6.4    Sensitivity of WRF Model to Simulate Gravity Waves

Udina, Mireia,  Dept. Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, Soler, MR, Dept. Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, Viana, Samuel, Agencia Estatal de Meteorolog’a, Barcelona, Spain, YagŸe, Carlos, Dpto. Geof’sica y Meteorolog’a, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Internal gravity waves generated at the top of a density current during the SABLES2006 (Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment in Spain-2006) field campaign, are reproduced through mesoscale meteorological modeling with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW version 3.1.1). Two different experiments corresponding to two different parametrization of the surface layer and the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) are considered.  The first includes the MM5 similarity for surface layer and the Yonsei University (YSU) scheme for PBL, whilst the second uses the Eta surface layer and the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ) PBL schemes. Results show the capability of the WRF model to detect internal gravity waves becoming a useful tool to study the origin and development of density currents. However, PBL sensitivity analysis also reveals large differences between the schemes used in this study, like their different capability to detect internal gravity waves.