March 6, 2007
Report

Development of NEXRAD Wind Retrievals as Input to Atmospheric Dispersion Models

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility that routinely collected data from the Doppler radars can appropriately be used in Atmospheric Dispersion Models (ADMs) for emergency response. We have evaluated the computational efficiency and accuracy of two variational mathematical techniques that derive the u- and v-components of the wind from radial velocities obtained from Doppler radars. A review of the scientific literature indicated that the techniques employ significantly different approaches in applying the variational techniques: 2-D Variational (2DVar), developed by NOAA¹s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and Variational Doppler Radar Analysis System (VDRAS), developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). We designed a series of numerical experiments in which both models employed the same horizontal domain and resolution encompassing Oklahoma City for a two-week period during the summer of 2003 so that the computed wind retrievals could be fairly compared. Both models ran faster than real-time on a typical single dual-processor computer, indicating that they could be used to generate wind retrievals in near real-time. 2DVar executed ~2.5 times faster than VDRAS because of its simpler approach.

Revised: October 25, 2007 | Published: March 6, 2007

Citation

Fast J.D., R.K. Newsom, K.J. Allwine, Q. Xu, P. Zhang, P. Zhang, and J.H. Copeland, et al. 2007. Development of NEXRAD Wind Retrievals as Input to Atmospheric Dispersion Models Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.