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Predictability and dynamical processes Heini Wernli Institute for Atmosphere and Climate Science ETH Zurich HIW Workshop, Karlsruhe 18 March 2013. Key points the dynamics of high-impact weather is often complex and closely related to basic/fundamental research questions,
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Predictability and dynamical processes Heini Wernli Institute for Atmosphere and Climate Science ETH Zurich HIW Workshop, Karlsruhe 18 March 2013
Key points • the dynamics of high-impact weather is often complex and closely related to basic/fundamental research questions, • relevant processes range from large-scale to microscale; from Rossby wave dynamics to deep convection, cloud microphysics and turbulence, • occasionally, forecast uncertainties are still large for various of these processes and their interaction, • field experiments, together with dedicated modeling/diagnostic research activities, are important for bringing the community together to work jointly on important issues, • important pillars of a future HIW project should be (a) collaboration between universities, research institutes, and weather services, and (b) research projects like, e.g., DIAMET and PANDOWAE.
High-impact wet snowfall Poor forecasts for wet snowfall event in NW Germany in Nov 2005 • transition from rain to wet snow poorly predicted by ECMWF and COSMO models • issue of correctly predicting position of surface cyclone Frick and Wernli 2012 (WaF)
Sting jets: high-impact winds in cyclones Complex dynamical & physical processes on various scales • Frontal structure of cyclone • Conditional symmetric instability? • Sublimation of ice particles? • Stability of BL and vertical momentum transport Clark et al. 2005 (QJ) Sting jet within cyclone Friedhelm (8 Dec 2011), observed during the DIAMET field experiment
Heavy precipitation events: Stability vs. transport Role of conditional instability (CAPE) and horizontal moisture flux varies for different events Nuissier et al. 2008 (QJ)
Heavy precipitation events and long-range moisture transport Flooding event in Bernese Oberland in October 2011 • plume of moisture extending from the tropics to central Europe (cf. atmospheric river, tropical moisture export) • link to ET of Philipp from Nicolas Piaget
Relevance of synopticsystemsforprecipitation extremes % of HPE associatedwithcycloneor WCB HPE defined as >99 percentile in ERA-Interim dataset Pfahl et al., in preparation
Case study of major forecast bust 5-day ECMWF forecast from 12 UTC 13 Jan 2005 SLP average over C. Europe analysis 1003 hPa deterministic fc 1024 hPa EPS 1012 – 1037 hPa !! what happened meteorologically?
Case study of major forecast bust T850 and SLP ana +5 ana +3.5 fc +3.5 fc +5
Case study of major forecast bust PV on 320 K ana +5 ana +3.5 T1 R1 T1 R1 fc +3.5 fc +5 T1 T1 R1 R1
Hypothesis: errors in WCBs amplify downstream - - + generation of a positive PV anomaly (downstream trough) WCB amplified upper-level ridge downstream trough WCB triggers / enhances downstream Rossby wave activity
Warm conveyor belts Microphysical processes diagnosed in COSMO simulation Joos and Wernli 2012 (QJ)
T-NAWDEX-Falcon: IOP3 (19/20 Oct 2012) In-situ observations in warm conveyor belts from Maxi Böttcher
Tropopause polar cyclones Long-lived mesoscale vortices associated with diabatic processes radiative heating latent heating • TPCs are frequent and fairly long-lived (> week) • TPCs can trigger / amplify waves along jet • TPCs are associated with characteristic pattern of radiative and latent heating • Kew et al. 2010 (MWR) • Cavallo & Hakim 2010 (MWR)
Longer time scales: cold winters & hot summers Cold winter 2005/06 in Europe: five events of upstream blocking blocking events blocking cold temperature influence from upstream weather systems Croci Maspoli & Davies 2009 (MWR)
HIW-related research projects • T-PARC, DIAMET, PANDOWAE, Prevassemble, … • strong (international) collaboration • collaboration between weather services & universities • linkage of observational & modeling research • strengthen research with benefit for operational forecasting at universities • education of next generation of “weather scientists” • key component of future WWRP HIW Project
Scientific challenges for future HIW project Scale-interactions of dynamical and physical processes including large-scale, mesoscale & microscale Non-linear processes & thresholds Upscale and downscale forecast error propagation Interaction of atmospheric water cycle and dynamics Interaction of cloud microphysics and dynamics Specific model evaluation for HIW events Quantify benefit from convection-permitting models for HIW Link communities from nowcasting to (sub)seasonal prediction