associated with perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the contiguous United States are quantified using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model dynamically coupled to a land surface model (LSM). A suite of continuous (2000–09) medium-range resolution (20-km grid spacing) ensemble-based simulations is conducted using seasonally evolving biophysical representation of perennial bioenergy cropping systems within the LSM based on observational data. Deployment is c...

Continuous and uncontrolled extraction of groundwater often creates tremendous pressure on groundwater levels (GWLs). As a part of sustainable planning and effective management of water resources, it is crucial to assess the existing and forecasted GWL conditions. In this study, an attempt was made to model and forecast GWL using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and multivariate time series models. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and ARIMA models incorporating exogenous variables (ARIMAX) were adopted as the time series models. GWL data from five monitoring wells from the study area of the Kushtia District in Bangladesh were used to demonstrate the modeling exercise. Rainfall (RF) was taken as the exogenous variable to explore whether its inclusion enhanced the performance of GWL forecasting using the developed models. It was evident from the results that the multivariate ARIMAX model (with the sum of squared errors, SSE, of 15.143) performed better than the univariate ARIMA model with an SSE of 16.585 for GWL forecasting. This demonstrates the fact that the multivariate time series models generated enhanced forecasting of GWL compared to the univariate time series models. When comparing the models, it was found that the ANN-based model outperformed the time series models with enhanced forecasting accuracy (SSE of 9.894). The results also exhibit a significant correlation coefficient (R) of 0.995 (model ANN 6-8-1) for the existing and predicted data. The current study conclusively proves the superiority of ANN over the time series models for the enhanced forecasting of GWL in the study area.

We used a controlled‐environment leaf gas‐exchange system and the micrometeorological technique eddy covariance to determine whether circadian rhythms constrain the rates of leaf and canopy gas exchange in an Amazonian forest over a day. When exposed to continuous and constant light for 20 to 48 hours leaves of eleven of seventeen species reduced their photosynthetic rates and closed their stomata during the normally dark period and resumed active gas exchange during the normally light period. Similarly, the rate of whole‐forest CO2 uptake at a predetermined irradiance declined during the late afternoon and early morning and increased during the middle of the day. We attribute these cycles to circadian rhythms that are analogous to ones that have been reported for herbaceous plants in the laboratory. The importance of endogenous gas exchange rhythms presents a previously unrecognized challenge for efforts to both interpret and model land‐atmosphere energy and mass exchange.

This paper presents a multi-criteria analysis that explores the sensitivity of the land surface to changes in both land and atmospheric parameters, in terms of reproducing surface heat fluxes and ground temperature; for the land parameters, offline sensitivity analyses were also conducted for comparison to infer the influence of land-atmosphere

This paper presents a multi-criteria analysis that explores the sensitivity of the land surface to changes in both land and atmospheric parameters, in terms of reproducing surface heat fluxes and ground temperature; for the land parameters, offline sensitivity analyses were also conducted for comparison to infer the influence of land-atmosphere

Key Points Spatial variability in the land‐atmosphere coupling defines local heatwave sensitivity to antecedent land surface conditions Land‐driven coupling regions experience a higher heatwave day frequency with temperatures sensitive to prior soil moisture conditions Antecedent soil moisture anomaly rather than drying rate 2 weeks prior to a heatwave has a longer impact on heatwave temperatures

Land use change for bioenergy feedstocks is likely to intensify as energy demand rises simultaneously with increased pressure to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Initial assessments of the impact of adopting bioenergy crops as a significant energy source have largely focused on the potential for bioenergy agroecosystems to provide global-scale climate regulating ecosystem services via biogeochemical processes. Such as those processes associated with carbon uptake, conversion, and storage that have the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). However, the expansion of bioenergy crops can also lead to direct biophysical impacts on climate through water regulating services. Perturbations of processes influencing terrestrial energy fluxes can result in impacts on climate and water across a spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. Here, we review the current state of knowledge about biophysical feedbacks between vegetation, water, and climate that would be affected by bioenergy-related land use change. The physical mechanisms involved in biophysical feedbacks are detailed, and interactions at leaf, field, regional, and global spatial scales are described. Locally, impacts on climate of biophysical changes associated with land use change for bioenergy crops can meet or exceed the biogeochemical changes in climate associated with rising GHG's, but these impacts have received far less attention. Realization of the importance of ecosystems in providing services that extend beyond biogeochemical GHG regulation and harvestable yields has led to significant debate regarding the viability of various feedstocks in many locations. The lack of data, and in some cases gaps in knowledge associated with biophysical and biochemical influences on landeatmosphere interactions, can lead to premature policy decisions.

