Project Scientist I

National Center for Atmospheric Research

Research Projects

Turbulence Generation over Complex Terrain

Top row: SRTM data (left) with the mean terrain removed, filtered SRTM data with a small window (middle), filtered SRTM data with a large window (right). Middle row: Terrain Ruggedness Index (TRI) for the three terrain datasets above. Bottom row: a rose for TRI for the three cases with the center of the rose being the red star in the top two rows.
Top row: SRTM data (left) with the mean terrain removed, filtered SRTM data with a small window (middle), filtered SRTM data with a large window (right). Middle row: Terrain Ruggedness Index (TRI) for the three terrain datasets above. Bottom row: a rose for TRI for the three cases with the center of the rose being the red star in the top two rows.

In large-eddy simulation setups where inflow is non-turbulent (or laminar), it can take a long time for turbulence to develop within the domain. Many people use perturbation strategies to artificially trigger turbulence in less time and space. In this study, we utilize complex terrain to generate turbulence and investigate how well the turbulence generated strictly by topography compares to cases with turbulent inflow conditions and those with a perturbation technique.

Publications and Presentations

Journal Articles

Hawbecker, P., & Knievel, J. C. (2022). Simulating the Chesapeake Bay breeze: sensitivities to water surface temperature. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.

Hawbecker, P., & Knievel, J. C. (2022). An algorithm for detecting the Chesapeake Bay breeze from mesoscale NWP model output. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 61(1), 61-75.

Hawbecker, P., & Churchfield, M. (2021). Evaluating Terrain as a Turbulence Generation Method. Energies, 14(21), 6858.

Hawbecker, P.: Mesoscale, microscale, and numerical models. Limitations and future evolution, Oxford Handbooks Online. Jul 2020, DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190670252.013.11.

Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: Investigating the impact of atmospheric stability on thunderstorm outflow winds and turbulence, Wind Energy. Sci. 3.1, 2018.

Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: Realistic simulations of the July 1, 2011 severe wind event over the Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm, Wind Energy, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/we.2122/full, 2017.

 

Lu, N. Y., Manuel, L., Hawbecker, P., & Basu, S. (2021). A simulation study on risks to wind turbine arrays from thunderstorm downbursts in different atmospheric stability conditions. Energies, 14(17), 5407.

Glotfelty, T., Alapaty, K., He, J., Hawbecker, P., Song, X., & Zhang, G. (2020). Studying Scale Dependency of Aerosol–Cloud Interactions Using Multiscale Cloud Formulations. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 77(11), 3847-3868.

Debnath, M., Doubrawa, P., Optis, M., Hawbecker, P., & Bodini, N. (2020). Extreme Wind Shear Events in US Offshore Wind Energy Areas and the Role of Induced Stratification. Wind Energy Science Discussions, 1-22.

Lu, N-Y, Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: On wind turbine loads during thunderstorm downbursts in contrasting atmospheric stability regimes, Energies, 2019.

Glotfelty, T., K. Alapaty, J. He, P. Hawbecker, X. Song, and G. Zhang, 0: The Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Aerosol Cloud Interactions (WRF-ACI): Development, Evaluation, and Initial Application. Mon. Wea. Rev., 0, 2019.

Conference Presentations

Hawbecker, P., Lassman, W., Mirocha, J., Rai, R. K., Thedin, R., Churchfield, M., Haupt, S. E., Kaul, C.: Offshore Sensitivities across Scales: A NYSERDA Case Study, AMS 102nd Annual Meeting, 25 January 2022, Remote. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., and Churchfield, M.: Mesoscale to Microscale Coupling for a Wind Ramp Case over Complex Terrain, 99th American Meteorology Society Annual Meeting, 8 January 2019, Phoenix, AZ. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: Examining microburst scaling relationships through full-physics large eddy simulations, 22nd Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence, 24 June 2016, Salt Lake City, UT. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: Realistic simulations of microbursts using the WRF model, 22nd Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence, 20 June 2016, Salt Lake City, UT. Poster presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Basu, S., and Manuel, L.: Realistic simulations of the Buffalo Ridge microburst with the WRF model, 2016 Wind Energy Research Workshop, 16 March 2016, Lowell, MA. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Alapaty, K., Dudhia, J., Wang, W., Nolte, C.: Introducing global aerosol data to the microphysics-aware multi-scale Kain-Fritsch scheme, Community Modeling and Analysis System, 5 October 2015, Durham, NC. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Lu,  N. Y., Basu, S., Kosovic, B., and Manuel, L.: Coupled mesoscale-LES modeling of a diurnal cycle with a nocturnal low-level jet: the Wangara case study, 27th Conference On Weather Analysis And Forecasting/23rd Conference On Numerical Weather Prediction, 3 July 2015, Chicago, IL. Oral presentation.

Hawbecker, P., Kang, S-L., Kosovic, B., and Hopson, T. Model Responses to Sub−Filter Scale (SFS) Topographic Information. 20th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence. Boston, MA

Hawbecker, P., Box, J.E., Balog, J.D., Ahn, Y., Benson, R.J. 2010. Greenland Outlet Glacier Dynamics from Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) Photogrammetry. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Free Time Projects

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