Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) Program

Abstract : The prediction of weather in complex terrain is a difficult challenge due to a host of physical and thermodynamic processes and numerical issues involved. While many theoretical and observational studies have been conducted on flow over gradually varying low slopes (hills), flow over high mountains with steep slopes of practical consequence under diurnal forcing still remains an understudied topic. The atmospheric boundary layer therein is forced by diurnal thermal forcing(valley and slope flows), large-scale synoptic influence or a combination thereof, and in all cases the boundary layer is replete With interesting sub-grid scale phenomena that are paramount for mesoscale modeling.