North foehn in the Austrian Inn Valley: A case study and idealized numerical simulations

Summary This study presents high-resolution numerical simulations of north foehn in the Austrian Inn Valley which have been performed with the Penn State/NCAR mesoscale model MM5. As the Inn Valley is located north of the Alpine crest, north foehn occurs comparatively rarely in this valley, and there are only sparse observations available for this phenomenon. Simulations of the 24 January 1993 case as well as idealized simulations are performed to get a deeper insight into the dynamics of the north foehn. Moreover, the synoptic conditions leading to the occurrence of north foehn in the Inn Valley are investigated. The simulations indicate that there are at least four different paths for the foehn to penetrate into the valley. Two of them are running along side valleys entering the upper Inn Valley from the west. These flow paths appear to be most important when the large-scale flow has a significant westerly component. The other possible flow paths enter the Inn Valley from the northwest or north and require a strong northerly component of the large-scale flow. From a dynamical point of view, north foehn appears to be similar to the well researched south foehn in that vertically propagating gravity waves force the descent of the ambient flow into the valleys. However, there are also indications that trapped lee waves have a significant impact on the surface wind field, which has not been reported for south foehn so far. Moreover, the model results show that a precondition for the formation of north foehn in the Inn Valley is the absence of significant orographic precipitation. Evaporative cooling induced by precipitation falling into subsaturated air not only reduces the surface temperatures but also inhibits the formation of large-amplitude gravity waves, suppressing the development of stormy surface winds.     

Local foehn effects in the upper Isar Valley, Part 2: numerical simulations

Summary The local wind system in the upper Isar Valley (Bavarian Alps) near Mittenwald has the peculiarity that regularly strong foehn-like nocturnal flows occur, mainly during clear nights in autumn and winter. We will refer to this phenomenon as “Minifoehn”, as its properties are similar to the classical deep foehn in the sense that its breakthrough into the Isar Valley usually brings a striking increase in temperature and a concomitant decrease in relative humidity. Numerical simulations with the MM5 model reveal that this phenomenon is related to a nocturnal drainage flow originating from a plateau south of Mittenwald. This flow is driven by the temperature difference between this plateau (1180 m) and the free atmosphere above Mittenwald (920 m, 15 km north of the plateau) at the same level. The air masses flow through two different valleys that merge again further downstream. The upper part of one of the two drainage currents goes over a small mountain ridge (1180 m) south-west of Mittenwald and then descends into the Isar Valley, leading to an advection of potentially warm air towards Mittenwald. This branch of the drainage current constitutes the Minifoehn. The remaining part of the drainage current flows through a narrow gap towards the Isar Valley and then joins the drainage flow of this valley. As these air masses are significantly cooler than the Minifoehn branch, large horizontal temperature gradients can be found around Mittenwald. The dynamical behaviour of the cold air flow turns out to be qualitatively consistent with shallow-water theory only in the absence of a forcing by large-scale winds. Otherwise, gravity-wave induced pressure perturbations interact with the drainage flow and modify the low-level flow field. The simulations show that the gravity waves are excited by the mountain range that separates the two valleys mentioned above. Moreover, the simulations indicate that the structure of this nocturnal wind system is not very sensitive to the direction of synoptic-scale winds as long as they come from the southern sector. On the other hand, ambient northerly winds are able to prevent the drainage flow and therefore the local foehn effects in the Isar Valley provided that synoptic winds are strong enough. The results of the MM5 simulations are in good agreement with the measurements and observations described in part 1 of this study.     

Small-scale dynamics of the south foehn in the lower Wipp Valley

Summary In this paper, very-high-resolution numerical simulations are presented to analyze the small-scale dynamics of the foehn in the lower Wipp Valley and the adjacent parts of the Inn Valley. This region was one of the target areas for foehn observations during the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP). Our simulations consider two MAP cases that markedly differed in the depth of the foehn flow. To isolate the dynamical effect of the key orographic features in the Wipp Valley region, we performed sensitivity experiments with different topography modifications. These involve lowering or even removing the Nordkette range, which constitutes the northern side wall of the east–west-oriented Inn Valley, and closing the Stubai Valley, which is the northernmost and largest tributary of the Wipp Valley. A comparison with surface and lidar observations indicates that our present model resolution of 467 m significantly improves the realism of the simulations compared to a resolution of 800 m, as used in a previous study. The Nordkette is found to have a twofold impact on the dynamics of foehn breakthrough into the Inn Valley. In reality, this mountain chain deflects part of the southerly foehn current coming from the Wipp Valley into the perpendicularly oriented Inn Valley. Our sensitivity tests indicate that this flow deflection tends to accelerate the foehn breakthrough into the Inn Valley, while upstream blocking effects induced by the Nordkette act to slow down the process of foehn breakthrough. The flow pattern in the Wipp Valley reveals that the upstream effects of the Nordkette are not quite far-reaching. The amplitude of the gravity waves over the lower Wipp Valley gets somewhat reduced by these upstream effects, but the overall flow pattern remains largely unaffected. Closing the Stubai Valley also has a minor effect of the wave structure and tends to reduce the cross-valley variability of the foehn flow in the lower Wipp Valley.     