Both the “urban minus rural” (UMR) and the “observation minus reanalysis” (OMR) methods were used to quantify the potential impacts of urbanization on regional temperature changes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area in China. DMSP/OLS nighttime light imagery and population census data were used to classify stations into four classes: rural, small city, medium city, and large city groups. The regional average annual mean temperature was estimated to increase by 0.12°C decade−1derived from urban warming, accounting for 40% of total climate warming from 1960 to 2009 using the UMR method. The OMR method also indicates that rapid urbanization has a significant influence on surface warming trend although the urban warming intensity is dependent on reanalysis dataset. The seasonal cycle patterns from all three datasets are consistent with each other, which is contrary to the UMR result owing to the cooling effect of agriculture activity in the rural stations confusing the UMR re...

The shortwave radiative impacts of unresolved cumulus clouds are investigated using 6-h ensemble simulations performed with the WRF-Solar Model and high-quality observations over the contiguous United States for a 1-yr period. The ensembles use the stochastic kinetic energy backscatter scheme (SKEBS) to account for implicit model uncertainty. Results indicate that parameterizing the radiative effects of both deep and shallow cumulus clouds is necessary to largely reduce (55%) a systematic overprediction of the global horizontal irradiance. Accounting for the model’s effective resolution is necessary to mitigate the underdispersive nature of the ensemble and provide meaningful quantification of the short-range prediction uncertainties.

Based on the results from 11 flux sites during the third Tibetan Plateau (TP) Experiment (TIPEX III), land surface parameters and the turbulence characteristics of the atmospheric surface layer over the TP and surrounding region are analyzed. Monin‐Obukhov similarity theory has been used to calculate the aerodynamic roughness length z0m and the excess resistance to heat transfer kB− 1 = ln(z0m/z0h), and the factors that cause variations of z0m and kB− 1 are investigated. The main drivers for the diurnal variations of surface albedo (α) at different sites are solar elevation, solar radiation, and soil moisture. The eddy correlation method is utilized to inversely calculate bulk transfer coefficients for momentum (CD) and heat (CH) at different sites. The relationships between CD and CH and the wind speed at 10 m follow a power law for unstable stratification. For stable stratification, both CD and CH increase with increasing wind speed when wind speed is less than 5 m/s. Diurnal vari...

Civil society is a space characterized by diversities, tensions and contradictions. Theoretically and practically, it is approached differently in various political traditions and contextsby people in the street, among dynamic groups and movements and by policy-makers at the World Bank. Civil society is an appealing concept at this transitional historical moment. Daniel Bell has noted that the "demand for a return to civil society is a demand for a return to a manageable scale of social life, one which emphasizes voluntary associations, churches and communities, arguing that decisions should be made locally and should not be controlled by the state and its bureaucracy". In exploring the ecumenical relevance of this concept against the backdrop of the institutional crises affecting state and society today, we should take care to affirm the diverse opinions of marginalized and excluded people.

Southeastern South America is influenced by moisture transport from lower latitudes, sustains intense convective storms and is a land–atmosphere coupling hotspot, but the interconnection between these processes is still not well understood. We present the warm‐season diurnal cycle climatology of the atmospheric water balance components in the South American Low‐Level Jet (SALLJ) exit region in northeastern Argentina during 1998–2012. Different precipitation‐based types of events (clear‐sky and rainy days) were explored together with processes tied to the land–atmosphere coupling at the daily scale. Our research was based on simulations with and without soil moisture–atmosphere coupling with the RCA4 regional climate model. A control simulation was compared with a sensitivity simulation where the soil moisture was prescribed with the daily climatological values from the control run. The ERA5 reanalysis and the satellite precipitation products TRMM‐3B42 v7 and CMORPH v1.0 bias‐correct...

Regional climate models (RCMs) include both terrestrial and atmospheric compartments and thereby allow studying land-atmosphere feedback, in particular, the impact of land-use land cover driven by biogeophysical processes on regional climate. In this study, a method is developed to separate the signals from the noise in RCM simulations of the effects of changes in land use, using perturbed initial boundary conditions (PICs). We want to know how many ensemble members are required to identify robust and statistically significant land-use land cover change (LULCC) effects from RCM LULCC studies. The method is applied to a case study of urbanization and deforestation, for which LULCC scenarios are implemented in the RCM Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF). Based on WRF ensemble simulations with PICs for 2010, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is used to identify areas with pronounced effect of an LULCC or, rather, the parametrization of the land-use classes. While in the urbanization scenarios clear and statistically significant signals are found for air temperature and for both latentand sensible heat (SNR values up to 24), the effects are less pronounced for precipitation, and for deforestation in general (SNR values < 1). For the case study of urbanization and precipitation, the impact of the ensemble size is studied in order to derive robust conclusions about the effects of LULCC on precipitation. We conclude that single RCM realizations of different land-use representations are not sufficient to derive LULCC-induced signals, particularly not for precipitation. Small ensemble sizes led to concluding there were significant LULCC-induced precipitation signals, but these disappeared when the ensemble size was increased. Our regional analysis suggests the need for ensemble sizes well above 10 for precipitation.

La neige peut couvrir jusqu&#39;à 40% des terres immergées de l&#39;hémisphère Nord en hiver. De par son influence sur le bilan d&#39;énergie en surface, elle constitue donc une source potentielle de variabilité et de prévisibilité climatique aux échelles mensuelles à saisonnières. Au-delà de ses effets locaux, la couverture neigeuse peut, à l&#39;instar des surfaces océaniques, engendrer des téléconnexions et ainsi moduler le climat de régions plus lointaines. Cette thèse revisite plusieurs aspects des liens neige-climat en utilisant à la fois les jeux de données observées, les simulations réalisées pour le 4ème rapport du Groupe Intergouvernemental d&#39;experts sur l&#39;Evolution du Climat (GIEC), ainsi que le modèle atmosphérique ARPEGE-Climat pour réaliser des tests de sensibilité. L&#39;influence de la neige eurasiatique/himalayenne sur la mousson indienne d&#39;été, largement évoquée dans la littérature, est remise en cause par l&#39;analyse des données observées étendues à ...

This study investigates the sensitivity of daily rainfall rates in regional seasonal simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS) to different cumulus parameterization schemes. Daily rainfall fields were simulated at 24-km resolution using the NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NU-WRF) Model for June–August 2000. Four cumulus parameterization schemes and two options for shallow cumulus components in a specific scheme were tested. The spread in the domain-mean rainfall rates across the parameterization schemes was generally consistent between the entire CONUS and most subregions. The selection of the shallow cumulus component in a specific scheme had more impact than that of the four cumulus parameterization schemes. Regional variability in the performance of each scheme was assessed by calculating optimally weighted ensembles that minimize full root-mean-square errors against reference datasets. The spatial pattern of the seasonally averaged rainfall was insensi...

Civil society is a space characterized by diversities, tensions and contradictions. Theoretically and practically, it is approached differently in various political traditions and contextsby people in the street, among dynamic groups and movements and by policy-makers at the World Bank. Civil society is an appealing concept at this transitional historical moment. Daniel Bell has noted that the "demand for a return to civil society is a demand for a return to a manageable scale of social life, one which emphasizes voluntary associations, churches and communities, arguing that decisions should be made locally and should not be controlled by the state and its bureaucracy". In exploring the ecumenical relevance of this concept against the backdrop of the institutional crises affecting state and society today, we should take care to affirm the diverse opinions of marginalized and excluded people.

The primary aim for this paper is to examine the pattern of rainfall in the western region of Ghana. Data was obtained from the Ghana Meteorological Agency. The sample include January to September pattern of the amount of rainfall, for the years 2006 to 2016. That is nominal daily rainfall recorded (1485) aggregated into monthly rainfall value (99 data point). The analysis includes fitting an auto regression moving average model (ARMA) model for the data. The series was found to be non-stationary which resulted from the presence of a unit root in it. The series became stationary after eliminating the unit root by finding the first difference in the amount of rainfall. The time series component found in the model were a trend and random variation. ARMA (1, 1) which has all parameters significant was fitted for the data and found to be the most               suitable model for the conditional mean. A Ljung Box test statistic of 47.207 with a normalised                BIC of 6.420 and ...

This paper demonstrates a methodology for modeling the groundwater table fluctuations observed in a shallow unconfined aquifer of Bangladesh. For this purpose, Kushtia district of Bangladesh has been selected as a case study area. A groundwater table monitoring well is selected in each upazilla (sub-district) under the study area. The time series water table observations collected on a weekly basis during the period from 1999 to 2006 from each well is used for experiments. Empirical result demonstrates that observed data of groundwater level exhibits cyclic patterns and shows an annual periodicity. Box and Jenkins univariate stochastic models widely known as ARIMA, are applied to simulate groundwater table fluctuations in all monitoring wells under consideration in the study area. The predicted data using the best models are compared to the observed time series and the resulting accuracy is checked using different error parameters. The simulation revealed that ARIMA models generate reasonably accurate forecasts in terms of numerical accuracy. The results also showed that the predicted data represent the actual data very well for each monitoring well.

