Development of turbulent scheme in the FLEXPART-AROME v1.2.1 Lagrangian particle dispersion model

Abstract

Abstract. The FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model FLEXPART, first released in 1998, is a Lagrangian particle dispersion model developed to simulate atmospheric transport over large and mesoscale distances. Due to FLEXPART's success and its open source nature, different limited area model versions of FLEXPART were released making it possible to run FLEXPART simulations by ingesting WRF (Weather Research Forecasting model), COSMO (Consortium for Small-scale Modeling) or MM5 (mesoscale community model maintained by Penn State university) meteorological fields on top of the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and GFS (Global Forecast System) meteorological fields. Here, we present a new FLEXPART limited area model that is compatible with the AROME mesoscale meteorological forecast model (the Applications of Research to Operations at Mesoscale model).1 FLEXPART-AROME was originally developed to study mesoscale transport around La Réunion, a small volcanic island in the southwest Indian Ocean with a complex orographic structure, which is not well represented in current global operational models. We present new turbulent modes in FLEXPART-AROME. They differ from each other by dimensionality, mixing length parameterization, turbulent transport constraint interpretation and time step configuration. A novel time step was introduced in FLEXPART-AROME. Performances of new turbulent modes are compared to the ones in FLEXPART-WRF by testing the conservation of well-mixedness by turbulence, the dispersion of a point release at the surface and the marine boundary layer evolution around Réunion. The novel time step configuration proved necessary to conserve the well-mixedness in the new turbulent modes. An adaptive vertical turbulence time step was implemented, allowing the model to adapt on a finer timescale when significant changes in the local turbulent state of the atmosphere occur.