A simple and efficient procedure for the numerical simulation of wind fields in complex terrain

In spite of recent progress in the prognostic numerical simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer, the explicit simulation of turbulent flows in actual complex terrain is generally still very complicated and time consuming for many environmental applications. In an attempt to develop simpler and more efficient application oriented techniques, although less refined, we propose a multi-step procedure for simulating wind fields. Once obtained the necessary meteorological input, the mass-consistent modelling technique is used to perform high-resolution mean wind flow simulations taking into account recent developments in the atmospheric boundary-layer theory. Besides, a procedure based on a generalisation of the local logarithmic law-of-the-wall over complex terrain is used to estimate the effective parameters characterising the simulated wind profiles. Turbulence intensities and spectral properties are then calculated through the estimated effective parameters, in particular through the effective friction velocity parameter. Finally, time series of the instantaneous velocity field are simulated by the Monte Carlo technique. Two applications of the proposed approach are discussed briefly: the first one is related to a coastal area in southern Italy (the Messina Straits), where the construction of the world’s longest central span bridge is being planned; the second one corresponds to the flow in a mountainous area in northern Italy (the Albenga Airport).     

显式云物理方案的研究进展

回顾了近年来显式云物理方案的研究进展。显式云方案主要有体积水方法和详细微物理方法(分档法)。体积水方法有单参数和双参数两种谱描述方法,根据模式预报变量和物理过程的不同,可以分为暖云方案、简单冰相方案和复杂冰相方案。详细的微物理方法由于预报变量繁多、计算量巨大而一般多应用于研究工作。不同的模式,有不同的显式云方案,并不是粒子分类越复杂模拟效果就越好,需要根据研究的重点、计算资源的许可选择使用不同的物理方案。物理过程参数化需要建立在理论和实验研究的基础上,因此应加强这方面的理论和实验研究,使物理参数化具有更坚实的物理基础。     

多变量时间序列滑动窗口异常点的检测

针对多变量时间序列(MTS)的异常点的探测问题,提出了采用由粗到细的二次探测方案.基于滑动窗口数据的置信区间,构造了变化趋势值特征和相对变化趋势值特征分别用于二次探测,同时研究了特征的快速提取算法.通过对OPEN3000数据监测系统采集的事故发生前后某市城南变电站各设备表的数据集进行异常点探测,结果表明提出的算法能够快速准确地探测出异常点的位置.     

Simulation of Pollutant Transport in Complex Terrain with a Numerical Weather Prediction–Particle Dispersion Model Combination

A new scaling approach, based on the convective velocity obtained from the sun-exposed eastern slopes and thus suited for steep and narrow Alpine valleys, is investigated with respect to pollutant dispersion. The capability of the new method is demonstrated with the operational emergency response system of MeteoSwiss, which consists of the COSMO (COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling) numerical weather prediction model coupled with a Lagrangian particle dispersion model (LPDM). The new scaling approach is introduced to the interface between COSMO and LPDM, and is compared to results of a classical similarity theory approach and to the operational coupling type, which uses the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) from the COSMO model directly. For the validation of the modelling system, the TRANSALP-89 tracer experiment is used, which was conducted in highly complex terrain in southern Switzerland. The ability of the COSMO model to simulate the valley wind system is assessed with several meteorological surface stations, and the dispersion simulation is evaluated with the measurements from 25 surface samplers. The sensitivity of the modelling system towards the soil moisture, horizontal grid resolution, and boundary-layer height determination is investigated, and it is shown that, if the flow field is correctly reproduced, the new scaling approach improves the tracer concentration simulation when compared to classical coupling methods.     

Time trend estimation with breaks in temperature time series

This paper deals with the modelling of the global and northern and southern hemispheric anomaly temperature time series using a novel technique based on segmented trends and fractional integration. We use a procedure that permits us to estimate linear time trends and orders of integration at various subsamples, where the periods for the changing trends are endogenously determined by the model. Moreover, we use a non-parametric approach (Bloomfield P, Biometrika, 60:217–226, 1973) for modelling the I(0) deviation term. The results show that the three series (global, northern and southern temperatures) can be well described in terms of fractional integration with the orders of integration around 0.5 in the three cases. The coefficients associated to the time trends are statistically significant in all subsamples for the three series, especially during the final part of the sample, giving then some support to the global warming theories.     

