Surface Temperature Calculation in Atmospheric Circulation Models with Coarse Resolution of the Boundary Layer

Abstract

A parameterization of the surface nocturnal inversion of temperature is proposed to enable atmospheric circulation models to handle the surface energy budget without having to resolve the boundary layer. The scheme allows a wide range of vertical resolutions for the host model. The principle is to replace the traditional instantaneous flux-profile relationship in the surface layer by a time integrated heat conservation equation linking the surface heat flux to the amplitude and thickness of the temperature inversion. The model is able to reproduce successfully the mean diurnal cycle of the Wangara data, using the observed vertical profiles to simulate atmospheric models with various resolutions. Unbiased surface temperature results are obtained from runs in which the information from the host model is taken at a height ranging from 40 to 625 m above the surface.