Evaluation of Three Planetary Boundary Layer Schemes in the WRF Model Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Abstract Accurate depiction of meteorological conditions, especially within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), is important for air pollution modeling, and PBL parameterization schemes play a critical role in simulating the boundary layer. This study examines the sensitivity of the performance of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to the use of three different PBL schemes [MellorYamadaJanjic (MYJ), Yonsei University (YSU), and the asymmetric convective model, version 2 (ACM2)]. Comparison of surface and boundary layer observations with 92 sets of daily, 36-h high-resolution WRF simulations with different schemes over Texas in JulySeptember 2005 shows that the simulations with the YSU and ACM2 schemes give much less bias than with the MYJ scheme. Simulations with the MYJ scheme, the only local closure scheme of the three, produced the coldest and moistest biases in the PBL. The differences among the schemes are found to be due predominantly to differences in vertical mixing strength and entrainment of air from above the PBL. A sensitivity experiment with the ACM2 scheme confirms this diagnosis.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Hu, X., Nielsen-Gammon, J. W., & Zhang, F.

citation count

  • 515

complete list of authors

  • Hu, Xiao-Ming||Nielsen-Gammon, John W||Zhang, Fuqing

publication date

  • September 2010