Continuous, real-time LES over the Bankhead National Forest

Description

In this work, we present the first results of continuous, semi-idealized large eddy simulations over the Bankhead National Forest (BNF), starting in Summer 2024, with the goal of studying land atmosphere interactions and boundary layer cloud behavior over the forest, including the onset of locally forced convection.

The simulations are driven by ERA5 data, and therefore mostly independent of ARM observations and can be available roughly within a week when run on a GPU. The current setup features periodic boundary conditions and an interactive soil model, which is necessary to maintain correct boundary conditions.

The LES is capable of running for up to 7 days without strong drift from observations or ERA5 data, and typically outperforms ERA5 in comparisons with observations of surface meteorology, particularly at night. Future work will include a statistical approach to specific regimes, including morning and evening transitions, shallow convection and congestus, and the impact of surface properties on the atmosphere.