scholarly journals Evaluating the WFIP2 updates to the HRRR model using scanning Doppler lidar measurements in the complex terrain of the Columbia River Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 043301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yelena L. Pichugina ◽  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
W. Alan Brewer ◽  
L. Bianco ◽  
C. Draxl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Columbia River Basin ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Lidar Measurements

scholarly journals Characterizing NWP Model Errors Using Doppler-Lidar Measurements of Recurrent Regional Diurnal Flows: Marine-Air Intrusions into the Columbia River Basin

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (3) ◽  
pp. 929-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
Yelena L. Pichugina ◽  
W. Alan Brewer ◽  
Aditya Choukulkar ◽  
Kathleen O. Lantz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Columbia River Basin ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Model Errors ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Nwp Model ◽  
Marine Air

Abstract Ground-based Doppler-lidar instrumentation provides atmospheric wind data at dramatically improved accuracies and spatial/temporal resolutions. These capabilities have provided new insights into atmospheric flow phenomena, but they also should have a strong role in NWP model improvement. Insight into the nature of model errors can be gained by studying recurrent atmospheric flows, here a regional summertime diurnal sea breeze and subsequent marine-air intrusion into the arid interior of Oregon–Washington, where these winds are an important wind-energy resource. These marine intrusions were sampled by three scanning Doppler lidars in the Columbia River basin as part of the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2), using data from summer 2016. Lidar time–height cross sections of wind speed identified 8 days when the diurnal flow cycle (peak wind speeds at midnight, afternoon minima) was obvious and strong. The 8-day composite time–height cross sections of lidar wind speeds are used to validate those generated by the operational NCEP–HRRR model. HRRR simulated the diurnal wind cycle, but produced errors in the timing of onset and significant errors due to a premature nighttime demise of the intrusion flow, producing low-bias errors of 6 m s−1. Day-to-day and in the composite, whenever a marine intrusion occurred, HRRR made these same errors. The errors occurred under a range of gradient wind conditions indicating that they resulted from the misrepresentation of physical processes within a limited region around the measurement locations. Because of their generation within a limited geographical area, field measurement programs can be designed to find and address the sources of these NWP errors.

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