[Oracles-modelers] NCAR and UIOWA forecasts for ORACLES

[Pablo Saide]

Hi again,

For you wondering why are there two system and when to use which here is 
some info:

The two systems are meant to provide complementary information. Both are 
good for getting locations of plumes and clouds. They both run out of 
GFS, but they have different configuration (e.g., horizontal resolution, 
cloud microphysics scheme, aerosol scheme, feedbacks) and initialization 
(UIOWA initialized from latest GFS, NCAR has 4 days of spinup with FNL 
with nudging above the cloud layer) so smoke plumes and clouds could 
look different. Both systems are also forced by AOD observations (NCAR 
uses and inversion scheme, while UIOWA uses 3DVAR assimilation), so both 
should be good for smoke concentrations and AOD loads.

The main differences are:

The WRF-Chem (UIOWA) has full-chemistry, so you can get detailed aerosol 
speciation (OC, BC, SO4, etc) from it. It also has forecasts of gases 
(O3, NOx, SO2, biogenics, etc.).

The WRF with aerosol-aware microphysics (NCAR) is good for spotting 
locations with aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions, as there are two 
simulations running simultaneously with and without smoke emissions and 
the differences between them are included in the plots. Also, it has 15 
tracers each tagged to one day of biomass burning emissions, so it's 
good to getting an smoke age estimate.

Let me know if you have other questions/comments

Pablo

On 8/15/2016 10:55 AM, Pablo Saide wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Hoping that everything will work out in Namibia, we have our forecast 
> systems up and running. As we discussed in our last science meeting, 
> we have two systems:
>
> *1) NCAR forecasts: *
>
> Maps: 
> https://acomstaff.acom.ucar.edu/saide/oracles/wrf_aam-current/pmenu.html
>
> Cross-sections: 
> https://acomstaff.acom.ucar.edu/saide/oracles/wrf_aam-current/pmenu_crossection.html
>
> You can read the whole description in the webpage. One of the 
> highlights is that the "DIFF" fields gives you the differences between 
> simulations turning on and off fire emissions, so you can see the 
> effects of the aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in variables such 
> as cloud number concentrations, cloud-top height, LWP and temperature 
> (see sample below). Also, I added tracers to track biomass burning 
> emitted on a range of 15 days (some of them are still filling up, so 
> you might see zeros). I plan to compute age estimates based on these 
> tracers.
>
> *2) U of IOWA forecasts: *
>
> Maps: http://bio.cgrer.uiowa.edu/ORACLES/wrf_fullchem-current/pmenu.html
>
> Cross-sections: 
> http://bio.cgrer.uiowa.edu/ORACLES/wrf_fullchem-current/pmenu_crossection.html
>
> These are full-chemistry WRF-Chem simulations including data 
> assimilation. This system is very similar to what we used in KORUS-AQ 
> (if you were there). Only aerosol-radiation interactions are included 
> in this configuration, interactions will clouds will be included in 
> post-campaign analysis.
>
>
> We are still working in some details like titles overlapping with 
> dates and the runs being updated. Let us know of any other issues you 
> find and any suggestions of additional variables we could plot
>
> thanks!
> Pablo
>
>
>
> -- 
> Pablo E Saide, Ph.D.
> Advanced Study Program (ASP) &
> Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) Lab
> National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
> 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder CO 80307-3000
> Office: FL0-3150
> Email:saide at ucar.edu
> Phone: 303-497-1448
> Website:https://staff.ucar.edu/users/saide

-- 
Pablo E Saide, Ph.D.
Advanced Study Program (ASP) &
Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) Lab
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder CO 80307-3000
Office: FL0-3150
Email: saide at ucar.edu
Phone: 303-497-1448
Website: https://staff.ucar.edu/users/saide

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