[Wrf-users] mass budget analysis

[Joshua C Demko]

Good morning everyone:

Has anyone attempted to calculate mass budget approach (heat/moisture etc...) over a specific area of your domains? I am looking at the solenoidal circulation that develops around the Santa Catalina Mtns, near Tucson, AZ and its interaction with moist convection that develops over the higher terrain. At this time, I am using a 30x30 km^2 box centering on the mountain and calculating the horizontal and vertical mass fluxes (in units of Kg/s) for several different boxes, most specifically 2 boxes inside the PBL. The first box being the surface to mid-PBL then mid-PBL to PBL-top. I am running into issues comparing the fluxes as the numbers for each box suggest a dynamically, unstable model as we all know WRF is definitely stable. I have attached an IDV images of a forecast hour illustrating the box levels w/r/t the mountain and subsequent flux numbers (all x10^6 kg/s). I am starting to believe theses errors or residuals are a combination of finite differencing and conversion from sigma to pressure surface errors???? Would love to hear what everyone is thinking or have successfully tried this avenue.

Thanks,

Cory Demko
Ph.D Candidate
Atmospheric Science
University of Wyoming
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