Mountain wave episodes using the high-resolution HARMONIE-AROME model in Spain.

Turbulence and icing represent a danger for the aircrafts. In fact, turbulence is the leading cause of aircraft accidents related to meteorology. Both turbulence and icing weather hazards can occur in mountain waves simultaneously. For this reason, it is important to study these weather phenomena. Here, the HARMONIE-AROME model is used in order to analyze mountain wave events in the Guadarrama and the Cantabrian Mountain Ranges (Spain). This short-range mesoscale numerical weather prediction model is used for operational weather forecasts in many European meteorological organizations with a horizontal resolution of 2.5 km. In this study, a spatial resolution of 1 x 1 km is selected. In the analyzed areas, mountain waves are formed on the leeward side when strong winds, perpendicular to the mountains (usually north or northwest winds), are forced to ascend. Simulated total cloud cover and z-wind component have been analyzed and compared with satellite images. The validation of these mountain wave episodes ...