Mesoscale Modeling of Boundary Layer Refractivity and Atmospheric Ducting

Haack, Tracy; Wang, Changgui; Garrett, Sally; Glazer, Anna; Mailhot, Jocelyn; Marshall, Robert

doi:10.1175/2010jamc2415.1

Cited by 45 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Upper-ocean mixing and advection affect EM ducting by regulating the SST variability, 485 which was identified as one of the critical factors for accurate predictions of coastal refractivity 486 (Haack et al 2010). Extensive upper ocean temperature, salinity and turbulence parameters were 487 sampled in CASPER-East from both ships as listed in Table 1.…”

Section: Upper Ocean Measurements 484mentioning

confidence: 99%

CASPER: Coupled Air–Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research

Wang

Alappattu

Billingsley

et al. 2018

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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116

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The Coupled Air–Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research (CASPER) project aims to better quantify atmospheric effects on the propagation of radar and communication signals in the marine environment. Such effects are associated with vertical gradients of temperature and water vapor in the marine atmospheric surface layer (MASL) and in the capping inversion of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL), as well as the horizontal variations of these vertical gradients. CASPER field measurements emphasized simultaneous characterization of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation, the propagation environment, and the physical processes that gave rise to the measured refractivity conditions. CASPER modeling efforts utilized state-of-the-art large-eddy simulations (LESs) with a dynamically coupled MASL and phase-resolved ocean surface waves. CASPER-East was the first of two planned field campaigns, conducted in October and November 2015 offshore of Duck, North Carolina. This article highlights the scientific motivations and objectives of CASPER and provides an overview of the CASPER-East field campaign. The CASPER-East sampling strategy enabled us to obtain EM wave propagation loss as well as concurrent environmental refractive conditions along the propagation path. This article highlights the initial results from this sampling strategy showing the range-dependent propagation loss, the atmospheric and upper-oceanic variability along the propagation range, and the MASL thermodynamic profiles measured during CASPER-East.

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Section: Upper Ocean Measurements 484mentioning

confidence: 99%

CASPER: Coupled Air–Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research

Wang

Alappattu

Billingsley

et al. 2018

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Self Cite

116

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“…This problem is compounded by the weak flows (low wind speeds) associated with air quality episodes. Some recent studies have demonstrated improvement with grids of 2.5-5 km by evaluating Lagrangian dispersion model output (Nachamkin et al 2007), ducting (Haack et al 2010), lake-breeze fronts (Makar et al 2010), or full-chemistry simulations (Stroud et al 2010). Below, we show wind speed and direction statistics to demonstrate that 12-km grid spacing is insufficient to capture coastal flows influenced by the complex terrain of Southern California, while 4-km grids do better.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bao et al (2008) and Michelson and Bao (2008) showed that errors in the initial fields persisted in mesoscale simulations, emphasizing regional-to synopticscale pressure patterns. Haack et al (2010) also found that accurate initial and boundary conditions were important for their simulations of ducting. Schoch et al (2011) found errors in their simulations of coastal weather in Alaska due to initialization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological Model Evaluation for CalNex 2010

Angevine

Eddington

Durkee

et al. 2012

Monthly Weather Review

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The performance of mesoscale meteorological models is evaluated for the coastal zone and Los Angeles area of Southern California, and for the San Joaquin Valley. Several configurations of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) with differing grid spacing, initialization, planetary boundary layer (PBL) physics, and land surface models are compared. One configuration of the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) model is also included, providing results from an independent development and process flow. Specific phenomena of interest for air quality studies are examined. All model configurations are biased toward higher wind speeds than observed. The diurnal cycle of wind direction and speed (land-sea-breeze cycle) as modeled and observed by a wind profiler at Los Angeles International Airport is examined. Each of the models shows different flaws in the cycle. Soundings from San Nicolas Island, a case study involving the Research Vessel (R/V) Atlantis and the NOAA P3 aircraft, and satellite images are used to evaluate simulation performance for cloudy boundary layers. In a case study, the boundary layer structure over the water is poorly simulated by all of the WRF configurations except one with the total energy-mass flux boundary layer scheme and ECMWF reanalysis. The original WRF configuration had a substantial bias toward low PBL heights in the San Joaquin Valley, which are improved in the final configuration. WRF runs with 12-km grids have larger errors in wind speed and direction than those present in the 4-km grid runs.

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“…The above discussed evaporation duct model applied to an open ocean. To account for the spatio-temporal development of the ducting layers in the littoral zones [3,39,120], mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) modeling [121,122] has been used to generate 4D refractivity fields. The generated refractivity profiles may be used as input to the PE model [12,39,122].…”

Section: Modeling Of the Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief review on PE method application to propagation channel modeling in sea environment

Sirkova

2011

Open Engineering

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This work provides an introduction to one of the most widely used advanced methods for wave propagation modeling, the Parabolic Equation (PE) method, with emphasis on its application to tropospheric radio propagation in coastal and maritime regions. The assumptions of the derivation, the advantages and drawbacks of the PE, the numerical methods for solving it, and the boundary and initial conditions for its application to the tropospheric propagation problem are briefly discussed. More details are given for the split-step Fourier-transform (SSF) solution of the PE. The environmental input to the PE, the methods for tropospheric refractivity profiling, their accuracy, limitations, and the average refractivity modeling are also summarized. The reported results illustrate the application of finite element (FE) based and SSF-based solutions of the PE for one of the most difficult to treat propagation mechanisms, yet of great significance for the performance of radars and communications links working in coastal and maritime zones -the tropospheric ducting mechanism. Recent achievements, some unresolved issues and ongoing developments related to further improvements of the PE method application to the propagation channel modeling in sea environment are highlighted.

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Mesoscale Modeling of Boundary Layer Refractivity and Atmospheric Ducting

Cited by 45 publications

References 21 publications

CASPER: Coupled Air–Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research

CASPER: Coupled Air–Sea Processes and Electromagnetic Ducting Research

Meteorological Model Evaluation for CalNex 2010

Brief review on PE method application to propagation channel modeling in sea environment

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