Radiative Impact of Aerosols on the Regional Boundary Layer Features in Strong and Weak Wind Conditions using WRF Modeling System

Abstract:

Atmospheric aerosol particles play a vital role in the Earth's radiative energy budget. They exert a net cooling influence on climate by directly reflecting the solar radiation to space and by modifying the shortwave reflective properties of clouds. Radiation is the main source that regulates the surface energy budget. Surface temperature and planetary boundary layer (PBL) height depends on accurate calculation of both shortwave and longwave radiation. The weakening of the ambient winds is known to influence the structure of PBL. This study examines the sensitivity of the performance of Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) ARW Model to the use of different radiation schemes [For Long wave Radiation: Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM), Eta Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), Goddard, New Goddard, NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM 3.0), New Goddard scheme, Fu-Liou-Gu scheme and for Short wave Radiation: Dudhia scheme, Eta Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM 3.0), New Goddard scheme]. Two different simulations are conducted one for the summer (14-15 May 2009) and winter (14-15 Dec 2008) season characterized by strong and weak wind conditions over India. Comparison of surface temperatures from different schemes for different cities (New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jaipur and Jodhpur) on 14-15 May 2009 and 14-15 Dec 2008 with those observed shows the simulation with RRTM , New Goddard, and Fu-Liou-Gu schemes are closer to the observations as compared to other schemes. The temperature simulated from all the radiation schemes have more than 0.9 correlation coefficient but the root mean square error is relatively less in summer compared to winter season. It is surmised that Fu-Liou-Gu scheme performs better in almost all the cases. The reason behind can be the greater absorption of solar and IR radiative fluxes in the atmosphere and the surface provided in Fu‐Liou‐Gu radiation scheme than those computed in other radiation schemes in WRF model.