Mesoscale modeling of katabatic winds over Greenland and comparisons with AWS and aircraft data

Summary Simulations of the katabatic wind system over the Greenland ice sheet for the two months April and May 1997 were performed using the Norwegian Limited Area Model (NORLAM) with a horizontal resolution of 25 km. The model results are intercompared and validated against observational data from automatic weather stations (AWS), global atmospheric analyses and instrumented aircraft observations of individual cases during that period. The NORLAM is able to simulate the synoptic developments and daily cycle of the katabatic wind system realistically. For most of the cases covered by aircraft observations, the model results agree very well with the measured developments and structures of the katabatic wind system in the lowest 400 m. Despite NORLAM’s general ability of reproducing the four-dimensional structure of the katabatic wind, problems occur in cases, when the synoptic background is not well captured by the analyses used as initial and boundary conditions for the model runs or where NORLAM fails to correctly predict the synoptic development. The katabatic wind intensity in the stable boundary layer is underestimated by the model in cases when the simulated synoptic forcing is too weak. An additional problem becomes obvious in cases when the model simulates clouds in contrast to the observations or when the simulated clouds are too thick compared to the observed cloud cover. In these cases, the excessive cloud amount prevents development of the katabatic wind in the model. Received September 22, 2000/Revised March 16, 2001     

Verification of a Synthesized Method for the Calculation of Low-Level Climatological Wind Fields Using a Mesoscale Boundary-Layer Model

Low-level climatological wind fields over the La Plata River region of South America are synthesized with a dry, hydrostatic mesoscale boundary-layer numerical model. The model is forced at the upper boundary with the 1200 UTC local radiosonde observations and at the lower boundary with a land-river differential heating function defined from the daily meteorological observations of the region. The climatological wind field is defined as the mean value of a series of individual daily forecasts, employing two methods. The simplified method considers a 192-member ensemble (16 wind directions and 12 wind-speed classes at the upper boundary). Each member has a probability of occurrence that is determined from the 1959–1984 observations; the daily method uses a total of 3,248 days with available data during the same period. In both methods each realization is a daily forecast from which the mean wind distributions at 0300, 0900, 1500 and 2100 local standard time are calculated and compared to the observations of five meteorological stations in the region. The validation of the climatological wind fields for both methods is evaluated by means of the root-mean-square error of the wind-direction frequency distribution and mean wind speed by wind sector. The results obtained with the two methods are similar, and the errors in wind speed are always smaller than those in wind direction. The combined errors of wind direction and wind speed show that the ensemble method is outperformed by the daily method, on average by meteorological station in only one out of five of them, and on average by the time of the day in only one out of 4 h. The conclusion of the study is that the ensemble method is an appropriate methodology for determining high resolution, low-level climatological wind fields, with the boundary-layer model applied to a region with a strong diurnal cycle of surface thermal contrast. The proposed methodology is of particular utility for synthesizing wind fields over regions with limited meteorological observations, since the 192-member matrix can be easily defined with few observing points, as well as in the case of relatively incomplete records.     

The KABEG’97 field experiment: An aircraft-based study of katabatic wind dynamics over the Greenland ice sheet

The aircraft-based experiment KABEG97 (Katabatic wind and boundary-layer front experiment around Greenland) was performed in April/May 1997. During the experiment, surface stations were installed at five positions on the ice sheet and in the tundra near Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland. A total of nine katabatic wind flights were performed during quite different synoptic situations and surface conditions, and low-level jets with wind speeds up to 25m s^-1 were measured under strong synoptic forcing of the katabatic wind system. The KABEG data represent a unique data set for the investigation of katabatic winds. For the first time, high-resolution and accurate aircraft measurements can be used to investigate the three-dimensional structure of the katabatic wind system for a variety of synoptic situations.Surface station data show that a pronounced daily cycle of the near-surface wind is present for almost all days due to the nighttime development of the katabatic wind. In a detailed case study the stably-stratified boundary layer over the ice and the complex boundary-layer structure in the transition zone ice/tundra are investigated. The katabatic wind system is found to extend about 10 km over the tundra area and is associated with strong wind convergence and gravity waves. The investigation of the boundary-layer dynamics using the concept of a two-layer katabatic wind model yields the results that the katabatic flow is always a shooting flow and that the pure katabatic force is the main driving mechanism for the flow regime, although a considerable influence of the large-scale synoptic forcing is found as well.     