一个耦合了简化生物圈方案的全球大气环流谱模式及其性能测试

在美国ＮＭＣ ＡＧＣＭ模式的基础上，参照ＣＯＬＡ低分辨率ＡＧＣＭ模式，移植和改进了一个包括植被层陆面过程的陆－气耦合全球大气环流谱模式。其水平分辨率为菱形截断１５波，垂直方向分为９层，陆面过程采用简化的简单生物圈模式。     

Numerical simulation of severe convective phenomena over Croatian and Hungarian territory

Squall lines and supercells cause severe weather and huge damages in the territory of Croatia and Hungary. These long living events can be recognised by radar very well, but the problem of early warning, especially successful numerical forecast of these phenomena, has not yet been solved in this region. Two case studies are presented here in which dynamical modelling approach gives promising results: a squall line preceding a cold front and a single supercell generated because of a prefrontal instability. The numerical simulation is performed using the PSU/NCAR meso-scale model MM5, with horizontal resolution of 3 km. Lateral boundary conditions are taken from the ECMWF model. The moist processes are resolved by Reisner mixed-phase explicit moisture scheme and for the radiation scheme a rapid radiative transfer model is applied. The analysis nudging technique is applied for the first two hours of the model run. The results of the simulation are very promising. The MM5 model reconstructed the appearance of the convective phenomena and showed the development of thunderstorm into the supercell phase. The model results give very detailed insight into wind changes showing the rotation of supercells, clearly distinguish warm core of the cell and give rather good precipitation estimate. The successful simulation of convective phenomena by a high-resolution MM5 model showed that even smaller scale conditions are contained in synoptic scale patterns, represented in this case by the ECMWF model.     

Numerical simulation of the boundary layer above waves

A new approach to investigations of the structure of the boundary layer above waves is discussed. The approach is based on direct numerical simulation of wave motions in the boundary layer produced by a moving curved surface. Model equations are derived, which are the Reynolds equations in a curvilinear nonstationary system of co-ordinates, evolution equations for turbulent kinetic energy, and Kolmogorov's approximate similarity formulae relating the coefficient of turbulent viscosity to the dissipation of turbulent energy; the length scale is assumed to grow linearly with increasing distance from the surface. Principles of constructing the model numerical scheme are described. Results are given of modelling the structure of the boundary layer above a nonsteady surface, which, in a general case, is a superposition of progressive waves with assigned dispersion relations and amplitudes. Mechanisms of energy and momentum transfer to the surface, effects of density stratification and energy structure in the boundary layer are studied. Merits and demerits of the approach are discussed.     

Evaluating the performance of a WRF physics ensemble over South-East Australia

When using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modelling system it is necessary to choose between many parametrisations for each physics option. This study examines the performance of various physics scheme combinations on the simulation of a series of rainfall events near the south-east coast of Australia known as East Coast Lows. A thirty-six member multi-physics ensemble was created such that each member had a unique set of physics parametrisations. No single ensemble member was found to perform best for all events, variables and metrics. This is reflected in the fact that different climate variables are found to be sensitive to different physical parametrisations. While a standardised super-metric can be used to identify best performers, a step-wise decision approach described here, allows explicit recognition of the “robustness” of choosing one parameterisation over another, allowing the identification of a group of “equally robustly” performing physics combinations. These results suggest that the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic planetary boundary layer scheme and the Betts-Miller-Janjic cumulus scheme can be chosen with some robustness. Possibly with greater confidence, the results also suggest that the Yonsei University planetary boundary layer scheme, Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme and RRTMG radiation scheme should not be used in combination in this region. Results further indicate that the selection of physics scheme options has larger impact on model performance during the more intensive rainfall events.     

