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Wind Turning in the Planetary Boundary Layer in CMIP6 Models



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Journal of Climate
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
  • Description:
    A set of CMIP6 models is evaluated for the turning of the wind over the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and the corresponding cross-isobaric mass flux. The bulk Richardson number method is used to calculate the height of the PBL to allow for comparisons with a climatology of observed wind-turning angles documented by Lindvall and Svensson based on more than 800 stations in the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive. Wind-turning angles are found to be underestimated in all models, with the GFDL CM4 model having the closest distribution to the observations. Large, negative cross-isobaric mass fluxes (flow toward higher pressure) are found over high-terrain areas and the North Atlantic storm-track region in all models and the ERA-Interim reanalysis. Bulk Richardson number–derived PBLs are particularly shallow in the Norwegian Earth System Model, medium atmosphere-medium ocean resolution (NorESM2-MM), likely caused by a change in the turbulence and cloud scheme as compared to the CESM2 model that uses the same atmospheric model, leading to small wind-turning angles and cross-isobaric mass fluxes. Using the 850-hPa level as the upper boundary broadens the wind-turning angle distribution and increases the amount of cross-isobaric mass flux for all models. This makes the models closer to the observations, although substantial differences are still present. The assumption of a constant geostrophic wind throughout the PBL possibly affects the calculated mass fluxes.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Journal of Climate, 36(17), 5729-5742
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    0894-8755 ; 1520-0442
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    American Meteorological Society
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
    Grant no. NA19OAR4310363
  • Rights Information:
    Other
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha256:b3a64cc84ba9346f3f16a73d388ff8bc728ad49d6501651316df50b1e1891e97
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 3.66 MB ]
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