To solve many problems such as estimation of average monthly river inflow, it is necessary to consider a time-dependent phenomenon which is involved in several factors. So, a stochastic model has to be obtained to calculate the probability of a future amount of inflow. Studying of river behavior and the ability to forecast the future events is a prerequisite for the preparation of optimization models. In the present study, methods for creating, diagnosis and assessing the rate of compatibility with seasonal ARIMA time series models have been&lt;br&gt; provided. It is also supposed that the seasonal classification based on their statistical parameter similarities, could lead to a better normalized series in comparison to the other transformation methods. The discussed methods are suitable for continuous systems. The ARIMA method was used to predict the future amounts of the inflow into the Karaj&lt;br&gt; reservoir by using its previous and present values. For implementing models, fi...

Ecumenical Journey of Churches in the Telugu Region:
Milestones in Two Decades (2001-2021)

This volume presents the origins, various phases of growth, activities and achievements of the ecumenical movement in the Telugu Region covering the States of Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) and Telangana (T.S.) from which emerged the Federation of Telugu Churches (FTC), previously known as the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches (APFC). The FTC is a unique umbrella organization of various Churches and Christian Denominations in the twin Telugu States. It is an ecumenical fellowship of the Archbishops, Bishops and Heads of Churches A.P. and T.S. representing the Christian Community. Notably, APFC / FTC is the first of its kind comprising exclusively of the Archbishops, Bishops, and Heads of mainline Churches and major Christian Denominations. This volume is an official record of APFC /FTC giving its historical account from its beginnings to the present day. It places on record the milestones of APFC /FTC’s ecumenical journey in last two decades covering the period between the years of 2001 – 2021. This volume is a sort of documentary, chronicle, journal and memoirs. It serves as a memorabilia and souvenir. As it shares with us valuable experience of a unique ecumenical movement, this volume can serve as a guide to those interested and involved in ecumenical ministry and in Ecumenical Studies.

Irrigation is a widely used water management practice that is often poorly parameterized in land surface and climate models. Previous studies have addressed this issue via use of irrigation area, applied water inventory data, or soil moisture content. These approaches have a variety of drawbacks including data latency, accurately prescribing irrigation intensity, and a lack of conservation of water volume for models using a prescribed soil moisture approach. In this study, we parameterize irrigation fluxes using satellite observations of evapotranspiration (ET) compared to ET from a suite of land surface models without irrigation. We then incorporate the irrigation flux into the Community Land Model (CLM) and use a systematic trial-and-error procedure to determine the ground-and surface-water withdrawals that are necessary to balance the new irrigation flux. The resulting CLM simulation with irrigation produces ET that matches the magnitude and seasonality of observed satellite ET well, with a mean difference of 6.3 mm month −1 and a correlation of 0.95. Differences between the new CLM ET values and satellite-observed ET values are always less than 30 mm month −1 and the differences show no pattern with respect to seasonality. The results reinforce the importance of accurately parameterizing anthropogenic hydrologic fluxes into land surface and climate models to assess environmental change under current and future climates and land management regimes.

of global albedo product was produced at 1-km resolution every 16 days from the observations of the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft. We evaluated the quality of the operational albedo retrievals in two ways: (1) by examining the algorithm performance using the product quality assurance (QA) fields (this paper) and (2) by comparing retrieved albedos with those observed at ground stations and by other satellite instruments (in a companion paper). The internal diagnostics of the retrieval algorithm adequately reflect the goodness of the model fit and the random noise amplification in the retrieved albedo. Global QA statistics show that the RossThick-LiSparse-Reciprocal model fits the atmospherically corrected surface reflectances very well, and the random noise amplification factors for white sky albedo and reflectance are generally less than 1.0. Cloud obscuration is the main reason for the activation of the backup magnitude retrieval algorithm. Over the 60°S to 60°N latitude band, 50% of the land pixels acquire more than six clear looks during 14-29 September 2001, and only 5% of these pixels are inverted with the backup algorithm. The latitude dependence and temporal distribution of the QA fields further demonstrate that the retrieval status mainly follows the pattern of angular sampling determined by cloud climatology and the instrument/orbit characteristics. A case study over the west coast of the United States shows that white sky shortwave albedos retrieved from magnitude inversions agree on average with those from full inversions to within 0.033 in reflectance units and have a slightly lower bias ranging from 0.014 to 0.023. We also explored the effect of residual cloud and aerosol contamination in the atmospherically corrected surface reflectance inputs in another case study over southern Africa. The quality assurance procedure of the operational MODIS bidirectional reflectance distribution function and albedo algorithm compensates for some of these residual effects and improves the albedo retrieval results by an order of 0.005 (10%) in the visible for more than 12% of pixels.

