Exchanges of water and energy at the interface between the surface and the atmosphere are still poorly represented in climate or numerical weather prediction models. First, improving the representation of these exchanges at the land-atmosphere interface is essential. Second, it’s important to evaluate the performance of current models by comparing their outputs with observations. To address these two goals, this study develops study cases using data from a measurement campaign conducted in southern France in June 2011. Four very different types of vegetation were selected on a clear-sky day: a grassland, a corn field, a wheat field, and a pine forest. Early summer is ideal for studying land-atmosphere exchanges, as vegetation is fully developed. The study provides detailed conditions for the simulations, including soil, surface, and atmospheric properties, as well as initial values such as soil temperature, humidity, and atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind, and pressure. These cases were tested on both low- and high-resolution models, showing promising results. The aim is for these cases to be used with different models to develop future improvements and validate performances.

More information in Bernard et al. (2025)