The exceptional Alpine south foehn event of 14–16 November 2002: a case study

Summary This study examines the exceptional Alpine south foehn event of 14–16 November 2002 using routine observations and high-resolution numerical simulations. Besides its long duration and an extremely high temperature level related to warm-air advection from the northern Sahara, this foehn event exhibited an unusual spatial structure of the low-level wind and temperature field. Whereas the foehn was largely restricted to the first half of 14 November in the western part of the Alps (Switzerland), it extended over the full period in the inner-Alpine valleys in the eastern Alps. The duration and intensity of the foehn also tended to decrease from the Alpine crest towards the northern rim of the Alps. Most surprisingly, continuous foehn even occurred on the windward side of the Alpine crest, namely in a basin located in the southeastern Alps. The distribution of the orographic precipitation associated with the foehn case was unusual as well. In Switzerland, intense precipitation was not restricted to the windward (southern) side of the Alps but extended to the northern side of the Alpine crest, particularly on 16 November. The results indicate that the spatio-temporal distribution of the foehn in the northern Alps was related to the fact that the western Alps were within a synoptic-scale transition zone between extremely warm air advected from the south and colder air lying over western Europe. The colder air was advected around the western Alps whereas extremely warm air descended from the Alpine crest farther east. Moreover, a small cyclone formed on 14 November north of the Alps and generated a shallow cold front propagating eastward along the northern Alps. Thus, the tendency towards foehn decreased from west to east and from the Alpine crest towards the north. The occurrence of foehn on the windward side of the Alpine crest was made possible by the extreme strength of the large-scale southerly flow, combined with the fact that the upstream precipitation field did not reach the southeastern edge of the Alps. Finally, the pronounced spillover of precipitation to the northern side in the Swiss part of the Alps appears to be related to the colder air present north of the crest. This prevented the formation of orographic gravity waves and downslope air motion, which usually leads to a rapid evaporation of the precipitation on the lee side of the Alpine crest.     

The impact of the PBL scheme and the vertical distribution of model layers on simulations of Alpine foehn

Summary This paper investigates the influence of the planetary boundary-layer (PBL) parameterization and the vertical distribution of model layers on simulations of an Alpine foehn case that was observed during the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) in autumn 1999. The study is based on the PSU/NCAR MM5 modelling system and combines five different PBL schemes with three model layer settings, which mainly differ in the height above ground of the lowest model level (z ₁). Specifically, z ₁ takes values of about 7 m, 22 m and 36 m, and the experiments with z ₁ = 7 m are set up such that the second model level is located at z = 36 m. To assess if the different model setups have a systematic impact on the model performance, the simulation results are compared against wind lidar, radiosonde and surface measurements gathered along the Austrian Wipp Valley. Moreover, the dependence of the simulated wind and temperature fields at a given height (36 m above ground) on z ₁ is examined for several different regions. Our validation results show that at least over the Wipp Valley, the dependence of the model skill on z ₁ tends to be larger and more systematic than the impact of the PBL scheme. The agreement of the simulated wind field with observations tends to benefit from moving the lowest model layer closer to the ground, which appears to be related to the dependence of lee-side flow separation on z ₁. However, the simulated 2 m-temperatures are closest to observations for the intermediate z ₁ of 22 m. This is mainly related to the fact that the simulated low-level temperatures decrease systematically with decreasing z ₁ for all PBL schemes, turning a positive bias at z ₁ = 36 m into a negative bias at z ₁ = 7 m. The systematic z ₁-dependence is also observed for the temperatures at a fixed height of 36 m, indicating a deficiency in the self-consistency of the model results that is not related to a specific PBL formulation. Possible reasons for this deficiency are discussed in the paper. On the other hand, a systematic z ₁-dependence of the 36-m wind speed is encountered only for one out of the five PBL schemes. This turns out to be related to an unrealistic profile of the vertical mixing coefficient. Correspondence: Günther Z?ngl, Meteorologisches Institut der Universitat München, 80333 München, Germany     

