Investigation of the Vegetation Effects on Convection by Using COSMO-CLM

Abstract

Convection is affected by vegetation cover considering variation of water and heat retention of different soil surfaces. Vegetated areas also change the amount of incoming and outgoing components of the surface energy budget, therefore the areas affect the atmospheric convection. In this study, vegetation effects on convection were investigated using a non-hydrostatic, limited-area, atmospheric prediction model (COSMO-CLM) with different land cover maps that use different vegetation fractions and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values. The model domain covered especially forested regions from the northeastern part of Turkey and Black Sea to the eastern coasts of Caspian Sea. In this context, changes of atmospheric parameters considered as indicators of convection obtained by model simulations were investigated.