Multicase Assessment of the Impacts of Horizontal and Vertical Grid Spacing, and Turbulence Closure Model, on Subkilometer-Scale Simulations of Atmospheric Bores during PECAN

AbstractFour case studies from the Plains Elevated Convection At Night (PECAN) field experiment are used to investigate the impacts of horizontal and vertical resolution, and vertical mixing parameterization, on predictions of bore structure and upscale impacts of bores on their mesoscale environment. The reduction of environmental convective inhibition (CIN) created by the bore is particularly emphasized. Simulations are run with horizontal grid spacings ranging from 250-1000 m, as well as 50 m for one case study, different vertical level configurations, and different closure models for the vertical turbulent mixing at 250 m horizontal resolution.The 11 July case study was evaluated in greatest detail because it was the best observed caseand has been the focus of a previous study. For this case, it is found that 250 m grid spacing improves upon 1 km grid spacing, LES configuration provides further improvement, and enhanced low level vertical resolution also provides further improvement in terms of qualit...