Local foehn effects in the upper Isar Valley, part 1: Observations

Summary An unusually strong nocturnal downvalley wind can be regularly observed in the upper Isar Valley close to Mittenwald (Bavarian Alps) when a high-pressure system is located over Central Europe or when ambient southerly winds are present. Due to the structure of the local topography, this downvalley wind has foehn-like properties in the sense that the breakthrough of the flow into the valley is characterized by a strong increase in temperature and a decrease in relative humidity. Therefore the author called this flow Minifoehn. In fact, wind speeds are low in comparison to deep foehn, but gusts may reach values up to 20ms^–1, even under the influence of high pressure systems with weak atmospheric pressure gradients. To investigate the Minifoehn, surface stations have been installed for collecting temperature, humidity, wind and pressure data. Measurements have shown that the Minifoehn represents the upper part of one of the drainage currents which flows over a mountain ridge into the valley at Mittenwald. Nocturnally cooled air drains from a plateau south of Mittenwald through different valleys which merge again near Mittenwald. It seems that the forcing of the nocturnal currents is dominated by the temperature difference between this plateau and the free atmosphere above Mittenwald at the same level. Strong temperature differences are found during clear winter nights and in case of subsidence inversions. Moreover, the appearance of the Minifoehn in autumn and winter is so frequent that we even may find a climatic effect: the upper Isar Valley is usually free of fog during these seasons and nocturnal temperatures are often considerably higher than in other Bavarian Alpine valleys at comparable altitude.     

Observations of foehn onset in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

Summary Local scale windfield and air mass characteristics during the onset of two foehn wind events in an alpine hydro-catchment are presented. Grounding of the topographically modified foehn was found to be dependent on daytime surface heating and topographic channelling of flow. The foehn front was observed to advance down-valley until the valley widened significantly. The foehn wind appeared to decouple from the surface downstream of the accelerated flow associated with the valley constriction, and to be lifted above local thermally generated circulations including a lake breeze. Towards evening, the foehn front retreated up valley in response to reduced surface heating and the intrusion into the study area of a deep and cool air mass associated with a regional scale mountain-plain circulation. Differences in the local windfield observed during both case study events reflect the importance of different thermal and dynamic forcings on airflow in complex terrain. These are the result of variation in surface energy exchanges, channelling and blocking of airflow. Observations presented here have both theoretical and applied implications with regard to forecasting foehn onset, wind hazard management, recreational activities and air quality management in alpine settings. Received January 23, 2001 Revised October 17, 2001     

High resolution flight observations and numerical simulations: horizontal variability in the wintertime boreal boundary layer

Summary  High resolution aircraft observations made along flight tracks over inhomogeneous surface in the late wintertime boreal zone are described and compared to 2D mesoscale model simulations with surface properties defined at 2 km resolution from maps. All observations displayed the expected small-scale turbulence. On top of that, the near-surface wind speeds (but not directions) showed mesoscale variations related to local topography and roughness. Upward (but not downward) SW and LW radiative fluxes and ground temperature also displayed mesoscale variability; in SW radiation this was clearly due to local albedo changes. In the sensible heat flux there was strong horizontal variation near the surface in correlation with surface types. The above observed mesoscale along-track variations were reasonably well represented by the mesoscale model simulation. The track-averaged observed sensible and latent heat flux profiles were in rough agreement with a mixing length approach, which used the track-averaged wind, temperature and moisture profiles as input (mimicking a first-order turbulence closure scheme of a GCM). Received September 20, 1999 Revised January 21, 2000     

Some analyses and numerical simulations of meiyu in east asia in 1983

In this paper the differences between Meiyu and Baiu front in 1983 have firstly been analysed, the trajectories of air on and to the north side of Meiyu and Baiu fronts during the Meiyu period have then been traced, and the fore-casting and simulating of 4 sets of Meiyu onset of the year have finally been run utilizing the global model at UK Me-teorological Office. The results show: 1) Meiyu fronts are different from Baiu ones in temperature, humidity and stratification fields in lower atmosphere; and the possibly reasons for it are explained. 2) The Bay of Bengal is the main moisture source for Meiyu front, the South China Sea and the Pacific, for Baiu ones; and some existed argu-ments on it are also discussed. 3) The onset of Meiyu and its rainfall and rain belts are sensitive to the Tibetan Plateau, and the water vapour conditions over the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea, but not sensitive to the SST over the equatorial area or to the East of Japan.     

