Diurnal course analysis of the WRF-simulated and observation-based planetary boundary layer height

Abstract

Abstract. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) single-column model simulations were performed in the late summer of 2012 in order to analyse the diurnal changes of the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Five PBL schemes were tested with the WRF. From the radiometer and wind-profiler measurements at one station, derived PBL heights were also compared to the simulations. The weather conditions during the measurement period proved to be dry; the soil moisture was below wilting point 85 percent of the time. Results show that (1) simulation-based PBL heights are overestimated by about 500-1000 m with respect to the observation-based PBL heights, and (2) PBL height deviations between different observation-based methods (around 700 m in the midday) are comparable with PBL height deviations between different model schemes used in the WRF single-column model. The causes of the deviations are also discussed. It is shown that in the estimation of the PBL height the relevance of the atmospheric profiles could be as important as the relevance of the estimation principles.

Comprehensive evaluations of diurnal NO<sub>2</sub> measurements during DISCOVER-AQ 2011: effects of resolution-dependent representation of NO<sub><i>x</i></sub> emissions

“…As shown in Fig. S3, stratosphere NO 2 VCDs show a clear diurnal cycle with an increase during daytime due in part to the photolysis of reactive nitrogen reservoirs such as N 2 O 5 and HNO 3 (Brohede et al, 2007;Dirksen et al, 2011;Peters et al, 2012;Sen et al, 1998;Spinei et al, 2014), which is consistent with the significant increase in stratospheric NO 2 VCDs from GOME-2A to OMI. In this study, J.…”

High resolution WRF ensemble forecasting for irrigation: Multi-variable evaluation

“…Although derived from different estimation methods, it is inline with results obtained with observation-based (e.g., potential temperature gradient) PBL heights (e.g. Breuer et al, 2014;Balzarini et al, 2014).…”

Comment on acp-2020-1193

“…In the Yonsei University (YSU) planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme (Shin and Hong, 2011) used by our WRF simulations (Table S2), boundary layer kzz is correlated to PBLH. However, Breuer et al (2014) and Hu et al (2012) found that the YSU scheme underestimated nighttime PBLHs in WRF, which is consistent with Figure 4 showing that YSU kzz-determined PBLHs are significantly lower than lidar observations in the late afternoon and at night at the UMBC site during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign. The lidar mixing depth data were derived from the Elastic Lidar Facility (ELF) attenuated backscatter signals by using the covariance wavelet transform method and had been validated against radiosonde measurements, Radar wind profiler observations, and Sigma Space mini-micropulse lidar data (Compton et al, 2013).…”