Performance Evaluation of Sub-Grid Orographic Parameterization in the WRF Model over Complex Terrain in Central Asia

The terrain of Central Asia is complex and rugged over mountains. Consequently, wind speed is overestimated over mountains and plains when using the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model in winter. To solve this problem, three different simulations (named as control simulation (CRTL), gravity waves (GWD), and flow-blocking drag (FBD), respectively) were designed to investigate the impact of sub-grid orography (gravity waves and flow-blocking drag) on wind forecasts. The results illustrated that near-surface wind-speed overestimations were alleviated when sub-grid orographic drag was used in GWD, though the upper-level wind fields at 500 hPa were excessively reduced compared to CRTL. Thus, we propose eliminating the gravity wave breaking at the upper level to improve upper-level wind underestimations and surface wind speeds at the same time. The sub-grid orographic drag stress of the vertical profile over mountains was reduced when only the flow-blocking drag was retained in FBD. This alleviated underestimations of the upper-level wind speed and near-surface wind, which both have the same positive effects as the gravity wave and flow-blocking total. The mean bias and root mean squared error reduced by 32.76% and 9.39%, respectively, compared to CRTL. Moreover, the temperature and specific humidity in the lower troposphere were indirectly improved. The results of the study demonstrate that it is better to remove sub-grid orographic gravity wave drag when using the gravity wave drag scheme of the WRF model.

COnstraining ORographic Drag Effects (COORDE): A model intercomparison of resolved and parametrized orographic drag

<p>Mountains are know to impact the atmospheric circulation on a variety of spatial scales and through a number of different processes. They exert a drag force on the atmosphere both locally through deflection of the flow and remotely through the generation of atmospheric gravity waves. The degree to which orographic drag parametrizations are able to capture the complex impacts on the circulation from realistic orography in high resolution simulations is examined here. We present results from COnstraing ORographic Drag Effects (COORDE), a project joint with the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) and Global Atmospheric System Studies (GASS). The aim of COORDE is to validate parametrized orographic drag in several operational models in order to determine both systematic and model dependent errors over complex terrain. To do this, we compare the effects of parametrized orographic drag on the circulation with those of the resolved orographic drag, deduced from km-scale resolution simulations which are able to resolve orographic low-level blocking and gravity-wave effects. We show that there is a large spread in the impact from parametrized orographic drag between the models but that the impact from resolved orography is much more robust. This is encouraging as it means that the km-scale simulations can be used to evaluate the caveats of the existing orographic drag parametrizations. Analysis of the parametrized drag tendencies and stresses shows that much of the spread in the parametrized orographic drag comes from differences in the partitioning of the drag into turbulent and flow blocking drag near the surface. What is more, much of the model error over complex terrain can be attributed to deficiencies in the parametrized orographic drag, particularly coming from the orographic gravity wave drag.</p>