Simulation Study on Ground Surface Water and Energy Balance in Arid and Semiarid Areas

Simulation study on the surface energy budget, especially of bare soil in arid and semi-arid areas is important for climate change simulation and weather forecast. In this study, a 1-D soil model was evaluated at Dongsu station and Audubon Research Ranch in arid and semiarid area, where their land covers are sparse grass or bare soil during simulation period. Comparisons of simulation results by this soil model were made between two parameterizations of surface thermal roughness length (Z98 and Y08 schemes) against observations from the two sites. The results show that the Y08 scheme makes the soil model produce a better performance than the Z98 for simulation of net radiation flux, sensible heat flux, soil heat flux and surface temperature at the two sites. In a conclusion, the soil model employing Y08 scheme is capable of providing good simulation of surface energy balance.