An Evaluation of the Mellor-Yamada-Janjić Formulation Parameters for the QNSE Scheme in the WRF Model over the Lower Yangtze River Valley

• Main Authors: Huiyan Xu, Guoqing Zhai, Donghai Wang, Hangfeng Shen, and Rui Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chinese Geoscience Union 2015-01-01
• Series: Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
• Subjects: geophysics; geology; atmospheric science; space science; oceanic science; hydrology
• Online Access: http://tao.cgu.org.tw/pdf/v263p283.pdf
• ISSN: 1017-0839; 2311-7680

Accurate description of boundary layer processes is important for numerical simulations, and some model parameters in the boundary layer schemes play an important role in the model simulations. The Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE) scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.1.1 reverts into the Mellor-Yamada-Janjić (MYJ) model under unstable and neutral conditions. The parameters (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1) that affect the turbulent mixing in the MYJ formulation are the proportional coefficients of turbulence length scales and the master turbulence length scale. This study examines the model simulations sensitivity to different MYJ parameters. The simulation results show that MYJ parameters play a significant role in rainfall simulations. The analysis results imply that the parameters may affect the rainfall mainly by changing turbulent mixing and coupling with other physical process, such as cumulus convection processes, and then changing heat, momentum, and moisture transfer. The previous parameters used in the original MYJ formulation are not always the best and none of the parameters are always the best. It may be more appropriate that the parameters should be adopted in their plausible physical bounds depending on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) structures characteristics under specific meteorological and geographical circumstances.