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Thermally forced winds due to topography: Slope winds case of study over Costa Rica

Thermally forced winds due to topography: Slope winds case of study over Costa Rica. Marcela Ulate. CR-AVE. Motivation. Objective of the mission: Study the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere and to provide information for comparison to satellite observations.

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Thermally forced winds due to topography: Slope winds case of study over Costa Rica

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  1. Thermally forced winds due to topography: Slope winds case of study over Costa Rica Marcela Ulate

  2. CR-AVE Motivation Objective of the mission: Study the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere and to provide information for comparison to satellite observations. During CR-AVE the NASA WB-57F aircraft with 29 instruments was used during the January 14-February 12 period. Ticosonde was the local project from CR-AVE. It consisted on radiosonde launches 4 times at day. The period overlapped with CR-AVE, but radiosondes were also launched during mid- June, July and mid – August 2006. Similar field campaigns took place during June-July August 2004,2005 and 2007. Ticosonde 2006

  3. Slope winds • Thermally forced , driven by between air in direct contact with the slope and air at the same altitude not affected directly by the heating or cooling. • Day time heating of a mountain slope produces upslope winds. • Night time cooling of a mountain slope produces down slope winds.

  4. Basic Momentum equations Basic State Flow (away from the gravity current): Motionless. Homogeneous. Stationary Flow associated with the slope heating or cooling Turbulent fluctuations From Mahrt, 1982

  5. From Haiden 2003

  6. 0 Quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium U: Down-slope velocity scale L: Down-slope length scale V: Cross-slope velocity scale L: Cross-slope length scale H: Depth Scale V/L <<U/L

  7. Radiosonde Data

  8. WRF Simulation WRF version 3.2 Real Case. 3Domains : 90Km (75e-w x 55 n-s) 30Km (148e-w x 94 n-s) 10Km (70e-w x 72n-s) 28 vertical levels. 2-way nesting. Boundary conditions from ERA-Interim data updated every 6h. Parameterizations for : PBL, LWR, SWR, Convective processes. Period simulated: July 16 2006 – July 21 2006 Output interval: 1h.

  9. 00Z 06Z 18Z 12Z

  10. 00Z 06Z 18Z 12Z

  11. 00Z 06Z 18Z 12Z

  12. Conclusions Data limitations: The information that can be extracted from one isolated sounding is limited, and it is dominated for local effects. The radiosonde data and the model data present a similar pattern in the surface wind during the period of study. The vertical profiles of the simulations present different patterns than the sounding data, this could be due to the resolution and also the fact that the radiosonde change location during its upward motion. The model is able to capture the basics characteristics of the slope winds, with limitations related with resolution. The results would probably change if other parameterization are used with special emphasis on the PBL scheme. The “ideal case” to study the slope winds would be the use of idealized simulations, with higher resolution. Model run shows, as hypothesized before, that the low-levels winds are orographically forced

  13. Thanks

  14. References • Haiden, T. 2003: On the pressure field in the slop wind layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 60, 1632-1636. • Kossmann, M. And Fiedler, 2000: Diurnal momentum budget analysis of thermally induced slope winds. Meteor. Atmos. Phys., 75, 195-215. • Mahrt, L. 1982: Momentum balance of gravity flows. J. Atmos. Sci., 39, 2701-2711. • Schuman, U., 1990: Large-eddy simulation of the up-slope boundary layer. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 116, 637-670.

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