A numerical method for solving the evolution equation of solitary Rossby waves on a weak shear

In this paper an evolution equation in integral-differential form for finite amplitude Rossby waves on a weak shear is presented and an efficient method for its numerical solution is set up. It is shown that a propa-gation of solitary wave is possible whenever a proper weak shear in basic flows acts with the nonlinear effects and dispersion of the media, both in the atmosphere and in the ocean. To test the numerical method for solving the evolution equation, a series of experiments are carried out. The results indicate that the solitary solutions do exist and interact with each other in quite a succinct, manner. Therefore the method is successful and efficient for solving initial value problems of the above equation. The time decoupling problem arising in the numerical scheme and the related filtering technique are discussed. A variety of interesting phenomena such as the interaction of solitary Rossby waves, damping, dispersion and the development of nonlinear wave train are numerically studied.     

Response of a River Catchment to Climatic Change: Application of Expanded Downscaling to Northern Germany

We used the technique of expanded General Circulation Model (GCM) downscalingto derive time series of daily weather for the analysis of potential climaticchange impact on a river catchment in Northern Germany. The derived timeseries was then fed into a spatially distributed hydrological model tosimulate various water balance components and river discharge. All componentsof this modelling approach are known to provide fairly accurate results undernormal (current) climatic conditions. Hydrological time series, theirstatistics and spatial patterns of various water balance components, resultingfrom a `business-as-usual' emission scenario, were analysed. The simulationresults showed that if everything apart from climate is held constant, asignificant increase in river discharge may be expected in the coming decadesas a consequence of increased rainfall amounts. Although the modellingapproach provides an operational way of performing watershed climate changeimpact studies, many uncertainties still have to be considered.     

Forward-in-time and Backward-in-time Dispersion in the Convective Boundary Layer: the Concentration Footprint

The turbulence field obtained using a large-eddy simulation model is used to simulate particle dispersion in the convective boundary layer with both forward-in-time and backward-in-time modes. A Lagrangian stochastic model is used to treat subgrid-scale turbulence. Results of forward dispersion match both laboratory experiments and previous numerical studies for different release heights in the convective boundary layer. Results obtained from backward dispersion show obvious asymmetry when directly compared to results from forward dispersion. However, a direct comparison of forward and backward dispersion has no apparent physical meaning and might be misleading. Results of backward dispersion can be interpreted as three-dimensional or generalized concentration footprints, which indicate that sources in the entire boundary layer, not only sources at the surface, may influence a concentration measurement at a point. Footprints at four source heights in the convective boundary layer corresponding to four receptors are derived using forward and backward dispersion methods. The agreement among footprints derived with forward and backward methods illustrates the equivalence between both approaches. The paper shows explicitly that Lagrangian simulations can yield identical footprints using forward and backward methods in horizontally homogeneous turbulence.     

Pollutant Plume Dispersion in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer over Idealized Urban Roughness

The Gaussian model of plume dispersion is commonly used for pollutant concentration estimates. However, its major parameters, dispersion coefficients, barely account for terrain configuration and surface roughness. Large-scale roughness elements (e.g. buildings in urban areas) can substantially modify the ground features together with the pollutant transport in the atmospheric boundary layer over urban roughness (also known as the urban boundary layer, UBL). This study is thus conceived to investigate how urban roughness affects the flow structure and vertical dispersion coefficient in the UBL. Large-eddy simulation (LES) is carried out to examine the plume dispersion from a ground-level pollutant (area) source over idealized street canyons for cross flows in neutral stratification. A range of building-height-to-street-width (aspect) ratios, covering the regimes of skimming flow, wake interference, and isolated roughness, is employed to control the surface roughness. Apart from the widely used aerodynamic resistance or roughness function, the friction factor is another suitable parameter that measures the drag imposed by urban roughness quantitatively. Previous results from laboratory experiments and mathematical modelling also support the aforementioned approach for both two- and three-dimensional roughness elements. Comparing the UBL plume behaviour, the LES results show that the pollutant dispersion strongly depends on the friction factor. Empirical studies reveal that the vertical dispersion coefficient increases with increasing friction factor in the skimming flow regime (lower resistance) but is more uniform in the regimes of wake interference and isolated roughness (higher resistance). Hence, it is proposed that the friction factor and flow regimes could be adopted concurrently for pollutant concentration estimate in the UBL over urban street canyons of different roughness.     

