Mapping global land surface albedo from NOAA AVHRR

Csiszar, Ivan; Gutman, Graciela E.

doi:10.1029/1998jd200090

Cited by 143 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The albedo dataset provided 292 with WRF for the NOAH LSM is the NESDIS/NOAA 0.144° monthly 5-year 293 climatology surface albedo derived from the AVHRR satellite (henceforth AVHRR 294 product; Csiszar and Gutman 1999). The error analysis performed in Csiszar and 295 Gutman (1999) suggests that the AVHRR surface albedo is retrieved with 10 to 15% 296 relative accuracy. The simulation using this prescribed albedo is referred as ALB2 297…”

Section: Resolution Radiometer (Avhrr) Vegetation Index 290mentioning

confidence: 99%

Roles of land surface albedo and horizontal resolution on the Indian summer monsoon biases in a coupled ocean–atmosphere tropical-channel model

et al. 2016

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precipitations are underestimated over India while they are overestimated over the 37 southwestern Indian Ocean, South-East Asia and the Maritime Continent. The ISM 38 onset is delayed by several weeks, an error which is also very common in current 39 CGCMs. 40We show that land surface temperature errors are a major source of the ISM 41 low-level circulation and rainfall biases in our model: a cold bias over the East (ME) region weakens the Findlater jet while a warm bias over India strengthens 43 the monsoon circulation over the southern Bay of Bengal. A surface radiative heat 44 budget analysis reveals that the cold bias is due to an overestimated albedo in this 45 desertic ME region. Two new simulations using a satellite-observed land albedo show 46 a significant and robust improvement in terms of ISM circulation and precipitation. 47Furthermore, the ISM onset is shifted back by one month and becomes in phase with 48 observations. Finally, a supplementary set of simulations at 0.25°-resolution confirms 49 the robustness of our results and shows an additional reduction of the warm and dry 50 bias over India. These findings highlight the strong sensitivity of the simulated ISM 51 rainfall and its onset timing to the surface land heating pattern and amplitude, 52 especially in the ME region. It also illustrates the key-role of land surface processes 53 and horizontal resolution for improving the ISM representation, and more generally 54 the monsoons, in current CGCMs. 55 56 57 Keywords 58Indian Summer Monsoon; land surface albedo; horizontal resolution; 59 precipitation biases; monsoon onset; CGCM 60 3 Introduction 61 62The Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM; see Table 1 for acronyms) brings 63 substantial rainfall from June to September to some of the world most populated 64 regions, whose economy relies mainly on agriculture and water resources. But despite 65 recent progress in our understanding of mechanisms driving ISM precipitation, 66Coupled General Circulation Models (CGCMs) are still not able to correctly represent 67 its main spatial and temporal characteristics (Sperber et al. 2013) and the skill of 68 seasonal ISM predictions by dynamical or statistical models remains currently very 69 low, contrary to what is observed in other tropical regions (Wang et al. 2015). 70While some improvements have been achieved with the last generation of 71CGCMs, especially in terms of intraseasonal variability (Abhik et al. 2014, Sabeerali 72 et al. 2013, some basic features of the ISM, such as the onset or 73 the rainfall spatial distribution, are still poorly captured with a persisting (wet) dry 74 bias over (ocean) land (see Fig. 2 of Sperber et al. 2013). 75The limited horizontal resolution of CGCMs is frequently listed as a major 76 caveat because current coarse atmospheric models cannot properly resolve orography 77 2013) or convection (Pattnaik et al. 2013, Ganai et al. 2015, which all significantly 80 contribute to the total ISM rainfall, especially in the monsoon trough region. 81Regional Climate Models (RCMs) al...