Synoptic aspects of wet and dry conditions in central Australia: observations and GCM simulations for 1 × CO2 and 2 × CO2 conditions

Synoptic climatological patterns that produce anomalous wet conditions in central Australia during the period from September to April have been studied. The analysis was done by using observed daily rainfall data at a number of stations, wind and mean sea level pressure from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) data from 1985 to 1991, and the CSIRO 9-level (CSIR09) global climate model (GCM) simulated data for 1 × CO₂ and 2 × CO₂ experiments. On the basis of rainfall values above 99.5 percentile in observed and simulated data, wet days have been selected to study the synoptic-scale weather systems that produce anomalous wet events in central Australia. As the vast majority of days in central Australia are dry, the same number of days with no rainfall for both observed and simulated conditions have been selected randomly. The observed synoptic climatological patterns have been compared with the results of the control simulation of CSIRO9. A comparison between CSIRO9 simulated synoptic patterns and observed synoptic patterns reveals that the model fairly well captures the synoptic climatological characteristics which produce anomalous wet and contrasting dry weather conditions during the period from September to April. Under enhanced greenhouse experiments, the main features of the synoptic patterns are intensified both for wet and dry conditions, which result in an increase in extreme weather conditions, an increase in rainfall intensity, a spatial expansion of the heavy rainfall region during wet days, and an expansion of the dry area during dry days. During anomalous wet conditions, the low pressure area is intensified, monsoonal winds and southeasterlies are strengthened and strong wind shear over tropical Australia is simulated. During this condition, the monsoon shear line moves poleward particularly over the Northern Territory. In contrast, during dry conditions, the anticyclonic circulation over the continent is strengthened.     

2018年辽宁地区两次大雾天气成因分析

应用能见度观测仪、风廓线雷达、加密自动站和常规气象观测等资料,从天气学角度对2018年1月17—18日和11月24—25日辽宁地区两次大雾天气特点及边界层热动力条件对大雾形成的影响进行分析。结果表明：两次大雾天气表现与成因较为类似。大雾发展均有两个阶段,且天气背景条件相似。其中大雾第一阶段主要为辐射雾,辽宁中部位于弱辐合带上,大雾出现在偏南气流中,偏南风将海上水汽输送到营口—沈阳一带,辐射降温配合弱的上升冷却作用,形成近地面逆温,同时温度露点差减小、相对湿度增大,导致大雾爆发性发展。大雾第二阶段,在次日07—08时冷平流入侵近地面层,逆温层再次建立导致大雾发展,低层弱冷平流到达地面时间和位置是大雾精细化预报的关键因素。     

北京地区一次强沙尘暴过程的大气边界层结构和湍流通量输送特征

利用中国科学院大气物理研究所北京325 m气象塔的风速和温度平均场观测资料和湍流资料,以及北京市气象台地面常规气象资料和逐日08:00和20:00(北京时间)的探空资料,分析了2002年3月18～22日沙尘暴过境前后北京城市边界层结构特征和湍流输送特征,结果表明:1)在沙尘暴爆发前,边界层中水平风速一直较小;气温较高,大气层结稳定,在边界层上部有强大的逆温层.随着冷锋过境,沙尘暴爆发,边界层中水平风速和平均湍流速度急剧增强;温度也突然变化,先迅速增强后又持续下降,逆温层迅速被破坏.2)沙尘暴初期,280 m上为系统性上升气流,而47和120 m则为系统性的下沉气流.随着沙尘暴爆发,湍流动能、向下传输的动量以及向上传输的感热也迅速增大,并且120 m高度的湍能、动量通量以及感热通量明显高于47和280 m,这与北京的局地环流有关.3)本次沙尘暴过程中,120和47 m层的摩擦速度都明显超过了北京的临界摩擦速度,表明局地起沙也是本次沙尘暴过程中北京沙尘的一个重要沙源.     

