Implementation and Validation of Dynamical Downscaling in a Microscale Simulation of a Lake Michigan Land Breeze

Abstract

A nested numerical simulation of a land breeze observed over the western Lake Michigan shoreline was completed using the University of Wisconsin Nonhydrostatic Modeling System. This simulation was compared against observations obtained using a variety of instrumentation, most notably a scanning lidar system. The simulated land breeze is shown to closely represent the observations. Most notably, the influence of synoptic scale evolution on the strength and extent of the land breeze is illustrated to be a critical factor in accurately simulating the lifetime of the land breeze. Additionally, model resolution is shown to impact the ability of the simulation to accurately portray the fine scale features of the land breeze circulation, including the depth of the land breeze front and interactions between the land breeze and prevailing synoptic scale flow.