Simulations of tropical rainforest albedo: is canopy wetness important?

Accurate information on surface albedo is essential for climate modelling, especially for regions such as Amazonia, where the response of the regional atmospheric circulation to the changes on surface albedo is strong. Previous studies have indicated that models are still unable to correctly reprodu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Yanagi, Silvia N.M., Costa, Marcos H.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)
Repositorio:LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:locus.ufv.br:123456789/17931
Acceso en línea:http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652011005000047
http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/17931
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Canopy etness
Diurnal albedo
Tropical forest and simulation
Descripción
Sumario:Accurate information on surface albedo is essential for climate modelling, especially for regions such as Amazonia, where the response of the regional atmospheric circulation to the changes on surface albedo is strong. Previous studies have indicated that models are still unable to correctly reproduce details of the seasonal variation of surface albedo. Therefore, it was investigated the role of canopy wetness on the simulated albedo of a tropical rainforest by modifying the IBIS canopy radiation transfer code to incorporate the effects of canopy wetness on the vegetation reflectance. In this study, simulations were run using three versions of the land surface/ecosystem model IBIS: the standard version, the same version recalibrated to fit the data of albedo on tropical rainforests and a modified version that incorporates the effects of canopy wetness on surface albedo, for three sites in the Amazon forest at hourly and monthly scales. The results demonstrated that, at the hourly time scale, the incorporation of canopy wetness on the calculations of radiative transfer substantially improves the simulations results, whereas at the monthly scale these changes do not substantially modify the simulated albedo.