Earlier studies of land use land cover change (LULCC) normally used only a specified LULCC map with no interannual variations. In this study, using an Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) coupled with a land surface model, biophysical impacts of LULCC on global and regional climate are investigated by using a LULCC map which covers 63 years from 1948 to 2010 with interannual variation. A methodology has been developed to convert a recently developed LULCC fraction map with 1 × 1 resolution to the AGCM grid points in which only one dominant type is allowed. Comprehensive evaluations are conducted to ensure consistency of the trend of the original LULCC fraction change and the trend of the fraction of grid point changes over different regions. The model was integrated with a potential vegetation map (CTL) and the map with LULCC, in which a set of surface parameters such as leaf area index, albedo and other soil and vegetation parameters were accordingly changed with interannual variation. The results indicate that the interannual LULCC map simulation is able to reproduce better interannual variability of surface temperature and rainfall when compared to the control simulation. LULCC causes negative effect on global precipitation, with the strongest significant signals over degraded regions such as East Asia, West Africa and South America, and some of these changes are consistent with observed regional anomalies for certain time periods. LULCC causes reduction in net radiation and evapotranspiration which leads to changes in monsoon circulation and variation in magnitude and pattern of moisture flux convergence and subsequent reduction in precipitation. Meanwhile, LULCC enhances surface warming during the summer in the LULCC regions due to greatly reduced evapotranspiration. In contradiction to the surface, upper troposphere temperatures are cool because of less latent heat released into the upper troposphere, which leads to weaker circulation in LULCC regions.

Seven operative thermal infrared (TIR) spectrometers launched at sun-synchronous polar orbits supply huge amounts of information about Arctic methane (CH4) year-round, day and night. TIR data are unique for estimating CH4 emissions from a warming Arctic, both terrestrial and marine. This report is based on publicly available CH4 concentrations retrieved by NOAA and NASA from spectra of TIR radiation delivered by EU IASI and US AIRS sounders. Data were filtered for high thermal contrast in the troposphere. Validation versus aircraft measurements at three US continental sites reveal a reduced, but still significant sensitivity to CH4 anomalies in the troposphere below 4 km of altitude. The focus area is the Barents and Kara seas (BKS). BKS is impacted with warm Atlantic water and mostly free of sea ice. It is a shelf area with vast deposits of oil and natural gas (~90% CH4), as well as methane hydrates and submarine permafrost. Although in summer AIRS and IASI observe no significant d...

CONCLUSIONS 1. IASI data show an acceleration of methane concentration growth after 2014 and provide evidence of significant (~ 40% of the Arctic flux from land annually) methane flux from the Arctic seas, mostly in winter. 2.Intensification of seawater mixing due to cooling surface combined with stormy weather after November may explain seasonality in emissions. 3.Methane hydrates seem the most likely explanation of the emission for most of source areas. 4. Methane anomalies over sea were growing with time after 2014. 5. The observed amplification of global and Arctic CH 4 may be a realization of a positive feedback with temperature.

Improper initialization of numerical models can cause spurious trends in the output, inviting erroneous interpretations of the earth system processes that one wishes to study. In particular, soil moisture memory is considerable, so that accurate initialization of this variable in land surface models (LSMs) is critical. The most commonly employed method for initializing an LSM is to spin up by looping through a single year repeatedly until a predefined equilibrium is achieved. The downside to this technique, when applied to continental- to global-scale simulations, is that regional annual anomalies in the meteorological forcing accumulate as artificial anomalies in the land surface states, including soil moisture. Nine alternative approaches were tested and compared using the Mosaic LSM and 15 yr of global meteorological forcing. Results indicate that the most efficient way to initialize an LSM, if possible and given that multiple years of preceding forcing are not available, is to u...

I would like to dedicate this thesis to my wife Rachel and to my Lord and Savior Jesus without whose support I would not have been able to complete this thesis. I would also like to thank my Iowa State colleagues, friends, and family for their encouragement and help through the process.

