Evaluation of a mesoscale atmospheric dispersion modeling system with observations from the 1980 Great Plains mesoscale tracer field experiment. Part II: Dispersion simulations

Journal Article · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Journal of Applied Meteorology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1996)035<0308:EOAMAD>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:274060

Moran, M D; Pielke, R A ^[1]

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1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

A mesoscale atmospheric dispersion (MAD) numerical modeling system, consisting of a mesoscale meteorological model coupled to a mesoscale Lagrangian particle dispersion model (MLPDM), was used to simulate the emission, transport, and diffusion of a perfluorocarbon tracer-gas cloud for a surface release during a tracer field experiment. The MLPDM was run for a baseline simulation and seven sensitivity experiments. The baseline simulation showed considerable skill in predicting peak ground-level concentration (GLC), maximum cloud width, cloud arrival and transit times, and crosswind integrated exposure at downwind distances of 100 and 600 km. The baseline simulation also compared very well to simulations made by seven other MAD models for the same case in an earlier study. The sensitivity experiments explored the impact of various factors on MAD, especially the diurnal heating cycle and physiographic and atmospheric inhomogeneities, by including or excluding them in different combinations. The GLC footprints predicted in sensitivity experiments were sensitive to differences in simulated meteorological fields. The observations and numerical simulations suggest that the nocturnal low-level jet played an important role in transporting and deforming the tracer cloud during this MAD experiment: the mean transport speed was supergeostrophic and both crosswind and alongwind cloud spreads were larger than can be explained by turbulent diffusion alone. The contributions of differential horizontal advection and mesoscale deformation to MAD dominate those of small-scale turbulent diffusion for this case, and Pasquill`s delayed-shear enhancement mechanism for horizontal diffusion appears to have played a significant role during nighttime transport. These results demonstrate the need in some flow regimes for better temporal resolution of boundary layer vertical shear in MAD models than is available from the conventional twice-daily rawinsonde network. 34 refs., 14 figs., 4 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 274060
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Meteorology, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Meteorology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 35; ISSN 0894-8763; ISSN JOAMEZ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR-BIOSPHERE INTERACTIONS
DISPERSIONS
LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
OKLAHOMA
PARTICULATES
SIMULATION