High-Resolution Large-Eddy Simulations of Scalar Transport in Atmospheric Boundary Layer Flow over Complex Terrain

2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 3150-3169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takenobu Michioka ◽  
Fotini Katopodes Chow
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Grid Resolution ◽  
Scalar Transport ◽  
Lateral Boundary ◽  
Scalar Dispersion ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
Transport And Diffusion ◽  
Horizontal Grid ◽  
And Diffusion

Abstract This paper presents high-resolution numerical simulations of the atmospheric flow and concentration fields accompanying scalar transport and diffusion from a point source in complex terrain. Scalar dispersion is affected not only by mean flow, but also by turbulent fluxes that affect scalar mixing, meaning that predictions of scalar transport require greater attention to the choice of numerical simulation parameters than is typically needed for mean wind field predictions. Large-eddy simulation is used in a mesoscale setting, providing modeling advantages through the use of robust turbulence models combined with the influence of synoptic flow forcing and heterogeneous land surface forcing. An Eulerian model for scalar transport and diffusion is implemented in the Advanced Regional Prediction System mesoscale code to compare scalar concentrations with data collected during field experiments conducted at Mount Tsukuba, Japan, in 1989. The simulations use horizontal grid resolution as fine as 25 m with up to eight grid nesting levels to incorporate time-dependent meteorological forcing. The results show that simulated ground concentration values contain significant errors relative to measured values because the mesoscale wind typically contains a wind direction bias of a few dozen degrees. Comparisons of simulation results with observations of arc maximum concentrations, however, lie within acceptable error bounds. In addition, this paper investigates the effects on scalar dispersion of computational mixing and lateral boundary conditions, which have received little attention in the literature—in particular, for high-resolution applications. The choice of lateral boundary condition update interval is found not to affect time-averaged quantities but to affect the scalar transport strongly. More frequent updates improve the simulated ground concentration values. In addition, results show that the computational mixing coefficient must be set to as small a value as possible to improve scalar dispersion predictions. The predicted concentration fields are compared as the horizontal grid resolution is increased from 190 m to as fine as 25 m. The difference observed in the results at these levels of grid refinement is found to be small relative to the effects of computational mixing and lateral boundary updates.

scholarly journals Vertically nested LES for high-resolution simulation of the surface layer in PALM (version 5.0)

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2523-2538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadiq Huq ◽  
Frederik De Roo ◽  
Siegfried Raasch ◽  
Matthias Mauder
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Surface Layer ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Large Eddy Simulation ◽  
Grid Resolution ◽  
Computational Power ◽  
Fine Grid ◽  
Eddy Simulation ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
Nesting Algorithm

Abstract. Large-eddy simulation (LES) has become a well-established tool in the atmospheric boundary layer research community to study turbulence. It allows three-dimensional realizations of the turbulent fields, which large-scale models and most experimental studies cannot yield. To resolve the largest eddies in the mixed layer, a moderate grid resolution in the range of 10 to 100 m is often sufficient, and these simulations can be run on a computing cluster with a few hundred processors or even on a workstation for simple configurations. The desired resolution is usually limited by the computational resources. However, to compare with tower measurements of turbulence and exchange fluxes in the surface layer, a much higher resolution is required. In spite of the growth in computational power, a high-resolution LES of the surface layer is often not feasible: to fully resolve the energy-containing eddies near the surface, a grid spacing of O(1 m) is required. One way to tackle this problem is to employ a vertical grid nesting technique, in which the surface is simulated at the necessary fine grid resolution, and it is coupled with a standard, coarse, LES that resolves the turbulence in the whole boundary layer. We modified the LES model PALM (Parallelized Large-eddy simulation Model) and implemented a two-way nesting technique, with coupling in both directions between the coarse and the fine grid. The coupling algorithm has to ensure correct boundary conditions for the fine grid. Our nesting algorithm is realized by modifying the standard third-order Runge–Kutta time stepping to allow communication of data between the two grids. The two grids are concurrently advanced in time while ensuring that the sum of resolved and sub-grid-scale kinetic energy is conserved. We design a validation test and show that the temporally averaged profiles from the fine grid agree well compared to the reference simulation with high resolution in the entire domain. The overall performance and scalability of the nesting algorithm is found to be satisfactory. Our nesting results in more than 80 % savings in computational power for 5 times higher resolution in each direction in the surface layer.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Using Mixed Physics in the Community Leveraged Unified Ensemble

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Gallus ◽  
Jamie Wolff ◽  
John Halley Gotway ◽  
Michelle Harrold ◽  
Lindsay Blank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Software Package ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Lateral Boundary ◽  
Grid Spacing ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Lateral Boundary Conditions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Horizontal Grid

Abstract A well-known problem in high-resolution ensembles has been a lack of sufficient spread among members. Modelers often have used mixed physics to increase spread, but this can introduce problems including computational expense, clustering of members, and members that are not all equally skillful. Thus, a detailed examination of the impacts of using mixed physics is important. The present study uses two years of Community Leveraged Unified Ensemble (CLUE) output to isolate the impact of mixed physics in 36-h forecasts made using a convection-permitting ensemble with 3-km horizontal grid spacing. One 10-member subset of the CLUE used only perturbed initial conditions (ICs) and lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) while another 10-member ensemble used the same mixed ICs and LBCs but also introduced mixed physics. The cases examined occurred during NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Forecast Experiments in 2016 and 2017. Traditional gridpoint metrics applied to each member and the ensemble as a whole, along with object-based verification statistics for all members, were computed for composite reflectivity and 1- and 3-h accumulated precipitation using the Model Evaluation Tools (MET) software package. It is found that the mixed physics increases variability substantially among the ensemble members, more so for reflectivity than precipitation, such that the envelope of members is more likely to encompass the observations. However, the increased variability is mostly due to the introduction of both substantial high biases in members using one microphysical scheme, and low biases in other schemes. Overall ensemble skill is not substantially different from the ensemble using a single physics package.

scholarly journals Evaluation of a forest parameterization to improve boundary layer flow simulations over complex terrain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Quimbayo-Duarte ◽  
Johannes Wagner ◽  
Norman Wildmann ◽  
Thomas Gerz ◽  
Juerg Schmidli
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Grid Spacing ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Valley Wind ◽  
Layer Flow ◽  
Horizontal Grid

Abstract. We evaluate the influence of a forest parametrization on the simulation of the boundary layer flow over moderate complex terrain in the context of the Perdigão 2017 field campaign. The numerical simulations are performed using the Weather research and forecasting model using its large eddy simulation mode (WRF-LES). The short-term high resolution (40 m horizontal grid spacing) and long-term (200 m horizontal grid spacing) WRF-LES are evaluated for an integration time of 12 hours and 1.5 months, respectively, with and without forest parameterization. The short-term simulations focus on low-level jet events over the valley, while the long-term simulations cover the whole intensive observation period (IOP) of the field campaign. The results are validated using lidar and meteorological tower observations. The mean diurnal cycle during the IOP shows a significant improvement of the along-valley wind speed and the wind direction when using the forest parametrization. However, the drag imposed by the parametrization results in an underestimation of the cross-valley wind speed, which can be attributed to a poor representation of the land surface characteristics. The evaluation of the high-resolution WRF-LES shows a positive influence of the forest parametrization on the simulated winds in the first 500 m above the surface.

An Overview of MADONA: A Multinational Field Study of High-Resolution Meteorology and Diffusion over Complex Terrain

1999 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Cionco ◽  
J. H. Byers ◽  
Waufm Kampe ◽  
H. van Raden ◽  
H. Weber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
And Diffusion
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