A Statistical Model for the Prediction of Wind-Speed Probabilities in the Atmospheric Surface Layer

Wind fields in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL) are highly three-dimensional and characterized by strong spatial and temporal variability. For various applications such as wind-comfort assessments and structural design, an understanding of potentially hazardous wind extremes is important. Statistical models are designed to facilitate conclusions about the occurrence probability of wind speeds based on the knowledge of low-order flow statistics. Being particularly interested in the upper tail regions we show that the statistical behaviour of near-surface wind speeds is adequately represented by the Beta distribution. By using the properties of the Beta probability density function in combination with a model for estimating extreme values based on readily available turbulence statistics, it is demonstrated that this novel modelling approach reliably predicts the upper margins of encountered wind speeds. The model’s basic parameter is derived from three substantially different calibrating datasets of flow in the ASL originating from boundary-layer wind-tunnel measurements and direct numerical simulation. Evaluating the model based on independent field observations of near-surface wind speeds shows a high level of agreement between the statistically modelled horizontal wind speeds and measurements. The results show that, based on knowledge of only a few simple flow statistics (mean wind speed, wind-speed fluctuations and integral time scales), the occurrence probability of velocity magnitudes at arbitrary flow locations in the ASL can be estimated with a high degree of confidence.     

Spatial representativeness of single tower measurements and the imbalance problem with eddy-covariance fluxes: results of a large-eddy simulation study

A large-eddy simulation (LES) study is presented that investigates the spatial variability of temporal eddy covariance fluxes and the systematic underestimation of representative fluxes linked to them. It extends a prior numerical study by performing high resolution simulations that allow for virtual measurements down to 20 m in a convective boundary layer, so that conditions for small tower measurement sites can be analysed. It accounts for different convective regimes as the wind speed and the near-surface heat flux are varied. Moreover, it is the first LES imbalance study that extends to the stable boundary layer. It reveals shortcomings of single site measurements and the necessity of using horizontally-distributed observation networks. The imbalances in the convective case are attributed to a locally non-vanishing mean vertical advection due to turbulent organised structures (TOS). The strength of the TOS and thus the imbalance magnitude depends on height, the horizontal mean wind and the convection type. Contrary to the results of a prior study, TOS cannot generally be responsible for large energy imbalances: at low observation heights (corresponding to small towers and near-surface energy balance stations) the TOS related imbalances are generally about one order of magnitude smaller than those in field experiments. However, TOS may cause large imbalances at large towers not only in the case of cellular convection and low wind speeds, as found in the previous study, but also in the case of roll convection at large wind speeds. In the stably stratified boundary layer for all observation heights neither TOS nor significant imbalances are observed. Attempting to reduce imbalances in convective situations by applying the conventional linear detrending method increases the systematic flux underestimation. Thus, a new filter method is proposed.     

Winter air pollution episodes over Cape Town

Episodes of air pollution over Cape Town are identified using multi-year time series of SO₂ and NO_x concentrations. The associated meteorological conditions are studied both from synoptic and meso-scale perspectives using detailed observations, statistical analyses and numerical model simulations. Atmospheric conditions are most conducive to poor dispersion in the winter months, April to August. Episodes are initiated by the eastward passage of an intense, synoptic anticyclone over the Cape Town area. The 850 hPa geopotential height typically rises to 1600 gpm a day before the episode. Northeasterly berg winds are common and act to dry out the boundary layer. A nocturnal radiation inversion forms with a mean strength of 11 °C and extends from the surface to 953 hPa (500m). Gradient and thermal winds tend to cancel out providing for low net transport rates for near-surface emissions. Acoustic sounder profiles for two episodes illustrate a reduction of winds and turbulence within the boundary layer. The episode surface circulation is simulated using a two-layer model. Hills which lie upstream of Cape Town obstruct the northeasterly flow during the morning.     

