The Characteristics and Controlling Factors of Water and Heat Exchanges over the Alpine Wetland in the East of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Alpine wetland is one of the typical underlying surfaces on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.It plays a crucial role in runoff regulation.Investigations on the mechanisms of water and heat exchanges are necessary to understand the land surface processes over the alpine wetland.This study explores the characteristics of hydro-meteorological factors with in situ observations and uses the Community Land Model 5 to identify the main factors controlling water and heat exchanges.Latent heat flux and thermal roughness length were found to be greater in the warm season(June–August)than in the cold season(December–February),with a frozen depth of 20–40 cm over the alpine wetland.The transfers of heat fluxes were mainly controlled by longwave radiation and air temperature and affected by root distribution.Air pressure and stomatal conductance were also important to latent heat flux,and soil solid water content was important to sensible heat flux.Soil temperature was dominated by longwave radiation and air temperature,with crucial surface parameters of initial soil liquid water content and total water content.The atmospheric control factors transitioned to precipitation and air temperature for soil moisture,especially at the shallow layer(5 cm).Meanwhile,the more influential surface parameters were root distribution and stomatal conductance in the warm season and initial soil liquid water content and total water content in the cold season.This work contributes to the research on the land surface processes over the alpine wetland and is helpful to wetland protection.

Soil hydraulic conductivity and its influence on soil moisture simulations in the source region of the Yellow River——take Maqu as an example

Saturated hydraulic conductivity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity which are influenced by soil are two important factors that affect soil water transport.In this paper,data supplied by the Chinese Academy of Sciences are used to determine true unsaturated hydrology values.Furthermore,in combination with observed,model simulation and experimental data,an improved saturated hydraulic conductivity parameterization scheme is carried out in CLM4.5 at a single point in the summer.The main results show that:(1)After improving saturated hydraulic conductivity in CLM4.5 through a parameterization modification,it is found that shallow layer soil moisture increases compared to the initial value;and(2)The numerical values of unsaturated hydraulic conductivities in the model are obviously larger than experimental values.By substituting the BrooksCorey soil water characteristic curve into the Mualem model,the value of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is modified;(3)By using the modified value,it is found that the attenuating magnitude of simulated soil moisture caused by each rainfall event is reduced.The soil moisture variation in shallow layers(5,10 and 20 cm)could be better displayed.

Evaluating effects of Dielectric Models on the surface soil moisture retrieval in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Based on the measurement of L-band ground-based microwave radiometer(ELBARA-III type)in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and theτ-ωradiative transfer model,this research evaluated the effects of four soil dielectric models,i.e.,Wang-Schmugge,Mironov,Dobson,and Four-phase,on the L-band microwave brightness temperature simulation and soil moisture retrieval.The results show that with the same vegetation and roughness parameterization scheme,the four soil dielectric models display obvious differences in microwave brightness temperature simulation.When the soil moisture is less than 0.23 m3/m3,the simulated microwave brightness temperature in Wang-Schmugge model is significantly different from that of the other three models,with maximum differences of horizontal polarization and vertical polarization reaching 8.0 K and 4.4 K,respectively;when the soil moisture is greater than 0.23 m3/m3,the simulated microwave brightness temperature of Four-phase significantly exceeds that of the other three models;when the soil moisture is saturated,maximum differences in simulated microwave brightness temperature with horizontal polarization and vertical polarization are 6.1 K and 4.8 K respectively,and the four soil dielectric models are more variable in the microwave brightness temperature simulation with horizontal polarization than that with vertical polarization.As for the soil moisture retrieval based on the four dielectric models,the comparison study shows that,under the condition of horizontal polarization,Wang-Schmugge model can reduce the degree of retrieved soil moisture underestimating the observed soil moisture more effectively than other parameterization schemes,while under the condition of vertical polarization,the Mironov model can reduce the degree of retrieved soil moisture overestimating the observed soil moisture.Finally,based on the Wang-Schmugge model and FengYun-3C observation data,the spatial distribution of soil moisture in the study area is retrieved.

An Air-to-Soil Transition Model for Discrete Scattering-Emission Modelling at L-Band

Topsoil structures and inhomogeneous distribution of moisture in the soil volume will induce dielectric discontinuities from air to bulk soil,which in turn may induce multiple and volume scattering and affect the microwave surface emission.In situ ELBARA-Ⅲ L-band radiometer observations of brightness temperature T_(B)^(p) (p=H or V polarization)at the Maqu site on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau are exploited to understand the effect of surface roughness on coherent and incoherent emission processes.Assisted with in situ soil moisture(SM)and temperature profile measurements,this study develops an air-to-soil transition(ATS)model that incorporates the dielectric roughness(i.e.,resulted from fine-scale topsoil structures and the soil volume)characterized by SM and geometric roughness effects,and demonstrates the necessity of the ATS model for modelling L-band T_(B)^(p).The Wilheit(1978)coherent and Lv et al.(2014)incoherent models are compared for determining the dielectric constant of bulk soil in the ATS zone and for calculating soil effective temperature T_(eff).The Tor Vergata discrete scattering model(TVG)integrated with the advanced integral equation model(AIEM)is used as the baseline model configuration for simulating L-band T_(B)^(p).Whereafter,the ATS model is integrated with the foregoing model for assessing its performance.Results show the ATS-based models reduce the underestimation of T_(B)^(p)(≈20-50 K)by the baseline simulations.Being dynamic in nature,the proposed dielectric roughness parameterization in the ATS model significantly improves the ability in interpreting T_(B)^(p) dynamics,which is important for improving SM retrieval at the global scale.