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Description of the ARM Large-Scale Forcing Data from the Constrained Variational Analysis (VARANAL) Version 2

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1808705· OSTI ID:1808705
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, NY (United States)

This technical report represents an update of the previous technical report written by Zhang et al. (2001a) (available at http://www.arm.gov/publications/tech_reports/arm-tr-005.pdf), which described the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility constrained variational analysis (VARANAL) that is used to develop the large-scale forcing data for driving single-column models (SCMs), cloud-resolving models (CRMs), and large-eddy simulation models (LES). The VARANAL algorithm was originally developed by Zhang and Lin (1997) and Zhang et al. (2001b) at Stony Brook University and was migrated to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as the ARM operational objective analysis system in May 1999. Since then, the algorithm has been evolved with time along with the availability of new observations and techniques to meet various modeling needs. Major updates include: (1) The method used to develop multi-year continuous forcing data (Xie et al. 2004), (2) The incorporation of eddy correlation flux measurement system (ECOR) turbulent fluxes into the analysis (Tang et al. 2019), and (3) Improvements to the workflow (e.g., implementing part of the code into the ARM Data Integrator [ADI]) to increase efficiency. The ARM large-scale forcing data have been widely used for SCM/CRM/LES to understand and improve physical processes in models. Zhang et al. (2016) has provided a comprehensive review of the SCM concept, early efforts to derive forcing data for SCM studies, efforts of the ARM constrained variational analysis, and previous SCM studies using ARM cases. This technical report focuses on the constrained variational analysis algorithm and the introduction of the ARM VARANAL products.

Research Organization:
DOE Office of Science Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
Contributing Organization:
Stony Brook University
OSTI ID:
1808705
Report Number(s):
DOE/SC-ARM/TR-222
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English