Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model
We use measurements by the 52 MHz wind-profiling radar ESRAD, situated near Kiruna in Arctic Sweden, and simulations using the Advanced Research and Weather Forecasting model, WRF, to study vertical winds and turbulence in the troposphere in mountain-wave conditions on 23, 24 and 25 January 2003. We...
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ftindianacasci:oai:repository.ias.ac.in:120982 2023-05-15T15:09:53+02:00 Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. 2010 http://repository.ias.ac.in/120982/ https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-3583-2010 unknown Taylor & Francis Group Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. (2010) Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10 (8). pp. 3583-3599. ISSN 1680-7324 QE Geology Article PeerReviewed 2010 ftindianacasci https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-3583-2010 2021-07-11T18:27:24Z We use measurements by the 52 MHz wind-profiling radar ESRAD, situated near Kiruna in Arctic Sweden, and simulations using the Advanced Research and Weather Forecasting model, WRF, to study vertical winds and turbulence in the troposphere in mountain-wave conditions on 23, 24 and 25 January 2003. We find that WRF can accurately match the vertical wind signatures at the radar site when the spatial resolution for the simulations is 1 km. The horizontal and vertical wavelengths of the dominating mountain-waves are ~10–20 km and the amplitudes in vertical wind 1–2 m/s. Turbulence below 5500 m height, is seen by ESRAD about 40% of the time. This is a much higher rate than WRF predictions for conditions of Richardson number (Ri) <1 but similar to WRF predictions of Ri<2. WRF predicts that air crossing the 100 km wide model domain centred on ESRAD has a ~10% chance of encountering convective instabilities (Ri<0) somewhere along the path. The cause of low Ri is a combination of wind-shear at synoptic upper-level fronts and perturbations in static stability due to the mountain-waves. Comparison with radiosondes suggests that WRF underestimates wind-shear and the occurrence of thin layers with very low static stability, so that vertical mixing by turbulence associated with mountain waves may be significantly more than suggested by the model. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Kiruna Indian Academy of Sciences: Publication of Fellows Arctic Kiruna Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 10 8 3583 3599 |
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Open Polar |
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Indian Academy of Sciences: Publication of Fellows |
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ftindianacasci |
language |
unknown |
topic |
QE Geology |
spellingShingle |
QE Geology Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
topic_facet |
QE Geology |
description |
We use measurements by the 52 MHz wind-profiling radar ESRAD, situated near Kiruna in Arctic Sweden, and simulations using the Advanced Research and Weather Forecasting model, WRF, to study vertical winds and turbulence in the troposphere in mountain-wave conditions on 23, 24 and 25 January 2003. We find that WRF can accurately match the vertical wind signatures at the radar site when the spatial resolution for the simulations is 1 km. The horizontal and vertical wavelengths of the dominating mountain-waves are ~10–20 km and the amplitudes in vertical wind 1–2 m/s. Turbulence below 5500 m height, is seen by ESRAD about 40% of the time. This is a much higher rate than WRF predictions for conditions of Richardson number (Ri) <1 but similar to WRF predictions of Ri<2. WRF predicts that air crossing the 100 km wide model domain centred on ESRAD has a ~10% chance of encountering convective instabilities (Ri<0) somewhere along the path. The cause of low Ri is a combination of wind-shear at synoptic upper-level fronts and perturbations in static stability due to the mountain-waves. Comparison with radiosondes suggests that WRF underestimates wind-shear and the occurrence of thin layers with very low static stability, so that vertical mixing by turbulence associated with mountain waves may be significantly more than suggested by the model. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. |
author_facet |
Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. |
author_sort |
Kirkwood, S. |
title |
Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
title_short |
Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
title_full |
Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
title_fullStr |
Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model |
title_sort |
turbulence associated with mountain waves over northern scandinavia – a case study using the esrad vhf radar and the wrf mesoscale model |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis Group |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://repository.ias.ac.in/120982/ https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-3583-2010 |
geographic |
Arctic Kiruna |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Kiruna |
genre |
Arctic Kiruna |
genre_facet |
Arctic Kiruna |
op_relation |
Kirkwood, S. Mihalikova, M. Rao, T. N. Satheesan, K. (2010) Turbulence associated with mountain waves over Northern Scandinavia – a case study using the ESRAD VHF radar and the WRF mesoscale model Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10 (8). pp. 3583-3599. ISSN 1680-7324 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-3583-2010 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
3583 |
op_container_end_page |
3599 |
_version_ |
1766340985013403648 |