The impact of spin up and resolution on the representation of a clear convective boundary layer over London in order 100m grid-length versions of the Met Office Unified Model

Lean, H. W., Barlow, J. F. and Halios, C. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8301-8449 (2019) The impact of spin up and resolution on the representation of a clear convective boundary layer over London in order 100m grid-length versions of the Met Office Unified Model. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 145 (721). pp. 1674-1689. ISSN 1477-870X doi: 10.1002/qj.3519

Abstract/Summary

With a number of operational centres looking forward to the possibilities of “city scale” NWP and climate modelling it is important to understand the behaviour of order 100m models over cities. A key issue is how to handle the representation of partially resolved turbulence in these models. In this paper we compare the representation of a clear convective boundary layer case in London in 100m and 50m grid-length versions of the Unified Model (MetUM) with observations. Comparison of Doppler lidar observations of the vertical velocity shows that convective overturning in the boundary layer is broadly well represented in terms of its depth and magnitude. The role of model resolution was investigated by comparing a 50m grid-length model with the 100m one. It is found that, although going to 50m grid-length does not greatly change many of the bulk properties (mixing height, heat flux profiles, etc.) the spatial structure of the overturning is significantly different. This is confirmed with spectral analysis which shows that the 50m model resolves significantly more of the energetic eddies, and a length scale analysis that shows the 50m and 100m models produce convective structures 2-3 times larger than observed. We conclude that, for the MetUM, model grid-lengths of order 100m may well be sufficient for predicting many bulk and statistical properties of convective boundary layers however the details of the spatial structures around convective overturning in these situations are likely to be still under-resolved. Spin up artefacts emanating from the inflow boundary of the model are investigated by comparing with a smaller 100m grid-length domain which is more dominated by such effects. These manifest themselves as along wind boundary layer rolls which produce a less realistic comparison with the lidar observations. A stability analysis is presented in order to better understand the formation of these rolls.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/83252
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology Science > School of the Built Environment > Energy and Environmental Engineering group
Publisher	Royal Meteorological Society
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