A New Scheme for the Simulation of Microscale Flow and Dispersion in Urban Areas by Coupling Large-Eddy Simulation with Mesoscale Models

A coupling scheme is proposed for the simulation of microscale flow and dispersion in which both the mesoscale field and small-scale turbulence are specified at the boundary of a microscale model. The small-scale turbulence is obtained individually in the inner and outer layers by the transformation of pre-computed databases, and then combined in a weighted sum. Validation of the results of a flow over a cluster of model buildings shows that the inner- and outer-layer transition height should be located in the roughness sublayer. Both the new scheme and the previous scheme are applied in the simulation of the flow over the central business district of Oklahoma City (a point source during intensive observation period 3 of the Joint Urban 2003 experimental campaign), with results showing that the wind speed is well predicted in the canopy layer. Compared with the previous scheme, the new scheme improves the prediction of the wind direction and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the canopy layer. The flow field influences the scalar plume in two ways, i.e. the averaged flow field determines the advective flux and the TKE field determines the turbulent flux. Thus, the mean, root-mean-square and maximum of the concentration agree better with the observations with the new scheme. These results indicate that the new scheme is an effective means of simulating the complex flow and dispersion in urban canopies.     

Conditional concentration statistics for surface plumes in the atmospheric boundary layer

A set of concentration time series from ground-level plumes in the atmosphere has been used to generate conditionally sampled (zeros ignored) plume concentration statistics. These have been compared and contrasted with corresponding unconditionally sampled statistics. It is found that conditional statistics are much less sensitive to the location of the receptor (relative to the mean plume) and to averaging time. Indeed, most of the variation apparent in unconditionally sampled statistics (both explained and unexplained) resides in the intermittency, the fraction of non-zero readings.The data are used to test three commonly used models for the concentration frequency distribution. At the simplest level of modelling, it is assumed that conditional statistics are invariant; then the data are best represented by a clipped-normal distribution. However, an exponential distribution is only slightly conservative and has the advantage of simplicity. A log-normal distribution is clearly not supported by the data. With this simple approach the intermittency remains unspecified and this is a serious deficiency.More advanced modelling must account for the residual variation in conditional statistics, which implies a relationship between these statistics and the intermittency. Although there is evidence for such a relationship in the data, it is not adequately represented by any of the distribution models considered.     

不同模式扰动方案在风暴尺度集合预报中的对比试验研究

由于适用于中长期集合预报的模式扰动技术在风暴尺度集合预报系统中的影响并不明确,为探究不同模式扰动方案在风暴尺度集合预报中的效果,基于WRF模式设计了3组模式扰动方案:多物理扰动（MP）方案、随机物理倾向扰动（Stochastically Perturbed Parameterization Tendencies,SPPT）方案以及由MP方案与SPPT方案组合构建的一种新混合扰动（SPMP）方案。对2013年7月5—6日发生在江淮流域的一次强对流天气过程进行了数值模拟。结果表明:MP方案在积分前期的降水概率评分较高,对高层大气的扰动效果更为合理;SPPT方案主要作用于积分中后期,对大气低层及近地面的扰动效果最为理想,尤其是对于地面水汽场的模拟;SPMP方案能显著提高大气中高层各预报变量的离散度,降低均方根误差,提升集合成员的可信度,有效弥补降水预报评分在单独使用MP方案和SPPT方案不同积分时段的不足。在扰动水平传播方向上,SPMP方案的扰动形态主要受MP方案主导;垂直方向上,SPMP方案在低层的扰动形态与SPPT方案一致,在高层受MP方案控制。波谱能量分析表明3组方案的扰动能量随积分时间均有向大尺度传播的趋势,SPMP方案能有效补偿两种方案能量在各尺度的耗散。      

