High-resolution sea wind hindcasts over the Mediterranean area

Menéndez, M.; García-Díez, Markel; Fita, L.; Fernández, Jesús Fernández; Méndez, Fernando J.; Gutiérrez, José Manuel

doi:10.1007/s00382-013-1912-8

Cited by 86 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The PBL plays a major role in simulating surface winds (Stensrud, 2007;Kwun et al, 2009;Santos-Alamillos et al, 2013;Menendez et al, 2014). Nowadays, there are many different approximations to account for the relevant subgrid processes that lead to different PBL formations.…”

Section: Pbl Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides, they are used in the so-called hindcast simulations, which combine the reliability of reanalysis products with the high resolution provided by RCMs. Studies focusing specifically on wind have been one of the applications of such types of simulations (Jiménez et al, 2010;Jerez and Trigo, 2013;Etienne et al, 2013;García-Díez et al, 2013Menendez et al, 2014;Lorente-Plazas et al, 2015;Draxl et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, García-Díez et al (2013) focused on the role of different PBL schemes. Other studies have investigated the role of the PBL schemes in the ability to simulate the surface wind of typhoons (Kwun et al, 2009) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (Menendez et al, 2014) or in southern Spain (Santos-Alamillos et al, 2013). Recently, García-Díez et al (2015) investigated the added value of dynamical downscaling compared to the driving data set, and found that over the Iberian Peninsula, 9 km resolved simulations are barely able to add value compared to the driving data set.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sensitivity of the WRF model to PBL parametrisations and nesting techniques: evaluation of wind storms over complex terrain

Gómez-Navarro

Raible

Dierer³

2015

Geosci. Model Dev.

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Abstract. Simulating surface wind over complex terrain is a challenge in regional climate modelling. Therefore, this study aims at identifying a set-up of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) model that minimises systematic errors of surface winds in hindcast simulations. Major factors of the model configuration are tested to find a suitable set-up: the horizontal resolution, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterisation scheme and the way the WRF is nested to the driving data set. Hence, a number of sensitivity simulations at a spatial resolution of 2 km are carried out and compared to observations. Given the importance of wind storms, the analysis is based on case studies of 24 historical wind storms that caused great economic damage in Switzerland. Each of these events is downscaled using eight different model set-ups, but sharing the same driving data set. The results show that the lack of representation of the unresolved topography leads to a general overestimation of wind speed in WRF. However, this bias can be substantially reduced by using a PBL scheme that explicitly considers the effects of non-resolved topography, which also improves the spatial structure of wind speed over Switzerland. The wind direction, although generally well reproduced, is not very sensitive to the PBL scheme. Further sensitivity tests include four types of nesting methods: nesting only at the boundaries of the outermost domain, analysis nudging, spectral nudging, and the so-called re-forecast method, where the simulation is frequently restarted. These simulations show that restricting the freedom of the model to develop large-scale disturbances slightly increases the temporal agreement with the observations, at the same time that it further reduces the overestimation of wind speed, especially for maximum wind peaks.The model performance is also evaluated in the outermost domains, where the resolution is coarser. The results demonstrate the important role of horizontal resolution, where the step from 6 to 2 km significantly improves model performance. In summary, the combination of a grid size of 2 km, the non-local PBL scheme modified to explicitly account for non-resolved orography, as well as analysis or spectral nudging, is a superior combination when dynamical downscaling is aimed at reproducing real wind fields.

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Section: Pbl Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sensitivity of the WRF model to PBL parametrisations and nesting techniques: evaluation of wind storms over complex terrain

Gómez-Navarro

Raible

Dierer³

2015

Geosci. Model Dev.

