A mesoscale model (MM5), a dispersive Langrangian particle model (FLEXPART), and intensive meteorological and COrrelation SPECtrometer (COSPEC) measurements from a field campaign are used to examine the advection and turbulent diffusion patterns associated with interactions and forcings between topography, synoptic atmospheric flows and thermally-driven circulations. This study describes the at...

On 21 July 2001 a number of severe storms developed over the region of Camaguey, Cuba, which were observed by radar. A numerical simulation was performed in order to realistically reproduce the development of the storms observed that day. The mesoscale model MM5 was used to determine the initial, boundary and update conditions for the storm-scale simulation with the model ARPS. Changes to the s...

Between the 11 and 13 October 2005 several flash floods were produced along the coast of Catalonia (NE Spain) due to a significant heavy rainfall event. Maximum rainfall achieved values up to 250 mm in 24 h. The total amount recorded during the event in some places was close to 350 mm. Barcelona city was also in the affected area where high rainfall intensities were registered, but just a few s...

Verification of two months, April and May 1997, of 48-h mesoscale model simulations of the atmospheric state around Greenland are presented. The simulations are performed with a modified version of The Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), referred to as the Polar MM5. Global atmospheric analyses as well as automatic weath...

The mesoscale numerical weather prediction model MM5, the 5 generation Pennsylvania State University/NCAR Mesoscale Model, uses a global land-use map to set the physical parameters on the surface characteristics to model the soil-atmosphere processes. These parameters are albedo, emissivity, thermal inertia, roughness length and soil moisture. A new estimation of soil parameters is done for the...

A physically based retrieval algorithm was developed to estimate snowfall over land. The retrieval algorithm relies on the MM5 model that generates the vertical structure of a snow cloud, including snow mass, snow particle effective diameter, and water vapor. The MM5 cloud simulation was used to provide statistics for generating the cloud characteristics. The snow cloud profile and surface emis...

The assimilation of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data into the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) allows for improving the weather forecast. However the results suggested an update the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE) within the three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) algorithm which is tailored for non rainy conditions only. To this purpose, a new RTE algorithm is tested, in order to account fo...

Numerical models such as the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) or the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) are used by meteorologists in the prediction and the study of hurricanes. The outputs from such models vary greatly depending on the model, the initialization conditions, the simulation resolution and the computational resources available. The overwhelming amount of data that is generated ca...

It is widely known that the snow cover has a major influence on the hydrology of Alpine watersheds. Snow acts as temporal storage for precipitation during the winter season. The stored water is later released as snowmelt and represents an important component of water supply for the downstream population of large mountain-foreland river systems worldwide. Modelling the amount and position of the...