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4 Key Areas of Research:
Task 1. Diagnostic Analysis of Precipitation on a Continental Scale
Task 2. Cloud Systems Simulation
Task 3. Water vapor and warm season convection
Task 4. Land-surface Hydrology
Linking Research Efforts and the Different Components of the Water Cycle
How can the above components be linked together to quantify the water cycle? This implies closing the water budget in both
observations and models. Because of its intrinsic scale-dependence, closure implies that a hierarchy of models is needed.
Arguably, the most precise closure can be obtained by using Cloud Resolving Models (CRMs) that are interactively coupled to
land-surface models at convective scales. But such a coupled system must be evaluated against observations (e.g. in
IHOP_2002 and in other watersheds where long-term
measurements are conducted).
Knowledge gained at small scales (i.e., of order 1 km using CRMs and observations) must be translated into improved
parameterizations for weather prediction and climate models at resolutions of order 10km and 100km, respectively.
This is a major challenge because past efforts in this area have not been as successful as one would desire. We argue that
the time has come to improve this situation because models utilized to simulate the climate have improved in horizontal
resolution, while cloud and mesoscale research has advanced the knowledge base sufficiently to seriously tackle the larger-scale
implications of these findings. For example, in the previously mentioned references, climate researchers have begun global
investigations into the observed and predicted variations in frequency, intensity, timing and duration of precipitation.
These questions have long been implicitly at the heart of weather-related studies, but often without the global framework
provided by the climate-related studies. In selecting where to place our emphasis within the practical issue of funding levels,
we pay special attention to efforts that link research efforts across our disciplines and/or link the different components of
the water cycle.
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