Application of adaptive unstructured grids to atmospheric dispersion in coastal and complex terrains

It is a well known fact the atmospheric circulations along coast lines can be very complex with the development of sea and land breezes. This is especially true of complex coastlines such as along the Chesapeake Bay. Accurate prediction of dispersion of an airborne contaminant in such cases requires an accurate prediction of the atmospheric circulation including the complex boundary layer features. Here, a numerical modeling study is presented that employs the adaptive unstructured grid paradigm to resolve the coastal features using the Operational Multiscale Environment model with Grid Adaptivity (OMEGA). The dynamic grid adaptation capability of OMEGA is used to provide high grid-resolution in the region of an evolving plume modeled by the Lagrangian particle model embedded in OMEGA. The resulting concentration and surface dosage fields are compared with a baseline simulation which did not used dynamic adaptation.