Numerical simulation of surface energy and water balances over a semiarid grassland ecosystem in the West African Savanna

Quansah, E.*; Katata, Genki; Mauder, M.*; Annor, T.*; Amekudzi, L. K.*; Bliefernicht, J.*; Heinzeller, D.*; Balogun, A.*; Kunstmann, H.*

An accurate prediction in the energy partitioning of the net solar radiation into latent and sensible heat fluxes over arid and semiarid regions is one of the challenges in land surface study in weather and climate simulations. Numerical simulations of surface energy and water balances were carried out using a one-dimensional multi-layer atmosphere-SOil-VEGetation (SOLVEG) model for selected days of the dry and rainy seasons over a savanna grassland ecosystem in Sumbrungu in the Upper East region of Ghana. The results for the investigated period between both seasons showed that the model overall reproduced the diurnal changes in the observed net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and ground heat flux. The statistics for the above variables as the correlation coefficient, root mean square error, and normalized standard deviation between the observations and calculations in the dry and wet periods suggest that the model was able to simulate the observed energy fluxes, soil evaporation, and transpiration in savanna grassland ecosystems.