scholarly journals Mean and Turbulent Flow Downstream of a Low-Intensity Fire: Influence of Canopy and Background Atmospheric Conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Kiefer ◽  
Warren E. Heilman ◽  
Shiyuan Zhong ◽  
Joseph J. Charney ◽  
Xindi Bian

AbstractThis study examines the sensitivity of mean and turbulent flow in the planetary boundary layer and roughness sublayer to a low-intensity fire and evaluates whether the sensitivity is dependent on canopy and background atmospheric properties. The ARPS-CANOPY model, a modified version of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) model with a canopy parameterization, is utilized for this purpose. A series of numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate whether the ability of the fire to alter downstream wind, temperature, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and vertical heat flux differs between forested and open areas, sparse and dense forests, weak and strong background flow, and neutral and convective background stability. Analysis of all experiments shows that, in general, mean and turbulent flow both prior to and during a low-intensity fire is damped in the presence of a canopy. Greater sensitivity to the fire is found in cases with strong ambient wind speed than in cases with quiescent or weak wind speed. Furthermore, sensitivity of downstream atmospheric conditions to the fire is shown to be strongest with a neutrally stratified background. An analysis of the TKE budget reveals that both buoyancy and wind shear contribute to TKE production during the period of time in which the fire conditions are applied to the model. On the basis of the results of the ARPS simulations, caution is advised when applying ARPS-simulation results to predictions of smoke transport and dispersion: smoke-model users should consider whether canopy impacts on the atmosphere are accounted for and whether neutral stratification is assumed.

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 18385-18407
Author(s):  
D. P. Duda ◽  
R. Palikonda ◽  
P. Minnis

Abstract. The potential for using high-resolution meteorological data from two operational numerical weather analyses (NWA) to diagnose and predict persistent contrail formation is evaluated using two independent contrail observation databases. Contrail occurrence statistics derived from surface and satellite observations between April 2004 and June 2005 are matched to the humidity, vertical velocity, wind shear and atmospheric stability derived from analyses from the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) and the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) models. The relationships between contrail occurrence and the NWA-derived statistics are analyzed to determine under which atmospheric conditions persistent contrail formation is favored within NWAs. Humidity is the most important factor determining whether contrails are short-lived or persistent, and persistent contrails are more likely to appear when vertical velocities are positive, and more likely to spread when the atmosphere is less stable. Although artificial upper limits on upper tropospheric humidity within the NWAs prevent a direct quantitative agreement of model data with contrail formation theory, logistic regression or similar statistical methods may improve the prediction of contrail occurrence.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1357-1364 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. P. Duda ◽  
R. Palikonda ◽  
P. Minnis

Abstract. The potential for using high-resolution meteorological data from two operational numerical weather analyses (NWA) to diagnose and predict persistent contrail formation is evaluated using two independent contrail observation databases. Contrail occurrence statistics derived from surface and satellite observations between April 2004 and June 2005 are matched to the humidity, vertical velocity, wind shear and atmospheric stability derived from analyses from the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) and the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) models. The relationships between contrail occurrence and the NWA-derived statistics are analyzed to determine under which atmospheric conditions persistent contrail formation is favored within NWAs. Humidity is the most important factor determining whether contrails are short-lived or persistent, and persistent contrails are more likely to appear when vertical velocities are positive. The model-derived atmospheric stability and wind shear do not appear to have a significant effect on contrail occurrence.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (13) ◽  
pp. 8499-8509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Kiefer ◽  
Warren E. Heilman ◽  
Shiyuan Zhong ◽  
Joseph J. Charney ◽  
Xindi Bian

Abstract. Much uncertainty exists regarding the possible role that gaps in forest canopies play in modulating fire–atmosphere interactions in otherwise horizontally homogeneous forests. This study examines the influence of gaps in forest canopies on atmospheric perturbations induced by a low-intensity fire using the ARPS-CANOPY model, a version of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) model with a canopy parameterization. A series of numerical experiments are conducted with a stationary low-intensity fire, represented in the model as a line of enhanced surface sensible heat flux. Experiments are conducted with and without forest gaps, and with gaps in different positions relative to the fire line. For each of the four cases considered, an additional simulation is performed without the fire to facilitate comparison of the fire-perturbed atmosphere and the background state. Analyses of both mean and instantaneous wind velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, air temperature, and turbulent mixing of heat are presented in order to examine the fire-perturbed atmosphere on multiple timescales. Results of the analyses indicate that the impact of the fire on the atmosphere is greatest in the case with the gap centered on the fire and weakest in the case with the gap upstream of the fire. It is shown that gaps in forest canopies have the potential to play a role in the vertical as well as horizontal transport of heat away from the fire. Results also suggest that, in order to understand how the fire will alter wind and turbulence in a heterogeneous forest, one needs to first understand how the forest heterogeneity itself influences the wind and turbulence fields without the fire.


2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Myrick ◽  
John D. Horel

Abstract Federal, state, and other wildland resource management agencies contribute to the collection of weather observations from over 1000 Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) in the western United States. The impact of RAWS observations on surface objective analyses during the 2003/04 winter season was assessed using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) Data Assimilation System (ADAS). A set of control analyses was created each day at 0000 and 1200 UTC using the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) analyses as the background fields and assimilating approximately 3000 surface observations from MesoWest. Another set of analyses was generated by withholding all of the RAWS observations available at each time while 10 additional sets of analyses were created by randomly withholding comparable numbers of observations obtained from all sources. Random withholding of observations from the analyses provides a baseline estimate of the analysis quality. Relative to this baseline, removing the RAWS observations degrades temperature (wind speed) analyses by an additional 0.5°C (0.9 m s−1) when evaluated in terms of rmse over the entire season. RAWS temperature observations adjust the RUC background the most during the early morning hours and during winter season cold pool events in the western United States while wind speed observations have a greater impact during active weather periods. The average analysis area influenced by at least 1.0°C (2.5°C) by withholding each RAWS observation is on the order of 600 km2 (100 km2). The spatial influence of randomly withheld observations is much less.


