REPRESENTATION OF THERMALLY INDUCED LOCAL CIRCULATION OVER TOYAMA IN NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS WITH VARIOUS RESOLUTION

Abstract

The topography of Toyama is characterized by complex and steep terrains, which would influence the development of thermally induced local circulation. This study investigated the representation of thermally induced local circulation over Toyama in regional meteorological simulations with various horizontal resolutions in which the complex and steep terrains of Toyama is reproduced differently depending on the resolution. By resolving small-scale terrain features, it was shown that a higher-resolution simulation well captures the coupling of sea-land breeze and mountain-valley breeze, while a coarser-resolution simulation fails to represent such a coupled local circulation especially in the eastern part of Toyama where the topography is highly complex and steep. We also found that coupled local circulation clearly develops in the valley area in the south of Toyama.