Abstract
The regional model REMO, which is the atmospheric component of the coupled atmosphere–ice–ocean–land climate model system BALTIMOS, is tested with respect to its ability to simulate the atmospheric boundary layer over the open and ice-covered Baltic Sea. REMO simulations are compared to ship, radiosonde, and aircraft observations taken during eight field experiments. The main results of the comparisons are: (1) The sharpness and strength of the temperature inversion are underestimated by REMO. Over open water, this is connected with an overestimation of cloud coverage and moisture content above the inversion. (2) The vertical temperature stratification in the lowest 200 m over sea ice is too stable. (3) The horizontal inhomogeneity of sea ice concentration as observed by aircraft could not be properly represented by the prescribed ice concentration in REMO; large differences in the surface heat fluxes arise especially under cold-air advection conditions. The results of the comparisons suggest a reconsideration of the parameterization of subgrid-scale vertical exchange both under unstable und stable conditions.
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Acknowledgement
This paper was supported by the German Ministry of Research and Development under grant DEKLIM/BALTIMOS. We thank Jouko Launiainen from the Finnish Institute of Marine Research in Helsinki for preparing the RV Aranda data and Philip Lorenz from the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg for preparing the REMO simulations.
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Brümmer, B., Kirchgäßner, A. & Müller, G. The atmospheric boundary layer structure over the open and ice-covered Baltic Sea: in situ measurements compared to simulations with the regional model REMO. Theor Appl Climatol 118, 641–653 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0177-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0177-y