Open AccessStudy of Regional-Scale Boundary Layer Characteristics over Northern India with a Special Reference to the Role of the Thar Desert in Regional-Scale Transport
Author(s) -
Jagabandhu Panda,
Maithili Sharan,
Sundararaman Gopalakrishnan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied meteorology and climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.079
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1558-8432
pISSN - 1558-8424
DOI - 10.1175/2009jamc1926.1
Subject(s) - weather research and forecasting model , scale (ratio) , climatology , environmental science , boundary layer , arid , global wind patterns , planetary boundary layer , meteorology , geography , atmospheric sciences , geology , cartography , turbulence , paleontology , physics , thermodynamics
Extensive contrasts of land surface heterogeneities have a pivotal role in modulating boundary layer processes and consequently, the regional-scale dispersion of air pollutants. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modeling system has been used to analyze the regional-scale boundary layer features over northern India. Two cases, 9–11 December 2004 and 20–22 May 2005, representing the winter and summer season, respectively, are chosen for the simulations. The model results have been compared with the observations from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Wyoming Weather Web data archive over three cities: Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Jodhpur. The simulations show that the thermal stratifications and the associated wind pattern are very well supported by land surface characteristics over the region. The results signify that the underlying land surface along with the prevailing hemispheric-scale meteorological processes (synoptic conditions) is the driver of the simulated patterns. The study implies that thermally driven regional circulations play a major role in the transport of particulate matter from the Thar Desert to Delhi and its neighboring regions during summer.