Simulated effects of urban environments on the dynamics of a supercell thunderstorm

Larissa Reames, Ohio Supercomputer Center

Usage Details

The goal of this study is to quantify the relative importance of environmental changes due to alterations in surface roughness, thermal characteristics and their interaction within urbanized areas on thunderstorm dynamics. For this study, the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model will be used with urban areas inserted or removed from the simulations as needed. The effects of different city sizes and shapes on boundary layer and supercell storm characteristics will be explored first. This will be followed by sensitivity tests and factor separation to determine whether the dynamic or thermodynamic effects associated with the urban area yield larger changes in the simulated supercell storms.