Assessing PBL Time and Spatial Variability in Polar Regions: Challenges for a Space Mission.
Résumé
Developing the PBL space-based mission over continental surfaces faces notable challenges especially in the case of the polar regions. Their aerosol contents are limited throughout most of the year, except for long-range transport of mid-latitude pollution along with local pollution sources. The absence of thermal contrast between lower atmosphere levels and snow-covered surfaces during winters, shallow PBLs, formation of multi-layered temperature inversion layers, and sporadic daytime free convective layers in summers represent very significant obstacles for accurate PBL assessment from space.
The proposed comparative assessment aims to study PBL dynamics by combining mesoscale WRF model outputs with GPSRO and Calipso-Lidar for spatial scale analysis. Additionally, PBL time scale variability will be evaluated using WRF outputs compared to Microwave Radiometer and Radiosonde systems. Datasets from the IGAC-ALPACA field experiment, including winter and summer data for 2022 and 2023, will also be used in this intercomparison. The WRF mesoscale datasets consists of 110 x 110 grid cells domain with initial and coupling fields from ECMWF/ERA5 reanalysis datasets. More than 10 levels are considered below 500 m to ensure reproducing shallow PBLs.
Outcomes of this work should help in the critical discussion about the potential of resolving polar PBL scales with space missions by combining modeling and satellite platforms.