Does the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model reproduce the characteristics of atmospheric surface layers accurately?
Rachel Rogers, Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX; and S. Basu The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently uses AERMOD, a steady-state dispersion model, to aid in the forecasting of transport and dispersion of air pollutants. Typically, NWS-ASOS observations (post-processed by EPA-AERMET model) are used as input to the AERMOD model. This traditional framework of running a dispersion model based on point observations is quite problematic from a variety of theoretical standpoints (e.g., lack of representativeness of meteorological data). An alternative viable framework would be to use prognostic meteorological models in conjunction with AERMOD. Indeed, contemporary research shows that the use of prognostic models as a substitute for NWS-ASOS observations alleviates some of the longstanding dispersion modeling problems, but at the same time creates new concerns. In this presentation, we will elaborate on several questions that need to be adequately addressed before prognostic models ca