The Impact of Assimilating Radar-estimated Rain Rates on Simulation of Precipitation in the 17--18 July 1996 Chicago Floods

Rainfall prediction remains one of the most challenging problems in weather forecasting. In order to improve high-resolution quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF), a new procedure for assimilating rainfall rate derived from radar composite reflectivity has been proposed and tested in a numerical simulation of the Chicago floods of 17–18 July 1996. The methodology is based on the one-dimensional variation scheme (1DVAR) assimilation approach introduced by Fillion and Errico but applied here using the Ka...     

The Application of Flux-Form Semi-Lagrangian Transport Scheme in a Spectral Atmosphere Model

A flux-form semi-Lagrangian transport scheme(FFSL) was implemented in a spectral atmospheric GCM developed and used at IAP/LASG.Idealized numerical experiments show that the scheme is good at shape preserving with less dissipation and dispersion,in comparison with other conventional schemes.Importantly,FFSL can automatically maintain the positive definition of the transported tracers,which was an underlying problem in the previous spectral composite method(SCM).To comprehensively investigate the impact of FFSL on GCM results,we conducted sensitive experiments.Three main improvements resulted:first,rainfall simulation in both distribution and intensity was notably improved,which led to an improvement in precipitation frequency.Second,the dry bias in the lower troposphere was significantly reduced compared with SCM simulations.Third,according to the Taylor diagram,the FFSL scheme yields simulations that are superior to those using the SCM:a higher correlation between model output and observation data was achieved with the FFSL scheme,especially for humidity in lower troposphere.However,the moist bias in the middle and upper troposphere was more pronounced with the FFSL scheme.This bias led to an over-simulation of precipitable water in comparison with reanalysis data.Possible explanations,as well as solutions,are discussed herein.     

Measurements and Computations of Flow in an Urban Street System

We present results from laboratory and computational experiments on the turbulent flow over an array of rectangular blocks modelling a typical, asymmetric urban canopy at various orientations to the approach flow. The work forms part of a larger study on dispersion within such arrays (project DIPLOS) and concentrates on the nature of the mean flow and turbulence fields within the canopy region, recognising that unless the flow field is adequately represented in computational models there is no reason to expect realistic simulations of the nature of the dispersion of pollutants emitted within the canopy. Comparisons between the experimental data and those obtained from both large-eddy simulation (LES) and direct numerical simulation (DNS) are shown and it is concluded that careful use of LES can produce generally excellent agreement with laboratory and DNS results, lending further confidence in the use of LES for such situations. Various crucial issues are discussed and advice offered to both experimentalists and those seeking to compute canopy flows with turbulence resolving models.     

PRM标量平流方案在GRAPES全球预报系统中的应用

如何更好地模拟水物质的分布,对于数值天气预报效果的改进,特别是对于更好地模拟降水过程,具有重要的意义。半拉格朗日模式中的标量平流计算要求做到高精度、守恒、正定和保形,但GRAPES_GFS (Global-Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System, Global Forecast System) 中采用的QMSL(Quasi-Monotone Semi-Lagrangian)平流方案在水汽的强梯度、不连续区域计算精度较低,且不能做到严格守恒。本研究借鉴计算流体力学领域的研究进展,将一个基于分段有理函数的物质平流方案PRM(Piecewise Rational Method)引入GRAPES_GFS中,按照通量形式求解水汽方程,并对极区进行了混合等技术处理。通过一系列理想试验对两种平流方案进行了对比,证明了PRM方案精度较高,特别是在水汽梯度大的区域优势明显,频散、耗散误差较小,守恒、保形性也要好于QMSL方案。通过对GRAPES_GFS中批量预报试验效果的检验,验证了PRM方案可以有效地改进模式对水物质分布的模拟,提高了降水的预报效果,对模式综合预报性能的提升也有明显作用。