High Resolution WRF Modeling for MATERHORN Field Campaign

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used for high resolution simulation of flow around Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Testbed during MATERHORN field campaigns (www.nd.edu/~dynamics/materhorn). The aim was to provide guidance for instrument siting and map possible flow structures emanating from topographic and thermal inhomogeneities. Intriguing flow features were noted: short-lived nature of down-slope and down-valley flows due to mutual interactions between multiple nocturnal flows, drainage of cold pools between basins through sills that separate them, channelized flow expanding into nearby cold pools forming intrusions, critical (stagnation, convergence and divergence) points due to flow interactions, flow separation and wake vortices in the presence of synoptic winds, and interaction between synoptic and thermally driven flow that modifies both. The performance of the model was evaluated by comparing model predictions with observations of the two MATERHORN field campaigns (October 2012 and May 2013). This research was funded by Office of Naval Research Grant # N00014-11-1-0709.