WRF surface energy budget

[rdumais63]

There have been many good previous posts regarding attempts to close the surface energy budget (SEB) in WRF. For example:


Closing NOAH surface heat budget | WRF & MPAS-A Support Forum (ucar.edu)

WRF surface energy budget (ALBEDO and EMISS) | WRF & MPAS-A Support Forum (ucar.edu)

Confusing names for variables in wrfout | WRF & MPAS-A Support Forum (ucar.edu)


However, I am still confused a little about use of SWDOWN in SEB calculations. In model runs with nests that use the slope_rad option and output SWNORM, should it be SWNORM rather than SWDOWN that is used in the SEB calculations? Rather than SWDOWN * (1-ALBEDO) should we have instead use SWNORM * (1-ALBEDO) for example? Is this an incorrect way to think of this? In a variable such as SWDNB would the slope effect be included? Just curious. Thank you-

 

[kwerner]

For surface energy budgets, the land area is defined by the horizontal dx area, even if it is sloped, so SWDOWN is correct.

 

[rdumais63]

Thank you- that is very helpful.