COAMPS Marine Planetary Boundary Layer Validation Study

Sounding data collected during the Southern California CALNEX-2010 air quality field study are compared to simulations of the marine planetary boundary layer using different configurations of the COAMPS meteorological model. The object of the study is to investigate if a shallow bias in COAMPS marine boundary layer heights observed at San Nicolas Island occurs at other California locations and if different model configurations can improve the simulations. The effects of two different radiation schemes, two different analysis routines, horizontal and vertical grid resolution and boundary conditions will be investigated.