Author(s):  
S. I. Nefedkin ◽  
A. O. Barsukov ◽  
M. I. Mozgova ◽  
M. S. Shichkov ◽  
M. A. Klimova

The paper proposes an alternative scheme of guaranteed electricity and heat supply of an energy-insulated facility with a high potential of wind energy without the use of imported or local fuel. The scheme represents a wind power complex containing the park of wind generators located at the points with high wind potential. The wind generators provide guaranteed power supply even in periods of weak wind. For heat supply of the consumer, all surplus of the electric power goes on thermoelectric heating of water in tanks of accumulators, and also on receiving hydrogen by a method of electrolysis of water. The current heat supply is carried out with the use of hot water storage tanks, and the heat supply during the heat shortage is carried out by burning the stored hydrogen in condensing hydrogen boilers. We have developed the algorithm of calculation and the program "Wind in energy" which allows calculating annual balance of energy and picking up necessary quantity of the equipment for implementation of the scheme proceeding from the annual schedule of thermal and electric loading, and also potential of wind energy in the chosen region. The calculation-substantiation of the scheme proposed in relation to the real energy-insulated object Ust-Kamchatsk (Kamchatka) is carried out. The equipment for the implementation of an alternative energy supply scheme without the use of imported fuel is selected and compared with the traditional energy supply scheme based on a diesel power plant and a boiler house operating on imported fuel. With the introduction of an alternative power supply scheme, the equipment of the traditional scheme that has exhausted its resource can be used for backup power supply. Using climate databases, a number of energy-insulated facilities in the North and East of Russia with high wind energy potential are considered and the conditions for the successful implementation of the energy supply scheme are analyzed. This requires not only a high average annual wind speed, but also a minimum number of days of weak wind. In addition, it is necessary that the profile of the wind speed distribution in the annual section coincides with the profile of the heat load consumption.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 1790-1802 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Duda ◽  
Patrick Minnis

Abstract A probabilistic forecast to accurately predict contrail formation over the conterminous United States (CONUS) is created by using meteorological data based on hourly meteorological analyses from the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) and the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) combined with surface and satellite observations of contrails. Two groups of logistic models were created. The first group of models (SURFACE models) is based on surface-based contrail observations supplemented with satellite observations of contrail occurrence. The most common predictors selected for the SURFACE models tend to be related to temperature, relative humidity, and wind direction when the models are generated using RUC or ARPS analyses. The second group of models (OUTBREAK models) is derived from a selected subgroup of satellite-based observations of widespread persistent contrails. The most common predictors for the OUTBREAK models tend to be wind direction, atmospheric lapse rate, temperature, relative humidity, and the product of temperature and humidity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 3115-3137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liping Luo ◽  
Ming Xue ◽  
Kefeng Zhu ◽  
Bowen Zhou

Abstract During the afternoon of 28 April 2015, a multicellular convective system swept southward through much of Jiangsu Province, China, over about 7 h, producing egg-sized hailstones on the ground. The hailstorm event is simulated using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) at 1-km grid spacing. Different configurations of the Milbrandt–Yau microphysics scheme are used, predicting one, two, and three moments of the hydrometeor particle size distributions (PSDs). Simulated reflectivity and maximum estimated size of hail (MESH) derived from the simulations are verified against reflectivity observed by operational S-band Doppler radars and radar-derived MESH, respectively. Comparisons suggest that the general evolution of the hailstorm is better predicted by the three-moment scheme, and neighborhood-based MESH evaluation further confirms the advantage of the three-moment scheme in hail size prediction. Surface accumulated hail mass, number, and hail distribution characteristics within simulated storms are examined across sensitivity experiments. Results suggest that multimoment schemes produce more realistic hail distribution characteristics, with the three-moment scheme performing the best. Size sorting is found to play a significant role in determining hail distribution within the storms. Detailed microphysical budget analyses are conducted for each experiment, and results indicate that the differences in hail growth processes among the experiments can be mainly ascribed to the different treatments of the shape parameter within different microphysics schemes. Both the differences in size sorting and hail growth processes contribute to the simulated hail distribution differences within storms and at the surface.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Bodini ◽  
Julie K. Lundquist ◽  
Patrick Moriarty

AbstractLong-term weather and climate observatories can be affected by the changing environments in their vicinity, such as the growth of urban areas or changing vegetation. Wind plants can also impact local atmospheric conditions through their wakes, characterized by reduced wind speed and increased turbulence. We explore the extent to which the wind plants near an atmospheric measurement site in the central United States have affected their long-term measurements. Both direct observations and mesoscale numerical weather prediction simulations demonstrate how the wind plants induce a wind deficit aloft, especially in stable conditions, and a wind speed acceleration near the surface, which extend $$\sim 30$$ ∼ 30  km downwind of the wind plant. Turbulence kinetic energy is significantly enhanced within the wind plant wake in stable conditions, with near-surface observations seeing an increase of more than 30% a few kilometers downwind of the plants.


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