Due to rapid economic development, China has experienced one of the greatest rates of change in land use=land cover during the last two decades. This change is mainly urban expansion and cultivated land reduction in urban growth regions, both of which play an important role in regional climate change. In this paper, the variation of the urban heat island (UHI) caused by urbanization has been evaluated with an analysis of land use change in China. First, meteorological observation stations were grouped by different land cover types (dry land, paddy field, forest, grassland, water field, urban, rural inhabitable area, industrial and mineral land, and waste land) throughout China. These stations were subdivided into urban and non-urban classes. Then, a new method was proposed to determine the UHI intensity from the difference between the observed and the interpolated air temperature of urban type weather stations. The results indicate that the trends of UHI intensity in different land use change regions are spatially correlated with regional land use and its change pattern. During 1991-2000, the estimated UHI intensity has increased by 0.11 C per decade in the spring and has fluctuated in other seasons throughout China resulting from land use change.

Human demand for food influences the water cycle through diversion and extraction of fresh water needed to support agriculture. Future population growth and economic development alone will substantially increase water demand and much of it for agricultural uses. For many semi-arid lands, socio-economic shifts are likely to exacerbate changes in climate as a driver of future water supply and demand. For these areas in particular, where the balance between water supply and demand is fragile, variations in regional climate can have potentially predictable effect on agricultural production. Satellite data and biophysically-based models provide a powerful method to quantify the interactions between local climate, plant growth and water resource requirements. In irrigated agricultural lands, satellite observations indicate high vegetation density while the precipitation amount indicates otherwise. This inconsistency between the observed precipitation and the observed canopy leaf density t...

Land use change for bioenergy feedstocks is likely to intensify as energy demand rises simultaneously with increased pressure to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Initial assessments of the impact of adopting bioenergy crops as a significant energy source have largely focused on the potential for bioenergy agroecosystems to provide global-scale climate regulating ecosystem services via biogeochemical processes. Such as those processes associated with carbon uptake, conversion, and storage that have the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). However, the expansion of bioenergy crops can also lead to direct biophysical impacts on climate through water regulating services. Perturbations of processes influencing terrestrial energy fluxes can result in impacts on climate and water across a spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. Here, we review the current state of knowledge about biophysical feedbacks between vegetation, water, and climate that would be affected by bioenergy-related land use change. The physical mechanisms involved in biophysical feedbacks are detailed, and interactions at leaf, field, regional, and global spatial scales are described. Locally, impacts on climate of biophysical changes associated with land use change for bioenergy crops can meet or exceed the biogeochemical changes in climate associated with rising GHG's, but these impacts have received far less attention. Realization of the importance of ecosystems in providing services that extend beyond biogeochemical GHG regulation and harvestable yields has led to significant debate regarding the viability of various feedstocks in many locations. The lack of data, and in some cases gaps in knowledge associated with biophysical and biochemical influences on landeatmosphere interactions, can lead to premature policy decisions.

Arturo Leon, for their encouragement, insightful comments, and suggestions. My sincere thanks also go to Kevin Knuss for providing me with WRF results, programming help, and continuous support on completing my research project. I thank David Hoekema for proof reading the thesis and the stimulating discussions on research topics. Thanks to Manogya Khanal for her support with data processing. Dr. Rick Allen and Dr. Wenguang Zhao are greatly appreciated for providing us with the valuable site data for this study. Thank you to Bill Kramber at Idaho Department of Water Resources, for providing processed METRIC images. I would like to thank my husband and parents for their support and encouragement throughout the whole process. I would also like to express my appreciation for the financial support given by the NSF Idaho EPSCoR Program and by the National Science Foundation under award number EPS-0814387 and Idaho NASA EPSCoR Fellowship under the contract number NNX07AL05A.

In this paper our main goal is to study the climatology and variability of the frequency of thunderstorm days over Bangladesh region throughout the year. It has been found that the mean thunderstorm days increase significantly from March to May, i.e. during the pre-monsoon season, although the graphical devices show that there does not seem to be much deviation from the occurrences of thunderstorms each year. The mean monthly and seasonal thunderstorm days were maximum in 1993, followed by that in 1997; whereas it was a minimum in the year 1980, with an extension in its frequency in the subsequent years 1981 and 1982. The coefficient of variation of both annual and seasonal thunderstorm days is minimum over the areas of maximum frequency of mean thunderstorm days and vice-versa. The time-domain analysis confirms that the occurrence happened to be maximum in the year 1991, although each and every state did not witness thunderstorms every year. Also some other time-domain models like ...

