scholarly journals Validating the MYSTIC three-dimensional radiative transfer model with observations from the complex topography of Arizona's Meteor Crater

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 13373-13405 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Mayer ◽  
S. W. Hoch ◽  
C. D. Whiteman

Abstract. The MYSTIC three-dimensional Monte-Carlo radiative transfer model has been extended to simulate solar and thermal irradiances with a rigorous consideration of topography. Forward as well as backward Monte Carlo simulations are possible for arbitrarily oriented surfaces and we demonstrate that the backward Monte Carlo technique is superior to the forward method for applications involving topography, by greatly reducing the computational demands. MYSTIC is used to simulate the short- and longwave radiation fields during a clear day and night in and around Arizona's Meteor Crater, a bowl-shaped, 165-m-deep basin with a diameter of 1200 m. The simulations are made over a 4 by 4 km domain using a 10-m horizontal resolution digital elevation model and meteorological input data collected during the METCRAX (Meteor Crater Experiment) field experiment in 2006. Irradiance (or radiative flux) measurements at multiple locations inside the crater are then used to evaluate the simulations. MYSTIC is shown to realistically model the complex interactions between topography and the radiative field, resolving the effects of terrain shading, terrain exposure, and longwave surface emissions. The effects of surface temperature variations and of temperature stratification within the crater atmosphere on the near-surface longwave irradiance are then evaluated with additional simulations.

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 8685-8696 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Mayer ◽  
S. W. Hoch ◽  
C. D. Whiteman

Abstract. The MYSTIC three-dimensional Monte-Carlo radiative transfer model has been extended to simulate solar and thermal irradiances with a rigorous consideration of topography. Forward as well as backward Monte Carlo simulations are possible for arbitrarily oriented surfaces and we demonstrate that the backward Monte Carlo technique is superior to the forward method for applications involving topography, by greatly reducing the computational demands. MYSTIC is used to simulate the short- and longwave radiation fields during a clear day and night in and around Arizona's Meteor Crater, a bowl-shaped, 165-m-deep basin with a diameter of 1200 m. The simulations are made over a 4 by 4 km2 domain using a 10-m horizontal resolution digital elevation model and meteorological input data collected during the METCRAX (Meteor Crater Experiment) field experiment in 2006. Irradiance (or radiative flux) measurements at multiple locations inside the crater are then used to evaluate the simulations. MYSTIC is shown to realistically model the complex interactions between topography and the radiative field, resolving the effects of terrain shading, terrain exposure, and longwave surface emissions. The effects of surface temperature variations and of temperature stratification within the crater atmosphere on the near-surface longwave irradiance are then evaluated with additional simulations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 3095-3120
Author(s):  
Pavel Krč ◽  
Jaroslav Resler ◽  
Matthias Sühring ◽  
Sebastian Schubert ◽  
Mohamed H. Salim ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Radiative Transfer Model (RTM) is an explicitly resolved three-dimensional multi-reflection radiation model integrated into the PALM modelling system. It is responsible for modelling complex radiative interactions within the urban canopy. It represents a key component in modelling energy transfer inside the urban layer and consequently PALM's ability to provide explicit simulations of the urban canopy at metre-scale resolution. This paper presents RTM version 3.0, which is integrated into the PALM modelling system version 6.0. This version of RTM has been substantially improved over previous versions. A more realistic representation is enabled by the newly simulated processes, e.g. the interaction of longwave radiation with the plant canopy, evapotranspiration and latent heat flux, calculation of mean radiant temperature, and bidirectional interaction with the radiation forcing model. The new version also features novel discretization schemes and algorithms, namely the angular discretization and the azimuthal ray tracing, which offer significantly improved scalability and computational efficiency, enabling larger parallel simulations. It has been successfully tested on a realistic urban scenario with a horizontal size of over 6 million grid points using 8192 parallel processes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Rimboud ◽  
Thomas Farges ◽  
Laurent Labonnote ◽  
François Thieuleux ◽  
Philippe Dubuisson

