Simulating the IHOP_2002 fair-weather CBL with the WRF-ARW-Noah modeling system. Part II: Structures from a few kilometers to 100 km across

Fair-weather data along the May–June 2002 International H₂O Project (IHOP_2002) eastern track and the nearby Argonne Boundary Layer Experiments (ABLE) facility in southeast Kansas are compared to numerical simulations to gain insight into how the surface influences convective boundary layer (CBL) structure, and to evaluate the success of the modeling system in replicating the observed behavior. Simulations are conducted for 4 days, using the Advanced Research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)model coupled to the Noah land surface model (LSM), initialized using the High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS).

Because the observations focus on phenomena less than 60 km in scale, the model is run with 1-km grid spacing, offering a critical look at High-resolution model behavior in an environment uncomplicated by precipitation. The model replicates the type of CBL structure on scales from a few kilometers to ~100 km, but some features at the kilometer scales depend on the grid spacing.Mesoscale (tens of kilometers) circulations were clearly evident on 2 of the 4 days (30 May and 20 June), clearly not evident on 1 day (22 June), with the situation for the fourth day (17 June) ambiguous.