Marine Fog and Its Role in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer over Southern New England during WFIP3: Observations and Model Simulations

The third Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3) is collecting a suite of meteorological and marine observations along coastal southern New England in order to enhance our understanding and forecasts of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds and associated processes over the ocean. In this study, we present approximately one year of observations of marine fog and its association with ABL thermodynamic and dynamic structure from several co-located ground based instruments deployed for WFIP3, including ceilometers, microwave radiometers, infrared spectrometers, radar wind profilers, and Doppler lidars. The seasonal characteristics of fog and its covariability with meteorology will be examined. Preliminary results indicate that fog over Block Island, Rhode Island and Nantucket, Massachusetts has an average liquid water path of approximately 75 g m^-2 and that it often co-occurs with near-surface temperature inversions, warm advection, southerly ABL winds, and strong low-level vertical wind shear. A few case studies of fog over the WFIP3 region will be explored in detail and compared with model simulations, such as those from an experimental version of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. Additionally, we will investigate whether the skill of ABL wind forecasts by operational weather models depends on the occurrence of fog. Our findings have the potential to improve the accuracy of wind forecasts in regions prone to marine fog.