Project Number: 1265-12130-002-09
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Feb 01, 2007
End Date: Sep 30, 2008

Objective:
Understanding the interaction of the land surface and the atmosphere, in particular cloud formation, is an unresolved problem that limits the accuracy of weather and climate forecasts relevant to agriculture. The land component of the Cloud Land Atmospheric Interaction Campaign (CLASIC) the relationship of clouds and two important land variables, soil moisture and evaporative flux, will be examined. These efforts will determine the level up-scaling/aggregation required in order to understand the impact of landscape changes affecting energy balance/flux partitioning and impact on cloud/atmospheric dynamics. The critical factors that need to me monitored in order to predict the onset of cloud formation will be identified.

Approach:
A one month field campaign will be conducted in the Southern Great Plains region of Oklahoma. Tower observations of surface fluxes including sensible, latent, and CO2 fluxes at four locations with replication (if possible) to obtain a near-continuous monitoring of fluxes for key landuse types from Late Spring to early Fall. Replicate towers will help quantify flux variance within each landuse as well as provide useful statistics for examining differences in fluxes across landuse. Intensive soil moisture for specific regions within the domain using in-situ networks and new aircraft sensors. Intensive soil temperature and measures of ground heat flux using newly designed soil heat flux probes. Regional passive microwave mapping of soil moisture will be conducted using a high altitude aircraft, which will be complemented by satellite studies. Analyses will be conducted cooperatively with other CLASIC scientists focusing on atmospheric and cloud observations.