Emerging application areas such as air pollution in megacities, wind energy, urban security and o... more Emerging application areas such as air pollution in megacities, wind energy, urban security and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles have intensified scientific and societal interest in mountain meteorology. To address science needs and help improve the prediction of mountain weather, the US Department of Defense has funded a research effort – Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) Program – that draws the expertise of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional and multinational group of researchers. The program has four principal thrusts, encompassing Modeling, Experimental, Technology and Parameterization components, directed at diagnosing model deficiencies and critical knowledge gaps, conducting experimental studies and developing tools for model improvements. The access to the Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Test Bed of the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, as well as to a suite of conventional and novel high-end airborne and surface measurement platforms has provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate phenomena of time scales from a few seconds to a few days, covering spatial extents of tens of kilometers down to millimeters. This article provides an overview of the MATERHORN and a glimpse at its initial findings. Orographic forcing creates a multitude of time-dependent sub-mesoscale phenomena that contribute to the variability of mountain weather at mesoscale. The nexus of predictions by mesoscale model ensembles and observations are described, identifying opportunities for further improvements in mountain weather forecasting.
Emerging application areas such as air pollution in megacities, wind energy, urban security and o... more Emerging application areas such as air pollution in megacities, wind energy, urban security and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles have intensified scientific and societal interest in mountain meteorology. To address science needs and help improve the prediction of mountain weather, the US Department of Defense has funded a research effort – Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) Program – that draws the expertise of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional and multinational group of researchers. The program has four principal thrusts, encompassing Modeling, Experimental, Technology and Parameterization components, directed at diagnosing model deficiencies and critical knowledge gaps, conducting experimental studies and developing tools for model improvements. The access to the Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Test Bed of the US Army Dugway Proving Ground, as well as to a suite of conventional and novel high-end airborne and surface measurement platforms has provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate phenomena of time scales from a few seconds to a few days, covering spatial extents of tens of kilometers down to millimeters. This article provides an overview of the MATERHORN and a glimpse at its initial findings. Orographic forcing creates a multitude of time-dependent sub-mesoscale phenomena that contribute to the variability of mountain weather at mesoscale. The nexus of predictions by mesoscale model ensembles and observations are described, identifying opportunities for further improvements in mountain weather forecasting.
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