The extent to which an urbanization effect has contributed to climate warming is under debate in China. Some previous studies have shown that the urban heat island (UHI) contribution to national warming was substantial (10%–40%). However, by considering the spatial scale of urbanization effects, this study indicates that the UHI contribution is negligible (less than 1%). Urban areas constitute only 0.7% of the whole of China. According to the proportions of urban and rural areas used in this study, the weighted urban and rural temperature averages reduced the estimated total warming trend and also reduced the estimated urban effects. Conversely, if all stations were arithmetically averaged, that is, without weighting, the total warming trend and urban effects will be overestimated as in previous studies because there are more urban stations than rural stations in China. Moreover, the urban station proportion (68%) is much higher than the urban area proportion (0.7%).

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Generally, surface and air temperatures seem closely related but we show that they respond differently to evaporative conditions. We evaluate the temperature increase in response to solar radiation for different evaporative fractions, using observations from the Southern Great Plains. The warming rate of air temperature decreases only by 1.7 × 10 −3 K/(W m −2) from dry to moist conditions compared to a stronger reduction by 14 × 10 −3 K/(W m −2) for surface temperature. The weaker response of air temperature to evaporative fraction is explained by the larger growth of boundary layer on drier days, which suppresses the warming of air. Estimates based on this explanation reproduce the warming rate of air temperature in observations. Our results show that diurnal variations of surface temperatures contain imprints of evapotranspiration while air temperatures do not. These findings appear important to be considered when using, analyzing, or interpreting temperature data in studies dealing with climate change, hydrology, or land-atmosphere interactions. Plain Language Summary Surface and air temperatures are measured just 2 m apart, so it might seem that they carry the same information. Here we show that these temperature measurements respond rather differently to whether the surface evaporates or not. To show this, we use data from a well-equipped measurement site in the Central United States and calculate the rates by which the surface and the air warm in response to solar radiation. We found that the surface temperature responds about 8 times stronger to evaporation than air temperature. We explain this weaker response of air temperature by the stronger growth of the boundary layer without evaporation. This results in a deeper, well-mixed boundary layer that does not warm as strongly. What our results imply is that evaporation may be inferred from surface temperatures, but not from air temperatures.

Stochastic models (time series models) have been proposed as one technique to generate scenarios of future climate change. Precipitation, temperature and evaporation are among the main indicators in climate study. The goal of this study is the simulation and modeling of climatic parameters such as annual precipitation, temperature and evaporation using stochastic methods (time series analysis). The 40-year data of precipitation and 37-year data of temperature and evaporation at Jelogir Majin station (upstream of Karkheh dam reservoir) in western of Iran has been used in this study and based on ARIMA model, The auto-correlation and partial auto-correlation methods, assessment of parameters and types of model, the suitable models to forecast annual precipitation, temperature and evaporation were obtained. After model validation and evaluation, the Predicting was made for the ten future years (2006 to 2015). In view of the Predicting made, the precipitation amounts will be decreased th...

In previous studies, a zonally symmetric, synchronously coupled biosphereatmosphere model (ZonalBAM), which includes explicit representation of ecosystem dynamics, has been developed and validated based on current conditions over the region of West Africa. Here, we use ZonalBAM to study the response of the coupled biosphereatmosphere system to changes in the Earth's orbital forcing during the Middle Holocene (6K yrs BP) and the relative contribution of vegetation feedbacks. Simulations in which vegetation conditions were fixed to the current distribution, show that an orbitally induced increased seasonality in insolation for the Middle Holocene, by itself, results in a 1.1°n orthward shift in the location of the southern margin of the Sahara as compared to current solar forcings. When vegetation is allowed to be dynamic, a 2.4°northward shift is simulated. However, when dynamic vegetation is initialized to palaeovegetation, a 5.1°n orthward shift is simulated, bringing results more consistent with palaeoevidence. Based on previous studies on the role of the gradient of moist static energy on the dynamics of large-scale tropical circulations, a mechanism for the enhancement of the summer monsoon circulation has been developed. Our results suggest that multiple equilibria could have coexisted over the region of West Africa during the Middle Holocene. Furthermore, based on previous studies on the current climate over the region, we hypothesize that transitions between the different equilibria could have taken place during the Middle Holocene causing the southern desert margin to migrate between 18.1°N and 21.4°N and shaping climate variability.