Local foehn effects in the Upper Isar Valley,Part 3: Additional investigations

Summary The present paper is the continuation of two recent studies investigating the foehn-like valley wind system around Mittenwald (Bavarian Isar Valley). We deal with the synoptic/mesoscale conditions causing the local foehn (“Minifoehn”), considering field campaigns from both the mesoscale and the climatological point of view. Furthermore, we describe the structure and further features of the local foehn at smaller scales, using both the results of the VERTIKATOR field campaign and numerical simulations. We obtain as a new result that the foehn-caused local warm air pool around Mittenwald induces slight nocturnal upvalley winds between an adjacent valley basin located some 8 km north of Mittenwald and the basin of Mittenwald. Furthermore, a weak northerly flow may also occur at Mittenwald prior to the onset of the Minifoehn. Numerical simulations indicate that the local pressure gradient responsible for this phenomenon is related to a gravity wave forming over the hill range southwest of Mittenwald. Observations within a five-year period indicate that Minifoehn frequently occurs when ambient winds coming from the southern sector are predominant, but, contrary to deep foehn, weather conditions with northerly synoptic-scale flows do not necessarily exclude the development of the local foehn which comes from the southwest. We also present further evidence that in the presence of southerly synoptic-scale winds, orographic gravity waves interact with the drainage flow. Another new result is that strong synoptic-scale westerly winds are able to suppress the occurrence of Minifoehn. In addition, the possible influence of the Inn Valley wind system as well as dynamical differences between the thermally driven up- and downvalley winds are briefly discussed.     

Influence of foehn winds on air temperature and humdity in the Polish Carpathians

Summary The present study concerns an attempt to determine the influence of foehn winds on air temperature and humidity in the Polish Carpathians. This was carried out using the mean monthly temperature and relative humidity obtained from a number of synoptic stations. Periods with classical foehn conditions and the whole period (1966–1985) of record were analysed.With 3 Figures     

“0806”华南持续性暴雨诊断分析与数值模拟

用NCEP再分析资料、常规气象观测等资料,对2008年6月11—13日发生在华南地区的持续性暴雨的大尺度背景进行了分析,用MM5模式模拟出了暴雨的大尺度背景,利用模拟结果对这次暴雨过程的系统演变做了进一步的分析。结果表明:(1)西南涡是暴雨的直接影响系统,随着西南涡的东移,暴雨从广西北部一直推进到广东东南部。(2)中高纬稳定的两槽一脊的环流形势和偏南的西太平洋副高,及不断南下的小股冷空气,为这次暴雨提供了有利的中高纬环流背景冷空气条件;东亚夏季风偏南,越赤道气流偏强,给暴雨的维持提供了丰富的水汽条件。(3)模拟的结果验证了暴雨发生的大尺度环流背景,并在700hPa上模拟出了3个正涡度中心,是华南暴雨发生的动力因子。     

Climate simulations of major estuarine watersheds in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US

To better understand the implications of anthropogenic climate change for three major Mid-Atlantic estuaries (the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware Bay, and the Hudson River Estuary), we analyzed the regional output of seven global climate models. The simulation given by the average of the models was generally superior to individual models, which differed dramatically in their ability to simulate twentieth-century climate. The model average had little bias in its mean temperature and precipitation and, except in the Lower Chesapeake Watershed, was able to capture the twentieth-century temperature trend. Weaknesses in the model average were too much seasonality in temperature and precipitation, a shift in precipitation’s summer maximum to spring and winter minimum to fall, interannual variability that was too high in temperature and too low in precipitation, and inability to capture the twentieth-century precipitation increase. There is some evidence that model deficiencies are related to land surface parameterizations. All models warmed over the twenty-first century under the six greenhouse gas scenarios considered, with an increase of 4.7 ± 2.0°C (model mean ± 1 standard deviation) for the A2 scenario (a medium-high emission scenario) over the Chesapeake Bay Watershed by 2070–2099. Precipitation projections had much weaker consensus, with a corresponding increase of 3 ± 12% for the A2 scenario, but in winter there was a more consistent increase of 8 ± 7%. The projected climate averaged over the four best-performing models was significantly cooler and wetter than the projected seven-model-average climate. Precipitation projections were within the range of interannual variability but temperature projections were not. The implied research needs are for improvements in precipitation projections and a better understanding of the impacts of warming on streamflow and estuarine ecology and biogeochemistry.     

