High-resolution measurements and modeling over the North Slope of Alaska
Authors
Erika Roesler — Sandia National Laboratories
Darielle Dexheimer — Sandia National Laboratories
Matthew McChesney — SNL
Benjamin Hillman Hillman — Sandia National Laboratories
Lauren Dennis — Sandia National Laboratories
Category
High-latitude clouds and aerosols
Description
Using higher-resolution atmospheric models improves cloud representation for many convective cloud regimes. The use of high-resolution atmospheric models for improving polar low clouds is explored in this work. We use the System for Atmospheric Modeling, SAM, initialized and forced by ARM’s European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) reanalysis products. SAM output is compared against in situ tethered balloon measurements taken during the intensive operation period (IOP) Aerial Assessment of Liquid in Clouds at Oliktok (AALCO). From the tethered balloon, supercooled liquid water content (SLWC) is measured from a vibrating wire. Preliminary findings of a three-day simulation show SAM can produce clouds with a similar magnitude of condensed liquid as observed by the SLWC observations. We test SAM under numerous spatial resolutions and domain sizes to produce the most realistic simulation of clouds over the North Slope.
