Non-local Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme Research Articles

A multisensor evaluation of the Asymmetric Convective Model, Version 2, in Southeast Texas

There currently exist a number of planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes that can represent the effects of turbulence in daytime convective conditions, although these schemes remain a large source of uncertainty in meteorology and air quality model simulations. This study evaluates a recently developed combined local and nonlocal closure PBL scheme, the Asymmetric Convective Model, version 2 (ACM2), against PBL observations taken from radar wind profilers, a ground-based lidar, and multiple daytime radiosonde balloon launches. These observations were compared against predictions of PBLs from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.1 with the ACM2 PBL scheme option, and the Fifth-Generation Meteorological Model (MM5) version 3.7.3 with the Eta PBL scheme option that is currently being used to develop ozone control strategies in southeast Texas. MM5 and WRF predictions during the regulatory modeling episode were evaluated on their ability to predict the rise and fall of the PBL during daytime convective conditions across southeastern Texas. The MM5 predicted PBLs consistently underpredicted observations, and were also less than the WRF PBL predictions. The analysis reveals that the MM5 predicted a slower rising and shallower PBL not representative of the daytime urban boundary layer. Alternatively, the WRF model predicted a more accurate PBL evolution improving the root mean square error (RMSE), both temporally and spatially. The WRF model also more accurately predicted vertical profiles of temperature and moisture in the lowest 3 km of the atmosphere. Inspection of median surface temperature and moisture time-series plots revealed higher predicted surface temperatures in WRF, and more surface moisture in MM5. These could not be attributed to surface heat fluxes, and thus the differences in performance of the WRF and MM5 models are likely due to the PBL schemes. Implications: An accurate depiction of the diurnal evolution of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is necessary for realistic air quality simulations, and for formulating effective policy. The meteorological model used to support the southeast Texas O3 attainment demonstration made predictions of the PBL that were consistently less than those found in observations. The use of the Asymmetric Convective Model, version 2 (ACM2), predicted taller PBL heights and improved model predictions. A lower predicted PBL height in an air quality model would increase precursor concentrations and change the chemical production of O3 and possibly the response to control strategies.

Evaluation of nonlocal and local planetary boundary layer schemes in the WRF model

A realistic reproduction of planetary boundary layer (PBL) structure and its evolution is critical to numerical simulation of regional meteorology and air quality. Conversely, insufficient realism in the simulated physical properties often leads to degraded meteorological and air quality prognostic skills. This study employed the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) to evaluate model performance and to quantify meteorological prediction differences produced by four widely used PBL schemes. Evaluated were two nonlocal PBL schemes, YSU and ACM2, and two local PBL schemes, MYJ and Boulac. The model grid comprised four nested domains at horizontal resolutions of 27 km, 9 km, 3 km and 1 km respectively. Simulated surface variables 2 m temperature and 10 m wind at 1 km resolution were compared to measurements collected in Hong Kong. A detailed analysis of land‐atmosphere energy balance explicates heat flux and temperature variability among the PBL schemes. Differences in vertical profiles of horizontal velocity, potential temperature, bulk Richardson number and water vapor mixing ratio were examined. Diagnosed PBL heights, estimated by scheme specific formulations, exhibited the large intrascheme variance. To eliminate formulation dependence in PBL height estimation, lidar measurements and a unified diagnosis were jointly used to reanalyze PBL heights. The diagnosis showed that local PBL schemes produced shallower PBL heights than those of nonlocal PBL schemes. It is reasonable to infer that WRF, coupled with the ACM2 PBL physics option can be a viable producer of meteorological forcing to regional air quality modeling in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region.

Impacts of boundary layer mixing on pollutant vertical profiles in the lower troposphere: Implications to satellite remote sensing

Mixing in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) affects vertical distributions of air tracers in the lower troposphere. An accurate representation of PBL mixing is critical for chemical-transport models (CTMs) for applications sensitive to simulations of the vertical profiles of tracers. The full mixing assumption in the widely used global CTM GEOS-Chem has recently been supplemented with a non-local PBL scheme. This study analyzes the impact of the non-local scheme on model representation of PBL mixing, consequences for simulations of vertical profiles of air tracers and surface air pollution, and implications for model applications to the interpretation of data retrieved from satellite remote sensing. The non-local scheme significantly improves simulations of the vertical distributions for NO 2 and O 3, as evaluated using aircraft measurements in summer 2004. It also reduces model biases over the U.S. by more than 10 ppb for surface ozone concentrations at night and by 2–5 ppb for peak ozone in the afternoon, as evaluated using ground observations. The application to inverse modeling of anthropogenic NO x emissions for East China using satellite retrievals of NO 2 from OMI and GOME-2 suggests that the full mixing assumption results in 3–14% differences in top–down emission budgets as compared to the non-local scheme. The top–down estimate combining the non-local scheme and the Lin et al. inverse modeling approach suggests a magnitude of 6.6 TgN yr −1 for emissions of NO x over East China in July 2008 and 8.0 TgN yr −1 for January 2009, with the magnitude and seasonality in good agreement with bottom–up estimates.

Numerical Investigation of Boundary-Layer Evolution and Nocturnal Low-Level Jets: Local versus Non-Local PBL Schemes

Numerical simulations of the evolution of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and nocturnal low-level jets (LLJ) have been carried out using MM5 (version 3.3) with four-dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) for a high pollution episode in the northeastern United States during July 15–20, 1999. In this paper, we assess the impact of different parameterizations on the PBL evolution with two schemes: the Blackadar PBL, a hybrid local (stable regime) and non-local (convective regime) mixing scheme; and the Gayno–Seaman PBL, a turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)-based eddy diffusion scheme. No FDDA was applied within the PBL to evaluate the ability of the two schemes to reproduce the PBL structure and its temporal variation. The restriction of the application of FDDA to the atmosphere above the PBL or the lowest 8 model levels, whichever is higher, has significantly improved the predicted strength and timing of the LLJ during the night. A systematic analysis of the PBL evolution has been performed for the primary meteorological fields (temperature, specific humidity, horizontal winds) and for the derived parameters such as the PBL height, virtual potential temperature, relative humidity, and cloud cover fraction. There are substantial differences between the PBL structures and evolutions simulated by these two different schemes. The model results were compared with independent observations (that were not used in FDDA) measured by aircraft, RASS and wind profiler, lidar, and tethered balloon platforms during the summer of 1999 as part of the NorthEast Oxidant and Particle Study (NE-OPS). The observations tend to support the non-local mixing mechanism better than the layer-to-layer eddy diffusion in the convective PBL.