Working group on Mountain Boundary Layer

The TEAMx working group on the Mountain Boundary Layer is led by Sebastian Hoch (University of Utah), Manuela Lehner (University of Innsbruck) and Stefano Serafin (University of Vienna).

Before the prospective TEAMx field campaign, the MoBL working group concentrates on two areas of collaborative research:

1. Multi-model intercomparison studies: to evaluate quantitatively the ability of numerical weather prediction codes to reproduce the characteristics of prototypical complex-terrain circulations. These studies are based on a combination of idealized simulations and hindcasts, and foresee verification against existing observational datasets (especially turbulence measurements). We currently work on the formation and breakup of diurnal cold air pools and on valley winds. Preliminary results are discussed by Giovannini et al (2023) .
2. Development of an optimal observation strategy: to document the evolution of the vertical structure of the valley atmosphere and of the three-dimensional distribution of turbulence, in connection with surface fluxes, cross-valley circulations, entrainment of free-atmospheric air, elevated inversions, cloudiness, and precipitation. We worked on the TEAMx pre-campaign of summer 2022 (Pfister et al. 2024) , testing, among other things, the use of UAS fleets for distributed profiling of the boundary layer (Wildmann et al 2023) .