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This is the third in a series of papers describing a measurement program and modeling approach to the estimation of surface heat and moisture fluxes over a tallgrass prairie. We describe the design and formulation of an experimental biosphere model (Ex-BATS) which follows the development of Dickinson's biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS). Ex-BATS has been designed to incorporate in situ measurements and satellite parameterizations of certain canopy variables which are slowly varying in the course of a growing season. All components of a multistage biosphere process model used to simulate the exchange of heat and moisture between the canopy and the atmosphere are presented here. The remote sensing aspects of the model are described in a companion paper. The procedures used to optimize the model and the validation of the model against First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) observations taken during 1987 are described. Validation was carried out for three of the four intensive field campaigns (IFCs): 1, 2 and 3. The validation intercomparison shows that the Ex-BATS model reproduces the diurnal behavior of the surface fluxes very closely. The rms differences between in situ measurements of sensible and latent heat fluxes and their model counterparts are of the order of 35 W m -2. Biases over the three IFCs, which ranged in duration from 10 to 17 days, are tyl•ically less than 20 W m -2. The overall bias for the 44 days within the first three IFCs is less than 10 W m TM. The biases and rms differences are of the same order as the accuracy and precision uncertainties of the measured fluxes, therefore the model provides a useful experimental tool to explain radiative, hydrological, and physiological controls on surface fluxes over vegetated canopies and the explicit sources of water flux to the atmosphere from transpiration, foliage evaporation, and soil evaporation.

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A simulation of the appearance of an intense hailstorm in the passive microwave spectrum is conducted in order to characterize the vertical sources of radiation that contribute to the top-of-atmosphere microwave brightness temperatures (Te) which can be measured by satellite-borne radiometers. The study focuses on four frequencies corresponding to those used on the USAF Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), a recently launched payload flown on the U.S. Air Force DMSP satellites. Computation of the microwave brightness temperatures is based on a vertically, angularly, and spectrally detailed radiative transfer scheme that has been applied to the highly resolved thermodynamical and microphysical output from the three-dimensional Colorado State University (CSU) Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS). The RAMS model was used to carry out a 4-h simulation of an intense hailstorm that occurred on 11 July 1986 in the vicinity of Eldridge, Alabama. Initial conditions for the cloud model run were developed from the 1986-COHMEX data archive. Two types of vertically resolved radiative structure functions referred to as a "generalized weighting function" and an "emission source weighting function" are used to describe the process by which radiation originates and reaches the satellite radiometer. In addition, these weighting functions are subdivided into individual contributions by the various hydrometeor species generated by the cloud model. Along with the surface contribution and cosmic background radiation, these weighting functions provide a normalized description of where radiation originates and how it ultimately reaches the satellite. It is emphasized that this information provides an indepth understanding of how precipitation retrieval algorithms should be designed visa -vis the passive microwave problem.

Herein, we present the results of a series of numerical experiments using the Ex-BATS biosphere model, which is an adaptation of Dickinson's biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS). These simulations are used to assess how the model performs when remotely sensed data are used to estimate three key canopy variables. These canopy variables, which effectively represent the slowly changing boundary conditions of a vegetated surface, consist of the total surface albedo, leaf area index, and the nondiurnally varying component of stomatal resistance, referred to as stressed stomatal resistance. The surface albedo is retrieved from NOAA-AVHRR (advanced very high resolution radiometer) channel 1 spectral reflectance information in conjunction with a directional reflectance model which accounts for the strong diurnal variations in surface reflectance. A 4-channel vegetation index also retrieved from AVHRR measurements is used to estimate the leaf area index. A similar index derived from high-resolution SPOT visible and near-infrared information has been used to describe the spatial variations in such indices which impact the retrieval of the leaf area index. Satellite retrieval of stomatal resistance is based on split-window skin temperatures from AVHRR channels 4 and 5 from the afternoon overpass (---1630 LT). Variables derived from the hourly skin temperature observations of GOES-VISSR have also been examined with respect to retrieval of stomatal resistance. It was found that although stomatal resistance has little correlation with the diurnal amplitude of skin temperature, it is closely related to the daily maximum of skin temperature. Numerical experiments have been conducted to examine model sensitivity to each of these canopy variables. Results indicate that Ex-BATS is not sensitive to small variations of surface albedo or leaf area index within the range of estimation uncertainty. The rms measurement-model flux differences in every numerical trial were within 6 W m -2 of the rms differences obtained for the simulations performed using measured albedo and leaf area index. Measured stomatal resistance values were obtained using an inversion form of the model. The resulting stomatal resistances were used to perform a control experiment simulating an ideal satellite retrieval scenario involving one observation per day. The control experiment resulted in improvements of approximately 20 W m -2 in the rms flux differences over the model using a purely hypothetical formulation for stomatal resistance. Simulations using the remotely retrieved stomatal resistances produced significantly reduced rms differences for latent and sensible heat fluxes over the model using the hypothetical formulation. Based on a 55-day composite involving all days from the four FIFE intensive field campaigns, the sensible and latent heat flux improvements are approximately 25 and 20%, respectively (11 and 8 W m-2). The satellite retrievals are only 20 and 30% less accurate (7 and 10 W m -2) than the idealized results of the control experiment....