Fortin et al. (2026) Revisiting bare‐ground evaporation in a high‐resolution numerical weather prediction system

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-10-01
• Authors: Vincent Fortin, Marc Verville, Vincent Vionnet, Marco Carrera, Dorothée Charpentier
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.70319

Research Groups

• Canadian High-Resolution Deterministic Prediction System team
• European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) team

Short Summary

This study revisits the parameterization of bare-ground evaporation in the Canadian High-Resolution Deterministic Prediction System and proposes a new method, which improves surface weather forecasts in regions with large bare-ground fractions. The new method also leads to better predictions of latent heat flux at a point-scale evaluation site.

Objective

• Revisit and improve the parameterization for bare-ground evaporation in the Canadian High-Resolution Deterministic Prediction System

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional (Canada) and point-scale (AmeriFlux station US-Ne1)
• Temporal Scale: Fall 2021, spring 2022, and three contrasted years at AmeriFlux station US-Ne1 (2015, 2016, and 2021)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Canadian High-Resolution Deterministic Prediction System
• Data sources: Surface weather forecasts, latent heat flux observations from AmeriFlux station US-Ne1

Main Results

• The proposed new method improves surface weather forecasts in regions with large bare-ground fractions.
• Significant improvements are observed in the point-scale evaluation at AmeriFlux station US-Ne1 for three contrasted years.
• However, evaporation starts earlier in the day than predicted and evaporation following rainfall events is underestimated.

Contributions

• The study provides a new method for parameterizing bare-ground evaporation, which improves surface weather forecasts and latent heat flux predictions.
• The results highlight the importance of revisiting and improving existing methods to better capture complex physical processes.

Funding

• This research was supported by the Canadian government's funding program for high-resolution deterministic prediction systems.

Citation

@article{Fortin2026Revisiting,
  author = {Fortin, Vincent and Verville, Marc and Vionnet, Vincent and Carrera, Marco and Charpentier, Dorothée},
  title = {Revisiting bare‐ground evaporation in a high‐resolution numerical weather prediction system},
  journal = {Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1002/qj.70319},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70319}
}