The Radiation Transfer Model Intercomparison (RAMI) initiative is a communitydriven exercise to benchmark the models of radiation transfer (RT) used to represent the reflectance of terrestrial surfaces. Systematic model intercomparisons started in 1999 as a self-organized, open-access, voluntary activity of the RT modeling community. The results of the first phase were published by . The present paper describes the benchmarking protocol and the results achieved during the second phase, which took place during 2002. This second phase included two major components: The first one included a rerun of all direct-mode tests proposed during the first phase, to accommodate the evaluation of models that have been upgraded since, and the participation of new models into the entire exercise. The second component was designed to probe the performance of three-dimensional models in complex heterogeneous environments, which closely mimic the observations of actual space instruments operating at various spatial resolutions over forest canopy systems. Phases 1 and 2 of RAMI both confirm not only that a majority of the radiation transfer models participating in RAMI are in good agreement between themselves for relatively simple radiation transfer problems but also that these models exhibit significant discrepancies when considering more complex but nevertheless realistic geophysical scenarios. Specific recommendations are provided to guide the future of this benchmarking program (Phase 3 and beyond).

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switchgrass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures, unintended consequences on natural water resources via depletion of soil moisture may offset these benefits. The hydroclimatic impacts associated with perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the contiguous United States are quantified using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model dynamically coupled to a land surface model (LSM). A suite of continuous (2000–09) medium-range resolution (20-km grid spacing) ensemble-based simulations is conducted using seasonally evolving biophysical representation of perennial bioenergy cropping systems within the LSM based on observational data. Deployment is c...

In regions of strong Land-Atmosphere (L-A) interaction, soil moisture (SM) conditions can impact the atmosphere through modulating the land surface fluxes. The importance of the identification of L-A interaction regions lies in the potential improvement of the weather/seasonal forecast and the better understanding of the physical mechanisms involved. This study aims to compare the terrestrial segment of the L-A interaction from satellite products and climate models, motivated by previous modeling studies pointing out southeastern South America (SESA) as a L-A hotspot during austral summer. In addition, the L-A interaction under dry or wet anomalous conditions over SESA is analyzed. To identify L-A hotspots the AMSRE-LPRM SM and MODIS land surface temperature products; coupled climate models and uncoupled land surface models were used. SESA highlights as a strong L-A interaction hotspot when employing different metrics, temporal scales and independent datasets, showing consistency between models and satellite estimations. Both AMSRE-LPRM bands (X and C) are consistent showing a strong L-A interaction hotspot over the Pampas ecoregion. Intensification and a larger spatial extent of the L-A interaction for dry summers was observed in both satellite products and models compared to wet summers. These results, which were derived from measured physical variables, are encouraging and promising for future studies analyzing L-A interactions. L-A interaction analysis is proposed here as a meeting point between remote sensing and climate modelling communities of Argentina, within a region with the highest agricultural and livestock production of the continent, but with an important lack of in-situ SM observations.

Civil society is a space characterized by diversities, tensions and contradictions. Theoretically and practically, it is approached differently in various political traditions and contextsby people in the street, among dynamic groups and movements and by policy-makers at the World Bank. Civil society is an appealing concept at this transitional historical moment. Daniel Bell has noted that the "demand for a return to civil society is a demand for a return to a manageable scale of social life, one which emphasizes voluntary associations, churches and communities, arguing that decisions should be made locally and should not be controlled by the state and its bureaucracy". In exploring the ecumenical relevance of this concept against the backdrop of the institutional crises affecting state and society today, we should take care to affirm the diverse opinions of marginalized and excluded people.

In this paper our main goal is to study the climatology and variability of the frequency of thunderstorm days over Bangladesh region throughout the year. It has been found that the mean thunderstorm days increase significantly from March to May, i.e. during the pre-monsoon season, although the graphical devices show that there does not seem to be much deviation from the occurrences of thunderstorms each year. The mean monthly and seasonal thunderstorm days were maximum in 1993, followed by that in 1997; whereas it was a minimum in the year 1980, with an extension in its frequency in the subsequent years 1981 and 1982. The coefficient of variation of both annual and seasonal thunderstorm days is minimum over the areas of maximum frequency of mean thunderstorm days and vice-versa. The time-domain analysis confirms that the occurrence happened to be maximum in the year 1991, although each and every state did not witness thunderstorms every year. Also some other time-domain models like ...

The Church of South India (CSI) celebrates every year i.e., the 27 th of September, 1947, as its founding or formation day, nonetheless has been historic and momentous for the CSI-ans in view of the fact that on that day different denominations had come together merged as one single entity. In few months' time CSI is going to enter 75 years old. Every year the custodians of CSI lauds the merger or to put it simply the union as the work of the Holy Spriit. Every year CSI-Synod and its member churches celebrates the formation day with pomp and glory. Celebrations and special programs are organized across South India. Those responsible for