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Application of a quasi-nonhydrostatic parameterization for numerically modeling neutral flow over an isolated hill

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Abstract

A parameterization of the nonhydrostatic pressure was modified and adapted to a nonlinear numerical model of the neutral atmospheric boundary layer. A hydrostatic model and the quasinonhydrostatic version were used to simulate neutral flow over a symmetrical hill of uniform roughness. Mean-flow quantities and some turbulence characteristics of the flow from both models are presented. These results were compared with observations, analytic theory, and other numerical models.

The quasi-nonhydrostatic method produced qualitative features commonly observed in such flows that the hydrostatic model could not simulate. For instance, the observed velocity reduction at the hill base and the speedup at the summit both were simulated by the quasi-nonhydrostatic model. However, computation of vertical velocities from the incompressible continuity equation is inadequate above regions of recirculation and presents a limitation to the method.

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Journal Paper No. J-12741 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 2779.

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Fast, J.D., Takle, E.S. Application of a quasi-nonhydrostatic parameterization for numerically modeling neutral flow over an isolated hill. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 44, 285–304 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00116067

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