Column crossing and lateral transport in numerical weather models

Abstract

Transport in numerical weather models is typically restricted to advection by the resolved wind field, and representation of other flow processes relies on forcing or coupling to other models. A discussion of non-advective transport in numerical weather models is presented and illustrated using two examples. These are the sea breeze and surface water flow. Simple models of these phenomena are represented in an adapted version of the Met Office Unified Model (UM) by means of modifying the existing cold-pool scheme in the UM. This approach of incorporating different transport processes in one framework could facilitate a better representation of the Earth system, by increasing interaction between meteorological, surface and subsurface processes.