Hande, Luke, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
The Southern Ocean is a
remote area, with the overlying atmosphere being unique and relatively poorly
studied by the meteorology community.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests the clouds over the
Southern Ocean are poorly understood and represented in climate models. The focus of this study is on the
structure and dynamics of the lower atmosphere over the Southern Ocean.
One of the major field
campaigns to study the atmosphere over the Southern Ocean, the first Aerosol
Characterisation Experiment (ACE 1), dates back to 1995. Here, a well defined boundary layer was
observed to approximately 500 – 700 m, driven principally by wind shear,
above which resided a ÔBuffer LayerÕ which experienced intermittent turbulence
and wind shear.
The goal of this
research is to simulate the Lagrangian B experiment from ACE 1 using the WRF
model. The emphasis is on studying
the evolution of the boundary layer, modelling the cloud fields, and the role
wind shear plays in the dynamics of the boundary layer. This research will evaluate the
performance of the WRF model in capturing the structure of the boundary layer
and cloud fields, and investigate some of the key difficulties with modelling
Southern Ocean clouds.