A high resolution, real time experimental forecast for the Río de la Plata: A “Sea-Breeze” case study

JUAN RUIZ

WGNE Blue Book

Año: 2007 p. 23 - 24

The Río de la Plata is one of the largest estuaries in the world and is located at the opening of the Paraná river between Argentina and Uruguay. Due to its large extent, the differential diurnal cicle of heating between the estuary and the shores forces local circulations (Berri and Nuñez 1993, Berri and Straibman, 2005) wich affect both sides of the shores. This kind of effect is important to sport navigation, transport of pollutant agents while it can also produce significant changes in temperature and moisture over the shores, with circulations penetrating more than 70 km inland. Sometimes under unstable conditions, convergence associated with these local circulations can trigger thunderstorms. The Advanced Research WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) (Skamrok, 2005) has been used in idealized studies to simulate local circulations like mountain-valley breezes (Rampanelli et. al. 2004). It has also been tested for real time experimental forecasts with resolutions as high as 4 km over the United States with a focus on the forecast of convection (http://rain.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/). In this work the WRF-ARW is used in an experimental real time forecast of the “Sea Breeze” effect over the Rio de la Plata. The 9th December 2006 case has been selected to preliminary assess model performance. performance. Breeze” effect over the Rio de la Plata. The 9th December 2006 case has been selected to preliminary assess model performance. performance. http://rain.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/). In this work the WRF-ARW is used in an experimental real time forecast of the “Sea Breeze” effect over the Rio de la Plata. The 9th December 2006 case has been selected to preliminary assess model performance. performance. th December 2006 case has been selected to preliminary assess model performance.