Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain

Chow, Fotini Katopodes; Schär, Christoph; Ban, Nikolina; Lundquist, Katherine A.; Schlemmer, Linda; Shi, Xiaoming

doi:10.3390/atmos10050274

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain

Fotini Katopodes Chow

^1,*,†,

Christoph Schär

Nikolina Ban

Katherine A. Lundquist

³,

Linda Schlemmer

^2,4

and

Xiaoming Shi

⁵

Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

ETH Zurich, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA

⁴

Deutscher Wetterdienst, 63067 Offenbach, Germany

⁵

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 999077, China

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Current address: Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1710, USA.

Atmosphere 2019, 10(5), 274; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10050274

Received: 26 February 2019 / Revised: 9 April 2019 / Accepted: 20 April 2019 / Published: 14 May 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Processes over Complex Terrain)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

This review paper explores the field of mesoscale to microscale modeling over complex terrain as it traverses multiple so-called gray zones. In an attempt to bridge the gap between previous large-scale and small-scale modeling efforts, atmospheric simulations are being run at an unprecedented range of resolutions. The gray zone is the range of grid resolutions where particular features are neither subgrid nor fully resolved, but rather are partially resolved. The definition of a gray zone depends strongly on the feature being represented and its relationship to the model resolution. This paper explores three gray zones relevant to simulations over complex terrain: turbulence, convection, and topography. Taken together, these may be referred to as the gray continuum. The focus is on horizontal grid resolutions from ∼10 km to ∼10 m. In each case, the challenges are presented together with recent progress in the literature. A common theme is to address cross-scale interaction and scale-awareness in parameterization schemes. How numerical models are designed to cross these gray zones is critical to complex terrain applications in numerical weather prediction, wind resource forecasting, and regional climate modeling, among others. View Full-Text

Keywords: mesoscale modeling; microscale modeling; gray zone; gray continuum; terra incognita; complex terrain

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Chow, F.K.; Schär, C.; Ban, N.; Lundquist, K.A.; Schlemmer, L.; Shi, X. Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain. Atmosphere 2019, 10, 274. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10050274

AMA Style

Chow FK, Schär C, Ban N, Lundquist KA, Schlemmer L, Shi X. Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain. Atmosphere. 2019; 10(5):274. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10050274

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chow, Fotini K., Christoph Schär, Nikolina Ban, Katherine A. Lundquist, Linda Schlemmer, and Xiaoming Shi. 2019. "Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain" Atmosphere 10, no. 5: 274. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10050274

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Crossing Multiple Gray Zones in the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Simulation over Complex Terrain

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI