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Interactions Between the Nighttime Valley-Wind System and a Developing Cold-Air Pool

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Abstract

The Weather Research and Forecast numerical model is used to characterize the influence of a thermally-driven down-valley flow on a developing cold-air pool in an idealized alpine valley decoupled from the atmosphere above. Results for a three-dimensional (3D) valley, which allows for the formation of a down-valley flow, and for a two-dimensional (2D) valley, where the formation of a down-valley flow is inhibited, are analyzed and compared. A key result is that advection leads to a net cooling in the 2D valley and to a warming in the 3D valley, once the down-valley flow is fully developed. This difference stems from the suppression of the slope-flow induced upward motions over the valley centre in the 3D valley. As a result, the downslope flows develop a cross-valley circulation within the cold-air pool, the growth of the cold-air pool is reduced and the valley atmosphere is generally warmer than in the 2D valley. A quasi-steady state is reached for which the divergence of the down-valley flow along the valley is balanced by the convergence of the downslope flows at the top of the cold-air pool, with no net contribution of subsiding motions far from the slope layer. More precisely, the inflow of air at the top of the cold-air pool is found to be driven by an interplay between the return flow from the plain region and subsidence over the plateaux. Finally, the mechanisms that control the structure of the cold-air pool and its evolution are found to be independent of the valley length as soon as the quasi-steady state is reached and the down-valley flow is fully developed.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by a PhD grant provided by the LabEx Osug@2020 (Investissements d’avenir – ANR10LABX56) in Grenoble and by the University of Hertfordshire. Numerical simulations were run on the French national HPC facilities at CINES. Finally, the authors thank the referees for valuable comments, which led to substantial improvements in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, LEGI, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Gabriele Arduini & Chantal Staquet

  2. CNRS, LEGI, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Gabriele Arduini & Chantal Staquet

  3. Centre for Atmospheric & Instrumentation Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK

    Gabriele Arduini & Charles Chemel

  4. National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), Centre for Atmospheric & Instrumentation Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK

    Charles Chemel

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  1. Gabriele Arduini
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  2. Chantal Staquet
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  3. Charles Chemel
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Correspondence to Gabriele Arduini.

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Arduini, G., Staquet, C. & Chemel, C. Interactions Between the Nighttime Valley-Wind System and a Developing Cold-Air Pool. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 161, 49–72 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-016-0155-8

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