Impacts of a Saline Lake and Its Salinity on Local Precipitation

Abstract EN

In the study, the weather research and forecasting model coupled with the community land model (WRF-CLM) is used to investigate impacts of the GSL and its salinity from October 2001 to April 2002.

A salinity parameterization scheme is incorporated into the lake scheme of CLM.

The WRF-CLM model with the salinity parameterization scheme can better simulate temperature and precipitation compared to that without considering the salinity effects.

The improvement of simulation is especially significant under cold weather condition.

The precipitation caused by the GSL effect is always positive over the downwind area of the GSL during the study period.

Increased precipitation is largely attributed to the warm lake surface temperature and high latent heat flux over the GSL, which are favorable for the development of strong convective activity and horizontal wind and moisture convergence.

Such kind of GSL-induced forcing is the primary mechanism for the downstream GSL effect precipitation.

The GSL effect precipitation is largely contributed by fresh water effect when the temperature is close to or higher than 0°C.

However, with lower temperature, the salinity effect becomes dominant for the GSL effect precipitation.