P55 Preliminary evaluation of WRF physics options for the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Thaxton, Chris, Appalachian State University

The Appalachian Atmospheric Interdisciplinary Research site (AppalAIR) on the campus of Appalachian State University is home to the only co-located NOAA and NASA-supported atmospheric aerosol monitoring sites in the Southeastern U.S. (SEUS). Current projects in need of dedicated modeling support include: determining the sensitivity of aerosol direct radiative forcing to the vertical distribution of temperature, water vapor, and aerosol density; improving scientific understanding of localized aerosol-meteorology coupling in the context of climate variability/change in the SEUS; and understanding underlying dynamical processes influencing the temporal and spatial variability in PBL heights and structure in the Southern Appalachian Mountains (SAM). Presented are the preliminary results for the selection of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) physics options and subdomain resolution for a range of meteorological conditions at the AppalAIR site. Vertical profile time series outputs from a suite of WRF runs were compared to a subset of 72 radiosonde launches performed in the summer of 2012 and fall 2016. PBL height predictions were also compared to lidar-derived PBL heights. Determining optimized WRF parameterization for the SAM region is the first step toward potential fully coupled WRF-CMAQ simulations in support of ongoing research.