A12F:
Observations and Predictability of the Atmosphere over Complex Terrain I

Submit an Abstract to this Session



Session ID#: 33407

Session Description:
Mountainous terrain is complex given the variety of slope angles and orientations, surface types, valley widths and curvatures. Atmospheric circulations over this intricate geometry arise from synoptic, orographic and/or thermally-driven pressure gradients, resulting in inherently complex motions with a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Although recent years have seen sustained efforts to improve the predictability of flows over complex terrain, several scientific questions remain unsolved.

This session focuses on microscale and mesoscale atmospheric phenomena in the atmospheric boundary layer over mountainous terrain. We seek original contributions including theoretical, observational and modeling studies that are related to mountain meteorology. Topics of interest emerging from synergetic fields are also welcomed, including data assimilation, remote sensing, hydrology, air quality, fog formation, agriculture/viticulture, fire weather, urban canopies in complex terrain, and snow transport.

Primary Convener:  Daniel Nadeau, Laval University, Civil and Water Engineering, Quebec City, QC, Canada
Conveners:  Holly J Oldroyd, University of California Davis, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Davis, United States, Eric Pardyjak, University of Utah, Mechanical Engineering, Salt Lake City, UT, United States and Natalie Wagenbrenner, Rocky Mountain Research Station Missoula, Missoula, MT, United States
Chairs:  Daniel Nadeau, Laval University, Civil and Water Engineering, Quebec City, QC, Canada, Holly J Oldroyd, EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Eric Pardyjak, University of Utah, Mechanical Engineering, Salt Lake City, UT, United States and Natalie Wagenbrenner, Rocky Mountain Research Station Missoula, Missoula, MT, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Daniel Nadeau, Laval University, Civil and Water Engineering, Quebec City, QC, Canada

Cross-Listed:
  • B - Biogeosciences
  • C - Cryosphere
  • H - Hydrology
Index Terms:

3307 Boundary layer processes [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3322 Land/atmosphere interactions [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3329 Mesoscale meteorology [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3379 Turbulence [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Improvements to the Weather Research and Forecasting Model for Mesoscale to Microscale Coupling and High-resolution Simulations over Complex Terrain (Invited) (208385)
Katherine Ann Lundquist1, Jeffery D Mirocha2, Robert Arthur1, Jingyi Bao3, Fotini K Chow4 and David John Wiersema1,5, (1)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, United States, (2)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, United States, (3)University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Berkeley, United States, (5)Civil & Environ. Engineering, Berkeley, CA, United States
Improvements and Lingering Challenges with Modeling Low-Level Winds Over Complex Terrain during the Wind Forecast Improvement Project 2 (258399)
Joseph Olson1, Jaymes Kenyon2, John M Brown3, Wayne M Angevine4, Melinda Marquis5, Yelena L Pichugina6, Aditya Choukulkar7, Timothy Bonin8, Robert M Banta9, Laura Bianco10, Irina Djalalova11, Katherine McCaffrey2, James M Wilczak12, Kathleen O Lantz13, Charles N. Long9, Stephanie Redfern14, James R McCaa15, Mark Stoelinga16, Eric Grimit17, Joel Cline18, William J Shaw19, Julie K Lundquist20, Katherine A Lundquist21, Branko Kosovic22, Larry K Berg23, Veerabhadra Rao Kotamarthi24, Justin Sharp25 and Pedro Jiménez26, (1)NOAA Global Systems Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (2)NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States, (5)NOAA, ESRL/GSD, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)NOAA/ESRL/CSD, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)CIRES/NOAA ESRL, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)University of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman, OK, United States, (9)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, United States, (11)NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (12)NOAA/OAR/PSL, Boulder, United States, (13)NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (14)Boulder, CO, United States, (15)3TIER, Vaisala, Seattle, WA, United States, (16)3TIER Environmental Forecast Group, Seattle, WA, United States, (17)Vaisala Inc, Seattle, WA, United States, (18)Department of Energy Washington DC, Washington, DC, United States, (19)Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, United States, (20)National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, United States, (21)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, United States, (22)Johns Hopkins University, Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, (23)PNNL / Climate Physics, Richland, WA, United States, (24)Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, United States, (25)Sharply Focused, Portland, OR, United States, (26)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States
Recent developments and assessment of a three-dimensional PBL parameterization for improved wind forecasting over complex terrain (297241)
Branko Kosovic1, Pedro Angel Jimenez2, Sue Ellen Haupt2, Alberto Martilli3, Joseph Olson4 and Jian-Wen Bao5, (1)Johns Hopkins University, Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, (2)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Ciemat, Madrid, Spain, (4)NOAA Global Systems Laboratory, Boulder, United States, (5)NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, United States
The Land-Sea Breeze of the Red Sea: Observed and Simulated Relationships to to Complex Terrain and Regional Moisture Transport (279946)
Shannon R. Davis1, J. Thomas Farrar2, Robert A Weller1, Houshuo Jiang3 and Lawrence J Pratt4, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)WHOI, Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (3)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (4)WHOI, Woods Hole, United States
Measurements and Modeling of Turbulent Fluxes during Persistent Cold Air Pool Events in Salt Lake Valley, Utah (216062)
Xia Sun1, Heather Holmes1 and Cesunica Elizabeth Ivey2, (1)University of Nevada Reno, Atmospheric Sciences Program, Department of Physics, Reno, NV, United States, (2)University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV, United States
What can anisotropy tell us about turbulence similarity in terrain of increasing complexity? (Invited) (219792)
Ivana Stiperski, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria and Marc Calaf, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
On the spatial coherence of temperature within and above a vineyard under drainage conditions (259324)
Kelsey Everard, University of British Columbia, Department of Civil Engineering, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Marco Giovanni Giometto, Stanford University, Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford, CA, United States, Andreas Christen, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Environmental Meteorology, Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Freiburg, Germany, Holly J Oldroyd, University of California Davis, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Davis, United States and Marc B Parlange, Monash University, Department of Civil Engineering, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Bichromatic Scintillometer Measurements of Sensible and Latent Heat Fluxes over a Boreal Forested Valley (242675)
Dr. Pierre-Erik Isabelle, PhD1, Daniel Nadeau1, Annie-Claude Parent1, Alain N Rousseau2, Sylvain Jutras3 and Francois Anctil1, (1)Laval University, Civil and Water Engineering, Quebec City, QC, Canada, (2)Professeur-chercheur titulaire, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Eau Terre Environnement INRS-ETE, Eau Terre Environnement, Quebec City, QC, Canada, (3)Laval University, Wood and Forest Science, Quebec City, QC, Canada
A comparison of near-surface potential temperature variance budgets for unstable atmospheric flows over vegetated and non-vegetated flat surfaces and a gentle slope (285079)
Chaoxun Hang1, Daniel Nadeau2, Eric Pardyjak3 and Marc B Parlange1, (1)Monash University, Department of Civil Engineering, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, (2)Laval University, Civil and Water Engineering, Quebec City, QC, Canada, (3)University of Utah, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Boundary-Layer Characteristics Over a Coastal Megacity (296739)
David Melecio-Vazquez1,2, Prathap Ramamurthy1,2, Mark Arend3,4, Fred Moshary2,5 and Jorge Gonzalez1,2, (1)CUNY City College of New York, Mechanical Engineering, New York, NY, United States, (2)CUNY-NOAA CREST, New York, NY, United States, (3)CUNY City College of New York, Electrical Engineering, New York, NY, United States, (4)NOAA-CREST, New York, NY, United States, (5)CUNY City College of New York, Department of Electrical Engineering, New York, United States

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