<p>Thunderstorms occur all over the world, and produce flashes (optical and radio waves). From space, only the light scattered by the cloud is visible. Understanding the radiative transfer of light produced by the lightning discharges in the clouds is therefore fundamental. Observations made by low orbit satellites for twenty years gave the first global map of electrical activity of thunderstorms. Many on-board instruments can now detect lightning. For the first time, the current generation of geostationary meteorological satellites is equipped with lightning imagers. These satellites strongly contribute to the real-time alert of severe weather associated with thunderstorms. Simultaneously, the ASIM mission on board the International Space Station, can measure lightning at different wavelengths, from near-UV to near-IR (imagery and photometry) and provide complementary measurements to those of the geostationary satellites.</p><p>The present study aims to better quantify the radiative transfer of the light emitted by lightning discharges through the cloud. We characterize optical lightning waveforms and images detected by satellites with three-dimensional simulation of photons transport through clouds. A forward three dimensional radiative code based on a Monte-Carlo approach (Cornet et al., 2010) is used in order to accurately simulate the scattering/absorption processes by cloud particles and molecules. The light emitted by the lightning source is simulated as a large number of photons with different temporal and spatial distribution. The simulations have been done for different wavelengths from the near-UV to the near infra-red close to those observed by the ASIM mission. Simulation results are compared to previous results from Light et al. (2001) and Luque et al. (2020) in the case of simple homogeneous water clouds. Furthermore, a sensitivity study is presented concerning the effect of the position, vertical extension and temporal character of the emitting source as well as the cloud microphysics on the signal observed at the top of the atmosphere.</p><p>References</p><p>Cornet, C, L. C-Labonnote, F. Szczap (2010), Three-dimensional polarized monte carlo atmospheric radiative transfer model (3dmcpol): 3d effects on polarized visible reflectances of a cirrus cloud: Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 111(1), 174-186</p><p>Light, T, D. Suszcynsky, M. Kirkland, A. Jacobson (2001), Simulations of lightning optical waveforms as seen clouds by satellites: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 106(D15), 17103-17114.</p><p>A. Luque, F. J. Gordillo-Vázquez, D. Li, A. Malagón-Romero, F. J. Pérez-Invernón, A. Schmalzried, S. Soler, O. Chanrion, M. Heumesser, T. Neubert, et al. (2020), Modeling lightning observations from space-based platforms (cloudscat. Jl 1.0): Geoscientific Model Development, 13(11), 5549–5566</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 131-145
Author(s):  
Md Mijanur Rahman ◽  
Md Abdus Samad ◽  
SM Quamrul Hassan

An attempt has been made to simulate the thermodynamic features of the thunderstorm (TS) event over Dhaka (23.81°N, 90.41°E) occurred from 1300 UTC to 1320 UTC of 4 April 2015 using Advanced Research dynamics solver of Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW). The model was run to conduct a simulation for 48 hours on a single domain of 5 km horizontal resolution utilizing six hourly Global Final Analysis (FNL) datasets from 0600 UTC of 3 April 2015 to 0600 UTC of 5 April 2015 as initial and lateral boundary conditions. Kessler schemes for microphysics, Yonsei University (YSU) scheme for planetary boundary layer (PBL) parametrization, Revised MM5 scheme for surface layer physics, Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM) for longwave radiation, Dudhia scheme for shortwave radiation and Kain–Fritsch (KF) scheme for cumulus parameterization were used. Hourly outputs produced by the model have been analyzed numerically and graphically using Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS). Deep analyses were carried out by examining several thermodynamic parameters such as mean sea level pressure (MSLP), wind pattern, vertical wind shear, vorticity, temperature, convective available potential energy (CAPE), relative humidity (RH) and rainfall. To validate the model performance, simulated values of MSLP, maximum and minimum temperature and RH were compared with observational data obtained from Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). Rainfall values were compared with that of BMD and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Based on the comparisons and validations, the present study advocates that the model captured the TS event reasonably well.GANIT J. Bangladesh Math. Soc.Vol. 37 (2017) 131-145


1981 ◽  
Vol 20 (20) ◽  
pp. 3653 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. R. Poole ◽  
D. D. Venable ◽  
J. W. Campbell

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Stretton ◽  
William Morrison ◽  
Robin Hogan ◽  
Sue Grimmond

<p>The heterogenous structure of cities impacts radiative exchanges (e.g. albedo and heat storage). Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models often characterise the urban structure with an infinite street canyon – but this does not capture the three-dimensional urban form. SPARTACUS-Urban (SU) - a fast, multi-layer radiative transfer model designed for NWP - is evaluated using the explicit Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model for shortwave fluxes across several model domains – from a regular array of cubes to real cities .</p><p>SU agrees with DART (errors < 5.5% for all variables) when the SU assumptions of building distribution are fulfilled (e.g. randomly distribution). For real-world areas with pitched roofs, SU underestimates the albedo (< 10%) and shortwave transmission to the surface (< 15%), and overestimates wall-plus-roof absorption (9-27%), with errors increasing with solar zenith angle. SU should be beneficial to weather and climate models, as it allows more realistic urban form (cf. most schemes) without large increases in computational cost.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3357-3397 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Zawada ◽  
S. R. Dueck ◽  
L. A. Rieger ◽  
A. E. Bourassa ◽  
N. D. Lloyd ◽  
...  

Abstract. The OSIRIS instrument on board the Odin spacecraft has been measuring limb scattered radiance since 2001. The vertical radiance profiles measured as the instrument nods are inverted, with the aid of the SASKTRAN radiative transfer model, to obtain vertical profiles of trace atmospheric constituents. Here we describe two newly developed modes of the SASKTRAN radiative transfer model: a high spatial resolution mode, and a Monte Carlo mode. The high spatial resolution mode is a successive orders model capable of modelling the multiply scattered radiance when the atmosphere is not spherically symmetric; the Monte Carlo mode is intended for use as a highly accurate reference model. It is shown that the two models agree in a wide variety of solar conditions to within 0.2%. As an example case for both models, Odin-OSIRIS scans were simulated with the Monte Carlo model and retrieved using the high resolution model. A systematic bias of up to 4% in retrieved ozone number density between scans where the instrument is scanning up or scanning down was identified. It was found that calculating the multiply scattered diffuse field at five discrete solar zenith angles is sufficient to eliminate the bias for typical Odin-OSIRIS geometries.


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