Mesoscale Atmospheric Model for the Susquehanna River Basin
Objectives
SRBEX mesoscale atmospheric modeling activities have three major
objectives:
Current Activities
The SRBEX team has adopted the fifth generation of the Penn State/NCAR
Mesoscale Model (MM5) as the primary model for regional-scale
atmospheric simulation. This model is nonhydrostatic, it allows for
multiple movable nested domains, and it incorporates a sophisticated
atmospheric hydrologic cycle, an improved atmospheric radiation scheme,
and more efficient numerics to make longer-range simulations more
tractable. It can be initialized with observed or synthetic atmospheric
data and can be applied to any region on earth. Version 1 of MM5 was
officially released for public use in February 1994; the entire MM5
system (including pre- and post-processing programs) has been installed
and tested on the Cray YMP computer at ESSC.
The MM5 has been used to provide simulated hourly precipitation fields
for the initial linked-model simulation of a
single storm event, and will be used to provide similar data for
additional planned scenarios.
A modified version of the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme, or BATS,
(Lakhtakia and Warner,
1994) has been introduced into MM5. Testing of this new MM5
capability is underway, so that the latter can then be used for SRBEX
applications. As part of this process, improvements are being made to
several variables and parameters within BATS that require initialization
or specification, including land surface characteristics (e.g. soils and landcover), and soil water (SW)
content. The latter can be supplied by the Penn State Soil Hydrology Model (SHM).
Results
MM5 was run for a two-day storm event, 9-11 April 1980, using
objectively analyzed meteorological observations as initial and
lateral boundary conditions. Analysis of results from this simulation
is not yet complete. The hourly precipitation fields were transferred
from the CRAY YMP computer to the Sun workstation network (both at ESSC)
and ingested by a geographic information system (GIS) for easy access by
the terrestrial hydrology model, as discussed by
Lakhtakia, et al (1995).
Last change: 10 May 1995,
R. A. White / raw@essc.psu.edu