Simulations of Mesoscale Circulations in the Center of the Iberian Peninsula for Thermal Low Pressure Conditions
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880 JOURNAL OF APPLIED METEOROLOGY VOLUME 40 Simulations of Mesoscale Circulations in the Center of the Iberian Peninsula for Thermal Low Pressure Conditions. Part I: Evaluation of the Topography Vorticity-Mode Mesoscale Model FERNANDO MARTIÂN,SYLVIA N. CRESPIÂ, AND MAGDALENA PALACIOS Departmento de Impacto Ambiental de la EnergõÂa, Centro de Investigaciones EnergeÂticas, Medioambientales y TecnoloÂgicas, Madrid, Spain (Manuscript received 27 September 1999, in ®nal form 10 August 2000) ABSTRACT The Topography Vorticity-Mode Mesoscale (TVM) model has been evaluated for four different cases of thermal low pressure systems over the Iberian Peninsula. These conditions are considered to be representative of the range of summer thermal low pressure conditions in this region. Simulation results have been compared with observations obtained in two intensive experimental campaigns carried out in the Greater Madrid Area in the summer of 1992. The wind ®elds are qualitatively well simulated by the model. Detailed comparisons of the time series of simulations and observations have been carried out at several meteorological stations. For wind speed and direction, TVM results are reasonably good, although an underprediction of the daily thermal oscillation has been detected. The model reproduces the observed decoupled ¯ow in the nighttime and early morning along with the evolution of mixing layer ¯ow during the day. In addition, the model has simulated speci®c features of the observed circulations such as low-level jets and drainage, downslope, upslope, and upvalley ¯ows. The model also simulates the formation of hydrostatic mountain waves in the nighttime in some cases. 1. Introduction mal low dominates summer atmospheric conditions. In spite of the high frequency of this mesoscale pressure The Greater Madrid Area is located in a 700-m high system in the south of Europe and in other parts of the plateau at the center of the Iberian Peninsula. It is bor- world (Junning et al. 1984; Barry and Chorley 1987), dered to the north-northwest by a high mountain range it has hitherto received little attention from the scienti®c (Sierra de Guadarrama), 40 km from the city, and to the community, and a signi®cant lack of thermal low and northeast and east by lower mountainous terrain. The former and closest is about 200 km long and is aligned associated air circulation studies exist. Although the along the southwest±northeast axis, with a mean altitude thermal low in Spain is more frequent in summer, it has of 2000 m. The highest summit reaches up to 2400 m also been detected at the beginning of autumn and even and is located 50 km northwest of the city. The climate during the last days of winter near to the spring season in Madrid is somewhat extreme, typical of a continental (Font 1983). These infrequent cases are associated with area, with hot dry summers and cold winters, with most weak synoptic conditions, long dry periods, and strong days being under clear-sky conditions. These topograph- surface heat ¯uxes. ic and climatological features along with a heat island Surface heating and atmospheric convective motions effect contribute to complex mesoscale circulations and are the common characteristics in thermal low devel- mixing conditions, which have an important in¯uence opment. However, several peculiarities lead to a signif- on atmospheric pollution episodes. icantly different thermal low in the Iberian Peninsula, The geographical features of the Iberian Peninsula as compared with other countries. The particular hori- and its particular location in the Mediterranean area cre- zontal and vertical sizes (less than 1000 km and 3000 ate speci®c meteorological conditions in which the ther- m, respectively), as well as the high intensity and per- sistence of this mesoscale system, are also related to the geographical location of the Iberian Peninsula, which is almost completely surrounded by sea. Temperature dif- Corresponding author address: Fernando MartõÂn, Grupo de Mo- ferences between the air over the heated ground and air delizacion de la Contaminacion Atmosferica, Dpto. Impacto Am- over the sea, along with mountain range orientation, biental de la EnergõÂa, CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 22, 28040 Ma- drid, Spain. produce strong air convergence, which is channeled by E-mail: [email protected] the main mountain valleys (MillaÂn et al. 1991). A strong q 2001 American Meteorological Society Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/28/21 09:22 PM UTC MAY 2001 MARTIÂ N ET AL. 881 reduction of the inland surface pressure reaches a max- Portela (1994) and Portela and Castro (1996) using the imum in the early afternoon, when heating of the ground PronoÂstico a Mesoscala (PROMES) model (Gaertner is most marked and when convective air cells are com- 1994) and by Ibarra et al. (1994) using the Regional pletely developed. When the solar energy begins to de- Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) model. In