Abstract
A description of the current status of the Relocatable Limited Area Model (RLAM) is presented. The purpose of the model is to allow flexibility in studying the effects of various parameterizations and numerical techniques on regional forecasts. To date, RLAM has been developed to the point where it can be located anywhere on the globe with appropriate mappings (polar stereographic, Lambert conformal, mercator, or latitude-longitude) and offers a choice of differencing schemes and lateral boundaries. Physical parameterizations of boundary layer fluxes and dry and moist convection have been incorporated from the National Meteorological Center’s Quasi-Lagrangian Nested-Grid Model. Results are presented in the form of forecasts from various combinations of differencing schemes and boundary formulations compared with forecasts from a global, spectral model in use at the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory. These results indicate that besides concerns for stability, selections of different formulations can lead to significantly different forecasts.
