Abstract
An internally interactive radiative-convective model for an inversion-capped planetary boundary layer (PBL) with stratus or stratocumulus convection is presented. It includes a parameterization scheme for the radiative processes based on the radiative transfer equation, which allows calculations of the radiative net flux divergence as an internal model parameter. The accuracy of this parameterization is tested by comparison to a high resolution spectral radiation model, showing an encouraging agreement. Typical profiles of the radiative net flux divergence in an inversion-capped cloudy PBL show two distinct regions of radiative cooling near the top of the cloud and in the upper part of the inversion, and two regions of radiative heating in the vicinity of the cloud base and the inversion base. Therefore for the first time both the turbulence and the radiation characteristics of the PBL can be derived as internal model parameters.
Two radiosonde ascents — one from Santa Monica, California, one from weather ship ‘M’ in the Northern Atlantic — are used in order to compare model results with routine measurements. In both cases the inversion height (i.e. the difference between surface pressure and pressure at the inversion level) is slightly underestimated, whereas the vertical profiles of dry and moist static energy as well as the total water content and the specific humidity agree fairly well in the well-mixed layer. The description of the radiative processes according to Lilly (1968) and Kahn and Businger (1979) is also investigated for both cases. Lilly's concept failed for the case over the Northern Atlantic, and the suggestion of Kahn and Businger failed for the Californian coast, thus demonstrating the limited accuracy and applicability of such simple parameterization schemes.
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Schaller, E., Kraus, H. The role of radiation in an inversion-capped planetary boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 20, 497–513 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122298
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122298