A Revised Scheme for the WRF Surface Layer Formulation

This study summarizes the revision performed on the surface layer formulation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. A first set of modifications are introduced to provide more suitable similarity functions to simulate the surface layer evolution under strong stable/unstable conditions...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Jiménez, Pedro A., Dudhia, Jimy, González-Rouco, J. F., Navarro, Jorge, Montávez, J. P., García-Bustamante, Elena
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/75949
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/75949
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Mesoscale models
Parameterization
Microscale processes/variability
Descripción
Sumario:This study summarizes the revision performed on the surface layer formulation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. A first set of modifications are introduced to provide more suitable similarity functions to simulate the surface layer evolution under strong stable/unstable conditions. A second set of changes are incorporated to reduce or suppress the limits that are imposed on certain variables in order to avoid undesired effects (e.g., a lower limit in u*). The changes introduced lead to a more consistent surface layer formulation that covers the full range of atmospheric stabilities. The turbulent fluxes are more (less) efficient during the day (night) in the revised scheme and produce a sharper afternoon transition that shows the largest impacts in the planetary boundary layer meteorological variables. The most important impacts in the near-surface diagnostic variables are analyzed and compared with observations from a mesoscale network.