秦岭南北降水小时尺度特征对比分析

利用秦岭地区1961—2015年暖季(4—10月)国家级地面气象站观测的逐时降水资料,从降水逐候变化与降水日变化的角度,比较了秦岭南北两侧暖季降水的演变特征,研究表明:在逐候演变上,秦岭南北两侧均为夏秋双峰型降水,但北侧降水主峰值出现在秋季,秦岭南侧降水主峰值出现在夏季。在降水日变化上,夏秋两季中南侧降水量、降水频次和降水强度均以清晨峰值为主,仅在降水频次上夏季出现了午后的次峰值;而北侧降水量日变化夏秋变化较大,且主要由降水强度贡献,夏季降水强度在午后较强,而秋季清晨降水强度更大。对于不同持续时间的降水事件,南北两个区域在夏秋均表现为持续9 h以上(3 h以下)的降水为清晨(午后)降水峰值,其差别主要存在于持续时间为4～8 h的降水事件中。     

A reexamination of the valley wind system in the Alpine Inn Valley with numerical simulations

Summary This paper presents idealized numerical simulations of the valley wind circulation in the Alpine Inn Valley, which are compared with existing data and are used to improve our dynamical understanding of the valley wind. The simulations have been performed with the Penn State/NCAR mesoscale model MM5. They use a high-resolution realistic topography but idealized large-scale conditions without any synoptic forcing to focus on the thermally induced valley wind system. The comparison with the available observations shows that this simplified set-up is sufficient to reproduce the essential features of the valley wind.The results show that the tributaries of the Inn Valley have a considerable impact on the along-valley mass fluxes associated with the valley wind circulation. The upvalley mass flux is found to increase where tributaries enter the Inn Valley from the north, that is, from the direction where the Alpine foreland is located. On the other hand, the upvalley mass flux is reduced at the junctions with southern tributaries because part of the upvalley flow is deflected into these tributaries. For the downvalley flow, the situation is essentially reversed, but the influence of the valley geometry on the flow structure is larger than for the upvalley flow. The most important feature is a lateral valley contraction near the valley exit into the Alpine foreland. It reduces the downvalley mass flux at low levels, so that the wind maximum in the interior of the valley is shifted to a fairly large distance from the ground. North of the valley contraction, however, the downvalley flow strongly accelerates and forms a pronounced low-level jet. A dynamical analysis indicates that this acceleration can be interpreted as a transition from subcritical to supercritical hydraulic flow. Another interesting feature is that the low-level jet maintains its structure for several tenths of kilometres into the Alpine foreland. This appears to be related to the fact that the lateral wind shear on the flanks of the jet is associated with a strong dipole of potential vorticity (PV). Due to the conservation properties of the PV, the downstream advection of the PV dipole leads to the formation of a band-like feature that decays fairly slowly.     

长波区间太阳辐射对气候模拟的影响

长波区间的太阳辐射在气候模式中往往被忽略。利用国家气候中心BCC_AGCM2.0.1大气环流模式,采用矩阵算子辐射传输算法,研究了长波区间太阳辐射对气候模式辐射通量和温度模拟结果的影响。结果表明,以ISCCP和CERES辐射资料为标准,考虑长波区间太阳辐射后,长波区间晴空大气地表向下辐射通量平均误差减小2.05 W/m2,均方根误差减少1.29 W/m2;长波区间晴空大气模式顶向上辐射通量平均误差减小0.70 W/m2,均方根误差减小0.21 W/m2;长波区间有云大气地表向下辐射通量平均误差减小1.38 W/m2,均方根误差减小1.03 W/m2;长波区间有云大气模式顶向上辐射通量平均误差减小0.99 W/m2,均方根误差减小0.30 W/m2。以ECMWF再分析资料为标准,考虑长波区间太阳辐射后,赤道地区上对流层—下平流层区域温度的冷偏差得到改善,对流层顶温度平均误差减小0.27 K,均方根误差减小0.25 K。     

On the effect of a foehn on cold fronts in the vicinity of the Alps

The present note discusses physical mechanisms which may contribute to cold air channelling close to the Alps. This involves the modification of the prefrontal air by the warm foehn air and of the postfrontal air by blocking effects resulting in an increase in precipitation. Additionally the influence of a sloping surface in the vicinity of the orography is considered. The problems are discussed in term of a north-south-oriented cold front behaving as an atmospheric gravity current propagating along the east-west oriented Alps.