1. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Response of Atmospheric Model Predictions at Different Grid Resolutions Maudood Khan *, Arastoo Biazar, Bill Crosson and Mohammad Alhamdan National Space Science and Technology Center, George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35805 6 th Annual Community Modeling and Analysis Systems (CMAS) conference October 1-3, 2007, Chapel Hill, NC

2. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Outline Background Research – Application to Atlanta –“Development and Validation of Improved Air Quality Modeling system using High Resolution Remote sensing data” NLCD vs. USGS –Differences in classification –Statistics –Spatial plots (at 36-km and 12-km resolution) Preliminary meteorological modeling (i.e., WRF) at 36- km grid resolution –Skin and 2-m temperature –Wind speed and direction Next steps

3. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Land surface characterization in atmospheric models Land surface characteristics (e.g., albedo, surface roughness, fractional vegetative cover) exert a significant influence on the surface energy budget –Most atmospheric models employ the 24-category USGS dataset –Seasonal or monthly values for these parameters are defined within meteorological models as a function of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) type via a lookup table Objective: Improve the Air Quality Management Decision Support System (AQMDSS) through use high resolution LULC data –Improvement in baseline model predictions Process high resolution LULC data for the domain Conduct meteorological and air quality modeling simulations and quantify the improvement in model predictions –Improved decision making Predict future LULC change due to urbanization Conduct meteorological and air quality modeling simulations and quantify the resulting changes in urban meteorology and air quality Evaluate Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies

4. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Urban Crops/Pasture Mosaic Grass/Crops Mosaic Woodland/Crops Mosaic Shrubs Deciduous Forest Evergreen Forest Mixed Forest Water USGS LULC aggregated to 4 km Combined NLCD and LandPro99 LULC aggregated to 4 km ‘Crops/Pasture Mosaic’ ‘Medium Density Residential’ Low Density Residential Med. Density Residential High Density Residential Commercial/Services Institutional TCU Industrial/Commercial Water Crops/Pasture Row Crops Deciduous Forest Evergreen Forest Mixed Forest Woody Wetlands Quarries/Mines/Gravel Pits Transitional

5. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 10m air temperature 17 August, 2000 @ 21 UTC °C

6. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 9 day mean difference in PBL heights (NLCD/LandPro99 – USGS) 2:00 PM7:00 PM

7. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 9-day mean surface winds at 7pm USGSNLCD/LandPro99

8. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL On-going work Implementation of NLCD within WRF and CMAQ modeling system Science/modeling question: –Boundary layer evolution over urban and sub- urban areas and its effect on the vertical distribution of pollutants (especially at night) Applied science/regulatory issue: –Urbanization and its effect on local climate, air pollution and energy demand

9. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL USGS: 24 category NLCD

10. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL MM5/WRF look-up tables LANDUSE.TBL VEGPARAM.TBL SOILPARAM.TBL GENPARAM.TBL

11. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

18. Surface roughness: NLCD minus USGS

19. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Thermal inertia: NLCD minus USGS

20. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Soil moisture availability: NLCD minus USGS

21. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL

25. Skin temperature at 2000 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

26. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Skin temperature at 0500 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

27. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 2-m temperature at 0500 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

28. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 2-m temperature difference 0500 UTC 2000 UTC

29. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 10-m wind speed at 2000 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

30. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 10-m wind speed at 0500 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

31. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 2-m temperature at 2000 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

32. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 2-m temperature at 0500 UTC (NLCD minus USGS)

33. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Next steps Code review followed by a more detailed evaluation of the modeling results Complete modifications to MCIP Conduct CMAQ simulations Evaluation

34. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Acknowledgements NASA Applied Sciences program James Boylan, Georgia EPD Jonathan Case, SPoRT, NSSTC Fei Chen, NCAR Rob Gilliam, NOAA/EPA

35. Land Processes Group, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Thank You