Examining the Role of the Land Surface on Convection Using High‐Resolution Model Forecasts Over the Southeastern United States Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

The influence of the Unified Noah and Noah-MP land surface models (LSMs) on the evolution of cumulus clouds reaching convective initiation (CI) is assessed using infrared brightness temperatures (BT) from GOES-16. Cloud properties from individual cloud objects are examined using output from high-resolution (500 m horizontal grid spacing) model simulations. Cloud objects are tracked over time and related to observed clouds reaching CI to examine differences in cloud extent, longevity, and growth rate. The results demonstrate that differences in assumed surface properties can lead to large discrepancies in the net surface radiative budget, particularly in the sensible and latent heating components where differences exceed 40 W m −2. These