The distribution and evolution of inert and reactant scalars: from the atmospheric boundary layer to continental scales

This project continues the previous NWO Computing Time projects to gain understanding and forecasting capacity on weather, climate and the distribution of atmospheric compounds at different geophysical scales (turbulent, mesoscale and global). The new project will be closely embedded to the NWO project “The Ruisdael Observatory for atmospheric science” granted by NWO within the programme of the National Roadmap for large-scale research infrastructure (during the ten year period 2019-2029).

This research carried out at the Meteorology and Air Quality (MAQ) section at Wageningen University encompass a wide range of spatial/temporal scales from turbulence to continental/global and including intermediate spatial and temporal scales like urban and regional. We use a model hierarchy composed by a large-eddy simulation model (DALES), a mesoscale forecasting model (WRF) and a carbon-climate model (CarbonTracker). Using DALES the new project will incorporate the role of canopy and the interaction with clouds and making use of the new 2D parallelization. At the mesoscale level, our main activity will be in understanding fog and urban meteorology. At global scale, we focus in the carbon budget in the Amazonia region. A new model has been incorporated recently to MAQ, MicroHH, to do very high resolution atmospheric turbulent simulations.