both crease, a slow dissipation of the thermal low takes place cases, working with almost the same spatial domain (the until it disappears during night hours. Therefore, the entire Iberian Peninsula), the main features of the ther- thermal low is a 24-h meteorological system clearly mal low were well simulated, but differences were found associated with intense solar radiation over the arid re- in predicting smaller-scale ¯ows, such as circulations in gions. Portela and Castro (1991) presented a climatic the plateaus and in areas near large mountain ranges. description of thermal lows in the Iberian Peninsula. In the PROMES simulation, the horizontal grid spacing They found the formation of thermal low pressure sys- was 20 km 3 20 km, and hence smaller-scale ¯ows tems over the Iberian peninsula is very related to the were better resolved than with the RAMS simulations, de®cit of evaporation in semiarid soils. It could explain for which the horizontal resolution was 32 km 3 32 why the thermal lows also can be observed in spring or km. early autumn but being less frequent than in summer- In contrast with these regional-scale modeling studies time. They also made a high-resolution analysis of the simulating the ¯ows over the entire Iberian Peninsula, pressure ®elds that allowed a classi®cation of the ther- this paper is focused on the meso-b-scale modeling in mal low systems taking into account the location of the a smaller area of it. The current work is presented in area of maximum pressure gradient and the thermal low two parts. Part I is presented in this ®rst paper. The intensity. objective is to evaluate the performance of the Topog- Extensive experimental documentation about the be- raphy Vorticity-Mode Mesoscale (TVM) model in sim- havior of air convergence under summer thermal low ulating the evolution of the meso-b-scale atmospheric conditions exists (MillaÂn et al. 1991; MartõÂn and Pal- conditions in the center of the Iberian Peninsula under omino 1995). These studies prove that the thermal low the forcing of a summer thermal low pressure system. and sea breezes force an inward ¯ow of coastal pollutant To do this, the TVM predictions in the Greater Madrid emissions toward the center of the Iberian Peninsula. Area are compared with wind and temperature obser- The strong links between the local air circulation of the vations from the surface and upper-air meteorological sea breeze and this mesoscale system are related to the stations for four different cases of thermal low pressure particular orientation of mountain valleys near the Span- situations. The paper includes a description of the TVM model, the cases selected for modeling, the data sources, ish coast that favors inland air motions. Moreover, the and the model con®guration, along with a discussion of strong heating of the Iberian Peninsula soils can inten- the model results compared with observations. sify the inland penetration of air masses. Experimental In Part II (Martin et al. 2001), the variability of pol- results have shown that sea-breeze penetration is sig- luted air parcel trajectories computed with the TVM ni®cantly greater when air convergence associated with model in the Greater Madrid Area under thermal low thermal low conditions interacts with the sea-breeze cir- pressure conditions is discussed. culation (MartõÂn and Palomino 1995). Furthermore, the The practical use of a mesoscale meteorological mod- thermal low can inject pollutant air masses to upper el requires understanding its characteristics and range atmospheric levels, where they can then be transported of application. For the quanti®cation of the accuracy of long distances. model results, it is also necessary to estimate input data Under thermal low conditions, the local air circulation accuracy and how it affects the results, to evaluate the over the central plateaus of the Iberian Peninsula, where uncertainties in model assumptions and parameteriza- the convergence zone is usually located, can be very tions, and to judge how the model represents reality. different. Extensive instrumentation deployment over The evaluation procedure will ensure that users can as- the Madrid area (Plaza et al. 1997) has allowed detection sess the degree of reliability and accuracy inherent in of signi®cant differences of air circulations when ther- the model (Moussiopoulos 1996). mal low conditions affect the Iberian Peninsula. These The mesoscale prognostic TVM model has been eval- differences could explain the levels of pollutants de- uated previously to simulate the atmospheric ¯ows for tected in the center of Spain. winter anticyclonic conditions in the center of the Ibe- Several works have been devoted to modeling the rian Peninsula. Model results agreed in signi®cant as- complete thermal low pressure system structure. In the pects with observed wind ¯ows over the Greater Madrid case of large tropical thermal lows, Leslie (1980) in- Area under anticyclonic conditions in wintertime, for corporated a simple surface heat balance scheme into a example, the daily cycle of thermally driven ¯ows, the large-scale numerical forecast model for Australia.