Premium
Noah‐MP‐Crop: Introducing dynamic crop growth in the Noah‐MP land surface model
Author(s) -
Liu Xing,
Chen Fei,
Barlage Michael,
Zhou Guangsheng,
Niyogi Dev
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/2016jd025597
Subject(s) - leaf area index , growing degree day , growing season , environmental science , phenology , crop , biomass (ecology) , crop coefficient , atmospheric sciences , agronomy , biology , physics
Croplands are important in land‐atmosphere interactions and in the modification of local and regional weather and climate; however, they are poorly represented in the current version of the coupled Weather Research and Forecasting/Noah with multiparameterization (Noah‐MP) land surface modeling system. This study introduced dynamic corn ( Zea mays ) and soybean ( Glycine max ) growth simulations and field management (e.g., planting date) into Noah‐MP and evaluated the enhanced model (Noah‐MP‐Crop) at field scales using crop biomass data sets, surface heat fluxes, and soil moisture observations. Compared to the generic dynamic vegetation and prescribed‐leaf area index (LAI)‐driven methods in Noah‐MP, the Noah‐MP‐Crop showed improved performance in simulating leaf area index (LAI) and crop biomass. This model is able to capture the seasonal and annual variability of LAI and to differentiate corn and soybean in peak values of LAI as well as the length of growing seasons. Improved simulations of crop phenology in Noah‐MP‐Crop led to better surface heat flux simulations, especially in the early period of growing season where current Noah‐MP significantly overestimated LAI. The addition of crop yields as model outputs expand the application of Noah‐MP‐Crop to regional agriculture studies. There are limitations in the use of current growing degree days (GDD) criteria to predict growth stages, and it is necessary to develop a new method that combines GDD with other environmental factors, to more accurately define crop growth stages. The capability introduced in Noah‐MP allows further crop‐related studies and development.