Surface ocean response to synoptic-scale variability in wind stress and heat fluxes off south-central Chile

The effect of the high frequency (synoptic) variability of wind and heat fluxes upon the surface ocean off south-central Chile (west coast of South America) is investigated using a regional ocean model. We focus our analysis in austral summer, when the regional wind experiences significant day-to-day variability superimposed on a mean, upwelling favorable flow. To evaluate the nature and magnitude of these effects, we performed three identical simulations except for the surface forcing: the climatological run, with long-term monthly mean wind-stresses and heat fluxes; the wind-synoptic run, with daily wind stresses and climatological heat fluxes; and the full-synoptic run, with daily wind-stresses and daily fluxes. The mean currents and surface geostrophic EKE fields show no major differences between simulations, and agree well with those observed in this ocean area. Nevertheless, substantially more ageostrophic EKE is found in the simulations which include synoptic variability of wind-stresses, impacting the total surface EKE and diffusivities, particularly south of Punta Lavapie (37° S), where the lack of major currents implies low levels of geostrophic EKE. Summer mean SSTs are similar in all simulations and agree with observations, but SST variability along the coast is larger in the runs including wind-stress synoptic variability, suggesting a rather linear response of the ocean to cycles of southerly wind strengthening and relaxation. We found that coastal SST variability does not change significantly in the first tenths of kilometers from the shore when including daily heat fluxes, highlighting the prominent role of wind-driven upwelling cycles. In contrast, in the offshore region situated beyond the 50 km coastal strip, it is necessary to include synoptic variability in the heat fluxes to account for a realistic SST variability.     

Numerical analysis of a thermotopographically-induced mesoscale circulation in a mountain basin using a non-hydrostatic model

Summary The boundary-layer wind field during weak synoptic conditions is largely controlled by the nature of the landscape. Mesoscale (sub-synoptic) circulations result from horizontal gradients of sensible heat flux due to variation in local topography, variation in surface-cover, and discontinuities such as land-sea contrasts. Such flows are usually referred to as thermally-driven circulations, and are diurnal in nature and often predictable. In this paper we use a state-of-the-art non-hydrostatic computer model to shed light on the physical mechanisms that drive a persistent easterly wind that develops in the afternoon in the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand. The easterly – Canterbury Plains Breeze (CPB) – is observed early in the afternoon and is often intense, with mean wind speeds reaching up to 12 m s⁻¹. Although computer modelling in mountainous terrain is extremely challenging, the model is able to simulate this circulation satisfactorily. To further investigate the mechanisms that generate the Canterbury Plains Breeze, two additional idealized model experiments are performed. With each experiment, the effects of the synoptic scale wind and the ocean around the South Island, New Zealand were successively removed. The results show that contrary to previous suggestions, the Canterbury Plains Breeze is not an intrusion of the coastal sea breeze or the Canterbury north-easterly, but can be generated by heating of the basin alone. This conclusion highlights the importance of mountain basins and saddles in controlling near-surface wind regimes in complex terrain.     

