scholarly journals Compliance Monitoring of Underwater Blasting for Rock Removal at Warrior Point, Columbia River Channel Improvement Project, 2009/2010

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Carlson ◽  
Gary E. Johnson ◽  
Christa M. Woodley ◽  
J. R. Skalski ◽  
Adam Seaburg
Keyword(s):  
Columbia River ◽  
River Channel ◽  
Compliance Monitoring ◽  
Improvement Project

Wind Forecasting Improvement Project In Complex Terrain Near the Columbia River Gorge

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McCaa ◽  
◽  
Eric P. Grimit ◽  
Mark Stoelinga ◽  
Justin Sharp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Wind Forecasting

scholarly journals Identification and Characterization of Persistent Cold Pool Events from Temperature and Wind Profilers in the Columbia River Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (12) ◽  
pp. 2533-2551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine McCaffrey ◽  
James M. Wilczak ◽  
Laura Bianco ◽  
Eric Grimit ◽  
Justin Sharp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Microwave Radiometer ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Columbia River Basin ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Wind Profilers

AbstractCold pool events occur when deep layers of stable, cold air remain trapped in a valley or basin for multiple days, without mixing out from daytime heating. With large impacts on air quality, freezing events, and especially on wind energy production, they are often poorly forecast by modern mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Understanding the characteristics of cold pools is, therefore, important to provide more accurate forecasts. This study analyzes cold pool characteristics with data collected during the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2), which took place in the Columbia River basin and Gorge of Oregon and Washington from fall 2015 until spring 2017. A subset of the instrumentation included three microwave radiometer profilers, six radar wind profilers with radio acoustic sounding systems, and seven sodars, which together provided seven sites with collocated vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. Using these collocated observations, we developed a set of criteria to determine if a cold pool was present based on stability, wind speed, direction, and temporal continuity, and then developed an automated algorithm based on these criteria to identify all cold pool events over the 18 months of the field project. Characteristics of these events are described, including statistics of the wind speed distributions and profiles, stability conditions, cold pool depths, and descent rates of the cold pool top. The goal of this study is a better understanding of these characteristics and their processes to ultimately lead to improved physical parameterizations in NWP models, and consequently improve forecasts of cold pool events in the study region as well at other locations that experiences similar events.

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.

Doppler-Lidar Evaluation of HRRR-Model Skill at Simulating Summertime Wind Regimes in the Columbia River Basin during WFIP2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
Yelena L. Pichugina ◽  
Lisa S. Darby ◽  
W. Alan Brewer ◽  
Joseph B. Olson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Pressure Gradient ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Surface Heating ◽  
Model Errors ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Wind Regimes

AbstractComplex-terrain locations often have repeatable near-surface wind patterns, such as synoptic gap flows and local thermally forced flows. An example is the Columbia River Valley in east-central Oregon-Washington, a significant wind-energy-generation region and the site of the Second Wind-Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2). Data from three Doppler lidars deployed during WFIP2 define and characterize summertime wind regimes and their large-scale contexts, and provide insight into NWP model errors by examining differences in the ability of a model [NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR-version1)] to forecast wind-speed profiles for different regimes. Seven regimes were identified based on daily time series of the lidar-measured rotor-layer winds, which then suggested two broad categories. First, in three regimes the primary dynamic forcing was the large-scale pressure gradient. Second, in two regimes the dominant forcing was the diurnal heating-cooling cycle (regional sea-breeze-type dynamics), including the marine intrusion previously described, which generates strong nocturnal winds over the region. The other two included a hybrid regime and a non-conforming regime. For the large-scale pressure-gradient regimes, HRRR had wind-speed biases of ~1 m s−1 and RMSEs of 2-3 m s−1. Errors were much larger for the thermally forced regimes, owing to the premature demise of the strong nocturnal flow in HRRR. Thus, the more dominant the role of surface heating in generating the flow, the larger the errors. Major errors could result from surface heating of the atmosphere, boundary-layer responses to that heating, and associated terrain interactions. Measurement/modeling research programs should be aimed at determining which modeled processes produce the largest errors, so those processes can be improved and errors reduced.

scholarly journals Observational case study of a persistent cold pool and gap flow in the Columbia River Basin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Adler ◽  
James M. Wilczak ◽  
Laura Bianco ◽  
Irina Djalalova ◽  
James B. Duncan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Columbia River Basin ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Cold Pools ◽  
Gap Flow ◽  
Downslope Wind

AbstractPersistent cold pools form as layers of cold stagnant air within topographical depressions mainly during wintertime when the near-surface air cools and/or the air aloft warms and daytime surface heating is insufficient to mix out the stable layer. An area often affected by persistent cold pools is the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, when a high-pressure system east of the Cascade Range promotes radiative cooling and easterly flow. The only major outflow for the easterly flow is through the narrow Columbia River Gorge which cuts through the north-south oriented Cascade Range and often experiences very strong gap flows. Observations collected during the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2) are used to study a persistent cold pool in the Columbia River Basin between 10-19 Jan 2017 which was associated with a strong gap flow. We used data from various remote sensing and in situ instruments and a optimal estimation physical retrieval to obtain thermodynamic profiles to address the temporal and spatial characteristics of the cold pool and gap flow and to investigate the physical processes involved during formation, maintenance and decay. While large-scale temperature advection occurred during all phases, we found that the cold pool vertical structure was modulated by the existence of low-level clouds and that turbulent shear-induced mixing and downslope wind storms likely played a role during its decay.

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