COAMPS Application to Dispersion Scavenging Problem: Heavy Precipitation Simulation

Abstract

Precipitation scavenging can effectively remove particulates from the atmosphere. Therefore, this process is of importance in the real-time modeling of atmospheric transport for hazardous materials. To account for the rainfall effect in LLNL operational dispersion model, a modified version of a standard below-cloud aerosol scavenging model has been developed to handle the emergency response in this scenario (Loosmore and Cerdewall, 2003, hereafter referred to as LC). Two types of rain data can be used to incorporate precipitation scavenging in the dispersion model; realtime measurements (rain gauge and radar), and model prediction. The former approach has been adopted in LC's study for the below-cloud scavenging problem based on the surface rain measurements. However, the in-cloud scavenging effect remains unresolved as a restriction of available real-time measurements in providing the vertical structure of precipitation systems. The objective of this study is to explore the possibility to incorporate three-dimensional precipitation structure of forecast data into the dispersion model. Therefore, both in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging effects can be included in LLNL aerosol scavenging model. To this end, a mesoscale model (Naval Research Laboratory 3-D weather forecast model, COAMPS) is used to demonstrate this application using a mid-west severe storm case occurring on July 18,more » 1997.« less