Initializing a Mesoscale Boundary-Layer Model with Radiosonde Observations

A mesoscale boundary-layer model is used to simulate low-level regional wind fields over the La Plata River of South America, a region characterized by a strong daily cycle of land–river surface-temperature contrast and low-level circulations of sea–land breeze type. The initial and boundary conditions are defined from a limited number of local observations and the upper boundary condition is taken from the only radiosonde observations available in the region. The study considers 14 different upper boundary conditions defined from the radiosonde data at standard levels, significant levels, level of the inversion base and interpolated levels at fixed heights, all of them within the first 1500 m. The period of analysis is 1994–2008 during which eight daily observations from 13 weather stations of the region are used to validate the 24-h surface-wind forecast. The model errors are defined as the root-mean-square of relative error in wind-direction frequency distribution and mean wind speed per wind sector. Wind-direction errors are greater than wind-speed errors and show significant dispersion among the different upper boundary conditions, not present in wind speed, revealing a sensitivity to the initialization method. The wind-direction errors show a well-defined daily cycle, not evident in wind speed, with the minimum at noon and the maximum at dusk, but no systematic deterioration with time. The errors grow with the height of the upper boundary condition level, in particular wind direction, and double the errors obtained when the upper boundary condition is defined from the lower levels. The conclusion is that defining the model upper boundary condition from radiosonde data closer to the ground minimizes the low-level wind-field errors throughout the region.     

基于WRF模式的青岛沿海地区近地面风的敏感性研究

沿海地区受风的影响较大,不仅受大尺度季风的影响还受到中小尺度局地风的影响,利用WRF模式从参数化组合方案、土地利用数据、水平网格精度以及耦合UCM四个方面对青岛沿海地区近地面风进行了模拟和比较。结果表明,微物理方案和边界层方案对研究区近地面风的影响较大,WSM3+YSU+Revised MM5 Monin-Obukhov+KF的参数化组合方案对研究区的模拟效果较好,相关系数在0.50～0.75之间,均方根误差在1.44～1.61之间。LUCC2015和TM2015土地利用数据能够更好地反映研究区的土地利用类型的分布特征,两者的模拟效果优于MODIS2001和MODIS2013。随着水平分辨率的提高,对地形刻画越精准,模拟效果越好,并且WRF+UCM方案能显著降低城市地区近地面风速,优化模拟结果。沿海地区近地面风的影响因素较为复杂,考虑模式的参数化方案组合、土地利用数据、地形和城市等多种因素,以期为沿海地区近地面风的模拟提供依据。     

Potential climate change impact on wind energy resources in northern Europe: analyses using a regional climate model

There is considerable interest in the potential impact of climate change on the feasibility and predictability of renewable energy sources including wind energy. This paper presents dynamically downscaled near-surface wind fields and examines the impact of climate change on near-surface flow and hence wind energy density across northern Europe. It is shown that: Simulated wind fields from the Rossby Centre coupled Regional Climate Model (RCM) (RCAO) with boundary conditions derived from ECHAM4/OPYC3 AOGCM and the HadAM3H atmosphere-only GCM exhibit reasonable and realistic features as documented in reanalysis data products during the control period (1961–1990). The near-surface wind speeds calculated for a climate change projection period of 2071–2100 are higher than during the control run for two IPCC emission scenarios (A2, B2) for simulations conducted using boundary conditions from ECHAM4/OPYC3. The RCAO simulations conducted using boundary conditions from ECHAM4/OPYC3 indicate evidence for a small increase in the annual wind energy resource over northern Europe between the control run and climate change projection period and for more substantial increases in energy density during the winter season. However, the differences between the RCAO simulations for the climate projection period and the control run are of similar magnitude to differences between the RCAO fields in the control period and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Additionally, the simulations show a high degree of sensitivity to the boundary conditions, and simulations conducted using boundary conditions from HadAM3H exhibit evidence of slight declines or no change in wind speed and energy density between 1961–1990 and 2071–2100. Hence, the uncertainty of the projected wind changes is relatively high.     

Non-Gaussian Lagrangian Stochastic Model for Wind Field Simulation in the Surface Layer

Wind field simulation in the surface layer is often used to manage natural resources in terms of air quality, gene flow(through pollen drift), and plant disease transmission(spore dispersion). Although Lagrangian stochastic(LS) models describe stochastic wind behaviors, such models assume that wind velocities follow Gaussian distributions. However,measured surface-layer wind velocities show a strong skewness and kurtosis. This paper presents an improved model, a non-Gaussian LS model, which inco...     

