134

Task 134

Dynamic Downscaling and Urban Land Use

Principal Investigator(s):

R. Murtugudde

Collaborators:

Bin Zhang

Sponsor(s):

M. Imhoff

Last Updated:

October 26, 2012 15:25:35


Description of Problem

This task provides additional support to look at the use of Terra and other data sets in the application of urban related impacts to the Chesapeake Bay environment within the context of the on-going CBFS. The Chesapeake Bay land use has been under great pressure due to population growth and sea level rise. Including the interaction among the atmosphere, ocean, land under a Regional Earth System Prediction Framework is important to study the impact of urban land use on the long term climate and short term weather and ocean forecasting.

Scientific Objectives and Approach

We will set up a coupled model to study the interaction of atmosphere and ocean over the Chesapeake Bay region. A Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave- Sediment Transport Modeling System (COAWST) model has been used to couple the atmosphere/ocean/wave models for air-sea interaction studies in coastal ocean by coupling the Weather Research and Forecast Model (WRF), Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) and wave models (SWAN) together. Here we use the interface of COAWST to study the simple coupling effects over Chesapeake Bay by coupling the WRF and ROMS together. We will apply this coupling system to the 14 days forecasting via downscaling ensemble NOAA GFS and seasonal forecasting via downscaling ensemble seasonal outlooks from the ECHAM4.5 of IRI at Columbia University. We will also use this coupling system to study the urban heat effects with a high resolution model a 2 km WRF model with couple ocean model.

Accomplishments

Besides of our ongoing 14 days and seasonal forecasting of CBFS, a coupled ocean/atmosphere model over Chesapeake has been set up using ROMS3.2 and WRF3.1 over Chesapeake Bay. A simple comparison of the model results are shown in the figure. The transferring of ROMS SST to WRF has been successfully captured. Clearly, the wind patterns in WRF are different in a short time with/without coupling and so does the ROMS simulated SST.

Task Figures


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