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“…The top of WRF domains is at 50 hPa: 33 eta vertical levels with 11 levels below 1000 m and the lowest one at about 23 m. The top of CHIMERE domains is at 500 hPa: 12 vertical sigma levels with 7 levels below 1000 m and the lowest one at about 21 m. For meteorological simulations, initial and global boundary conditions were taken from Global Forecasting System (GFS) operational analyses, provided by the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), at a spatial resolution of 1 • × 1 • and a temporal resolution of 6 h. Furthermore, WRF simulations were performed in 30-h blocks, starting at 18:00 Local Time (LT) of each day with the first 6 h discarded as model spin-up. Since we used the model for sensitivity tests, we prefer this run strategy to be called "reforecast" [26], in order to avoid analysis nudging that would dampen the effect of the perturbation on model parameters. The WRF physics options adopted are reported in Table 2, including the Multi-layer Building Environment Parameterization (BEP, [27]) as the urban physics option with default input values for thermal and geometric parameters.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Highly Reflective Materials on Meteorology, PM10 and Ozone in Urban Areas: A Modeling Study with WRF-CHIMERE at High Resolution over Milan (Italy)

Falasca

Curci

2018

Urban Science

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Abstract:The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a well-known phenomenon concerning an increasing percentage of the world's population due to the growth rates of metropolitan areas. Given the health and economic implications of UHIs, several mitigation techniques are being evaluated and tested. In this study, we consider the use of highly reflective materials for urban surfaces, and we carried out numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with the CHIMERE model in order to investigate the effects of these materials on the meteorology and air quality in the urban area of Milan (Italy). Results show that an increase in albedo from 0.2 to 0.7 for urban roofs, walls and streets leads to a decrease in UHI intensity by up to 2-3 • C and of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height of about 500 m. However, the difference of PM10 and ozone between urban and surrounding areas increases by a factor of about 2, attributable to the reduction of PBL height and wind speed and to the increased reflected solar radiation that may enhance photochemical production during the daytime. Therefore, if anthropogenic emissions are held at the same levels, the potential benefit to the UHI in terms of thermal discomfort may have negative repercussions on air quality.

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“…As inputs, the GOW Mediterranean (Reguero et al, 2012) grid (Fig. 3) with a spatial resolution of 0.18 • (20 km) and the Seawind I database (Menéndez et al, 2013) with a spatial resolution of 30 × 30 km (Fig. 1) were used.…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the feasibility of the use of wind SAR to downscale waves on shallow water

et al. 2016

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Abstract. In recent years, wave reanalyses have become popular as a powerful source of information for wave climate research and engineering applications. These wave reanalyses provide continuous time series of offshore wave parameters; nevertheless, in coastal areas or shallow water, waves are poorly described because spatial resolution is not detailed. By means of wave downscaling, it is possible to increase spatial resolution in high temporal coverage simulations, using forcing from wind and offshore wave databases. Meanwhile, the reanalysis wave databases are enough to describe the wave climate at the limit of simulations; wind reanalyses at an adequate spatial resolution to describe the wind structure near the coast are not frequently available. Remote sensing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has the ability to detect sea surface signatures and estimate wind fields at high resolution (up to 300 m) and high frequency.In this work a wave downscaling is done on the northern Adriatic Sea, using a hybrid methodology and global wave and wind reanalysis as forcing. The wave fields produced were compared to wave fields produced with SAR winds that represent the two dominant wind regimes in the area: the bora (ENE direction) and sirocco (SE direction). Results show a good correlation between the waves forced with reanalysis wind and SAR wind. In addition, a validation of reanalysis is shown. This research demonstrates how Earth observation products, such as SAR wind fields, can be successfully uptaken into oceanographic modeling, producing similar downscaled wave fields when compared to waves forced with reanalysis wind.

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High-resolution sea wind hindcasts over the Mediterranean area

Cited by 86 publications

References 47 publications

Sensitivity of the WRF model to PBL parametrisations and nesting techniques: evaluation of wind storms over complex terrain

Sensitivity of the WRF model to PBL parametrisations and nesting techniques: evaluation of wind storms over complex terrain

Impact of Highly Reflective Materials on Meteorology, PM10 and Ozone in Urban Areas: A Modeling Study with WRF-CHIMERE at High Resolution over Milan (Italy)

On the feasibility of the use of wind SAR to downscale waves on shallow water

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