The Salt Lake City basin is one of a number of broad valleys in northern Utah. It was the location of the Vertical Transport and Mixing (VTMX) program field experiment in October of 2000, and it is an area that has experienced urban air quality problems within the basin. During this experiment, flow through the Jordan Narrows, the gap in the Traverse Range that divides the Salt Lake basin from the Utah basin to the south, was found to be significant, in addition to the known night time drainage from canyons that enter the valley from the east. In earlier studies, similar flow through a gap has been found to exist between the Tooele and Rush Valleys, just to the west. The earlier studies also indicated flows, through passes, between the Rush Valley and the valleys to its east.

This paper will present the results of numerical simulations of the Salt Lake City Basin and the surrounding region, including the Utah, Tooele, and Rush Valleys. The discussion will focus on how the circulations within the Salt Lake City basin are influenced by flows that enter or exit the basin from nearby canyons and basins. We will also investigate the role of synoptic weather conditions in this exchange.