北方麦收期间连阴雨天气环流特征

利用1980-2004年5月下旬至6月中旬北方麦收区30个代表站降水实况资料，连阴雨期间亚欧范围500hPa逐日形势图和500hPa高度平均图等，分析总结了近25年来北方麦收期间连阴雨的天气气候和环流形势特征；对北方麦收期间出现的连阴雨天气过程与环流形势和影响系统的关系进行初步探讨，确定连阴雨天气的概念模型。分析表明，阻塞高压形势且贝加尔湖附近伴有冷涡是造成连阴雨天气最主要的环流特征；在500hPa地转风υ场上，麦收区多处于南北风交界处；长连阴雨期间，850hPa东亚地区中低纬度盛行南风为主要特征。     

Aircraft and ship observations of the mean structure of the marine boundary layer over the Arabian Sea during MONEX 79

Analysis of the mean wind, equivalent potential temperature and virtual potential temperature profiles observed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Electra aircraft and obtained from dropwindsondes and ship-launched radiosondes were made in conjunction with synoptic observations to study the structure of the monsoon boundary layer over the Arabian Sea during MONEX 79. Comparison of mean profiles indicates the monsoon boundary layer to be much different from the trade wind boundary layer. Results confirm the existence of a boundary-layer jet known as East African or Somali Jet. Regions of multiple cloud layers at roughly the height of the capping inversion layer were associated with the jet. Regions in which a more well-mixed layer was observed showed a jet structure depressed in height. A free-jet surface-layer model appears to describe the mean wind structure of this jet observed during the present study and by others. An approximate balance of forces was found in the monsoon boundary layer between friction, advective acceleration, Coriolis and pressure gradient forces. Friction and advective acceleration terms were significant in the lower levels of the boundary layer. Forces in a typical trade wind boundary layer were found to be approximately one order of magnitude smaller than those observed in the monsoon boundary layer.     

Turbulence characteristics in the coastal zone with breeze circulation

Turbulence characteristics in the surface layer of the coastal area of Akhtopol (Bulgaria) under conditions of the breeze circulation are measured. The measurements were carried out at the level of 4.5 m by means of three-component ultrasonic anemometer. To estimate the wind regime in the atmospheric boundary layer, the sodar data and synoptic charts were used. All turbulent characteristics except the correlation coefficient of the friction flow have an appreciable daily course in the case of the sea breeze. In the frontal zone, some characteristics demonstrate sometimes short-term variations of their numerical values. The sea-land front of the breeze circulation is effectively detected from the measurements of wind speed, wind direction, and temperature in the surface layer. It is also possible to judge about the breeze circulation type and turbulence structure in this layer on the basis of these measurements.     

用T106L19产品制作春季西南大风预报

使用最近１０年的逐日资料,分析了辽宁省西南大风的天气气候特征。应用天气动力方法,分析了产生西南大风的天气特点,发现了一些预报西南大风的重要物理因子,建立了基于Ｔ１０６Ｌ１９输出产品的预报方法并在业务中应用。结果表明,该方法预报效果明显好于主观预报     

大气边界层的初值形成

采用850毫巴和地面的大尺度天气状况和物理特性作为外参数,将大气边界层下层的地表层进行特殊处理,考虑了层结的作用,其上分成等距15层,考虑地转民随高度线性变化。上下层耦合,建立一个定常平衡初值模型,并将所得的初值作为第一级近似,再利用地面、300、600、900、1500米五个高度测风资料进行动力调整,试图建立一个更加接近实际状态的边界层初值。 文中利用所建立的模型,对大气边界层的一些物理参数的作用进行了分析,并对动力调整过程以及垂直分层的选取等作了讨论。 最后例举华北地区1966年8月23日08时边界层的各层次风场和垂直运动,清楚地显示出边界层内的细致结构。