Observational and Numerical Study of the Great Salt Lake Breeze

Lake and land breezes modulate pollutant transport and concentration, surface evaporation rates, temperature, wind speed, and precipitation in many populated regions of the world. Utah\u27s Great Salt Lake (GSL) is ideally suited for the investigation of these mesoscale circulations in arid environments. A multifaceted observational and modeling study is underway to better understand the sensitivity of the GSL lake breeze to variations in the atmospheric and surface state. While the body of theoretical, observational, and numerical studies related to lake and sea breeze systems and associated air quality issues is extensive, most theoretical modeling of lake and sea breezes has been two-dimensional. With the recent increase in computational power, this study will systematically revisit the impact of a number of important forcing mechanisms (for example, lake width, background wind, stability, and surface heat flux) on the lake breeze using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model run as a fully three-dimensional large eddy simulation. An array of surface weather and air quality stations, radiosonde profiles, and high resolution surface temperature data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer will be used to initialize and validate model simulations. Initial modeling results will be presented and an undergraduate student field project funded by the National Science Foundation will be discussed