Interaction between the orography-induced gravity wave drag and boundary layer processes in a global atmospheric model

This study investigates the behavior of the orographic gravity-wave drag (GWDO) processes induced by sub-grid scale orography in response to the representation of boundary layer mixing in a global atmospheric model. The sensitivity of simulated climatology to the representation of stable boundary layer (SBL) processes associated with GWDO processes in the modeled atmosphere is investigated using the Kim-Arakawa GWDO parameterization scheme. It is found that the impact of the boundary layer structure is pronounced in the upper atmospheric circulations above the tropopause through the interaction between the boundary layer mixing and GWDO processes, even though the direct impact of the SBL structure is confined to near surface layer. This finding reinforces the notion that the success of a particular physics parameterization scheme in atmospheric models relies heavily on the interaction of a physical process with another, which should be properly considered in developing physics parameterization schemes for atmospheric models. Citation: Kim, Y.-J., and S.-Y. Hong ( 2009), Interaction between the orography-induced gravity wave drag and boundary layer processes in a global atmospheric model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L12809, doi: 10.1029/2008GL037146.