A Lagrangian Stochastic Model for Urban Area over Complex Terrain — Comparison with Haifa Campaigns

Lagrangian particle dispersion models (LPDMs) provide a well-established theoretical framework for the description of pollutant dispersion in different atmospheric boundary layer scenarios. While horizontal homogeneity for stationary turbulence is usually adequately modeled, urban canopies, especially over complex terrain, pose a much more challenging problem.

The talk will present the Haifa 2009 and 2014 urban campaigns which were aimed at assessing and improving our LPDM to non-homogeneous and non-Gaussian conditions over complex topography. Turbulence parameterizations were adopted based on our measurements and in accordance with measurements and fits from the literature. Simulations show good quantitative agreement with direct tracer measurements. It is shown that in developed stationary turbulence, at most areas the measurements agree with local Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. In addition, over complex terrain the turbulence exhibits spatial variability on a quasi-local scale.