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Section: Resolution Radiometer (Avhrr) Vegetation Index 290mentioning

confidence: 99%

Roles of land surface albedo and horizontal resolution on the Indian summer monsoon biases in a coupled ocean–atmosphere tropical-channel model

et al. 2016

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“…Our representation of albedo is based on a monthly, five-yr, 0.144°clima-tological dataset assumed to be valid at the 15th of each month, with global coverage (16,29). This albedo dataset implicitly includes variable vegetation density effects, thereby accounting for both soil and vegetated contributions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct climate effects of perennial bioenergy crops in the United States

Georgescu

Lobell

Field

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

203

167

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Biomass-derived energy offers the potential to increase energy security while mitigating anthropogenic climate change, but a successful path toward increased production requires a thorough accounting of costs and benefits. Until recently, the efficacy of biomass-derived energy has focused primarily on biogeochemical consequences. Here we show that the biogeophysical effects that result from hypothetical conversion of annual to perennial bioenergy crops across the central United States impart a significant local to regional cooling with considerable implications for the reservoir of stored soil water. This cooling effect is related mainly to local increases in transpiration, but also to higher albedo. The reduction in radiative forcing from albedo alone is equivalent to a carbon emissions reduction of 78 t C ha −1 , which is six times larger than the annual biogeochemical effects that arise from offsetting fossil fuel use. Thus, in the near-term, the biogeophysical effects are an important aspect of climate impacts of biofuels, even at the global scale. Locally, the simulated cooling is sufficiently large to partially offset projected warming due to increasing greenhouse gases over the next few decades. These results demonstrate that a thorough evaluation of costs and benefits of bioenergyrelated land-use change must include potential impacts on the surface energy and water balance to comprehensively address important concerns for local, regional, and global climate change.regional climate modeling | agriculture | landscape modification | CO2 S ecuring energy independence and lessening the human fingerprint on climate are two principal motivations behind increased production of bioenergy. Recognition of the full array of costs and benefits of increased production, such as effects on energy and food security, anthropogenic climate change mitigation, and maintenance of biodiversity, will assist in realization of principal objectives (1-8). Prior research gauging the effectiveness of bioenergy has estimated potential impacts based on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission changes through direct or indirect land-use change (LUC) and by means of life cycle analysis (LCA). In addition to impacts on GHGs, LUC also modifies the surface energy and water balance (9), with implications for near-surface temperature and precipitation, and serves as an additional first-order climate forcing on global (10, 11) and regional (9, 12) spatial scales.One of the main proposed strategies for bioenergy production is widespread planting and harvesting of perennial grasses, such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) or miscanthus (Miscanthus X giganteus). One LCA study suggested that net GHG savings relative to fossil fuels of greater than 200 g CO 2 e-C m −2 yr −1 may be expected for biomass (switchgrass) conversion to ethanol (13) (roughly double for hybrid poplar). Potential mitigation, however, is complicated by variability in inventory components and system boundaries (i.e., LCA methodology) that leads to GHG displacement estimates that diffe...

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“…A detailed description of the AVHRR retrieval is given by Gutman et al (1995) and Csiszar and Gutman (1999). The data set used in this study reports five year averaged values (September 1985(September -1987(September , 1989(September -1990, and contains the direct component of the albedo (similar to the MODIS black-sky albedo) in a broadband covering the spectral range 0.35-3.0 µm at a resolution of 0.25 • .…”

Section: Surface Albedomentioning

confidence: 99%

The direct radiative effect of biomass burning aerosols over southern Africa

et al. 2005

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Abstract.A multi-column radiative transfer code is used to assess the direct radiative effect of biomass burning aerosols over the southern African region during September. The horizontal distribution of biomass smoke is estimated from two sources; i) General Circulation Model (GCM) simulations combined with measurements from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) of Sun photometers; ii) data from the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) satellite. Aircraft and satellite measurements are used to constrain the cloud fields, aerosol optical properties, vertical structure, and land surface albedo included in the model. The net regional direct effect of the biomass smoke is −3.1 to −3.6 Wm −2 at the top of atmosphere, and −14.4 to −17.0 Wm −2 at the surface for the MODIS and GCM distributions of aerosol. The direct radiative effect is shown to be highly sensitive to the prescribed vertical profiles and aerosol optical properties. The diurnal cycle of clouds and the spectral dependency of surface albedo are also shown to play an important role.

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Mapping global land surface albedo from NOAA AVHRR

Cited by 143 publications

References 53 publications

Roles of land surface albedo and horizontal resolution on the Indian summer monsoon biases in a coupled ocean–atmosphere tropical-channel model

Roles of land surface albedo and horizontal resolution on the Indian summer monsoon biases in a coupled ocean–atmosphere tropical-channel model

Direct climate effects of perennial bioenergy crops in the United States

The direct radiative effect of biomass burning aerosols over southern Africa

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