Journal Article

FZJ-2014-05485

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png The concept of dual-boundary forcing in land surface-subsurface interactions of the terrestrial hydrologic and energy cycles

Rahman, M. (Corresponding Author) ; Sulis, M. ; Kollet, S.FZJ*

2014
AGU Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/17065  doi:10.1002/2014WR015738

Abstract: Terrestrial hydrological processes interact in a complex, non-linear fashion. It is important to quantify these interactions to understand the overall mechanisms of the coupled water and energy cycles. In this study, the concept of a dual boundary forcing is proposed that connects the variability of atmospheric (upper boundary) and subsurface (lower boundary) processes to the land surface mass and energy balance components. According to this concept, the space-time patterns of land surface mass and energy fluxes can be explained by the variability of the dominating boundary condition for the exchange processes, which is determined by moisture and energy availability. A coupled subsurface-land surface model is applied on the Rur catchment, Germany, to substantiate the proposed concept. Spectral and geostatistical analysis on the observations and model results show the coherence of different processes at various space-time scales in the hydrological cycle. The spectral analysis shows that atmospheric radiative forcing generally drives the variability of the land surface energy fluxes at the daily time scale, while influence of subsurface hydrodynamics is significant at monthly to multi-month time scales under moisture limited conditions. The geostatistical analysis demonstrates that atmospheric forcing and groundwater control the spatial variability of land surface processes under energy and moisture limited conditions, respectively. These results suggest that under moisture limited conditions, groundwater influences the variability of the land surface mass and energy fluxes. Under energy limited conditions, on the contrary, variability of land surface processes can be explained by atmospheric forcing alone.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Agrosphäre (IBG-3)

Research Program(s):

1. 246 - Modelling and Monitoring Terrestrial Systems: Methods and Technologies (POF2-246) (POF2-246)
2. 255 - Terrestrial Systems: From Observation to Prediction (POF3-255) (POF3-255)

Appears in the scientific report 2014

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Database coverage:
; ; Current Contents - Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences ; Current Contents - Engineering, Computing and Technology ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; NCBI Molecular Biology Database ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Thomson Reuters Master Journal List ; Web of Science Core Collection

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