This paper constitutes the sensitivity study of application the Polar WRF
model to the Svalbard area with testing selected parameterizations, including planetary
boundary layer, radiation and microphysics schemes. The model was configured, using
three one-way nested domains with 27 km, 9 km and 3 km grid cell resolutions. Results
from the innermost domain were presented and compared against measured wind speed
and air temperature at 10 meteorological stations. The study period covers two months:
June 2008 and January 2009. Significant differences between simulations results occurred
for planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes in January 2009. The Mellor-Yamada-Janjic
(MYJ) planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme resulted in the lowest errors for air
temperature, according to mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE) and correlation
coefficient values, where for wind speed this scheme was the worst from all the PBL
schemes tested. In the case of June 2008, shortwave and longwave radiation schemes
influenced the results the most. Generally, higher correlations were obtained for January,
both for air temperature and wind speed. However, the model performs better for June
in terms of ME and MAE error statistics. The results were also analyzed spatially, to
summarize the uncertainty of the model results related to the analyzed parameterization
schemes groups. Significant variability among simulations was calculated for January
2009 over the northern part of Spitsbergen and fjords for the PBL schemes. Standard
deviations for monthly average simulated values were up to 3.5°C for air temperature
and around 1 m s-1 for wind speed.
The results of the application and evaluation of the r.sun model for calculation of the total solar radiation for the Wedel Jarlsberg Land (SW Spitsbergen) are presented. Linke Turbidity Factor (LTF), which is the obligatory parameter for direct and diffused radiation calculations with the r.sun model, is derived here with the empirical formula and meteoro− logical measurements. Few different approaches for calculation of LTF are presented and tested. The r.sun model results, calculated with these various LTF, are evaluated through comparison with total solar radiation measurements gathered at Polish Polar Station. The r.sun model is found to be in good agreement with the measurements for clear sky condi− tions, with the explained variance (R2) close to 0.9. Overall, the model slightly underesti− mates the measured total radiation. Reasonable results were calculated for the cloudiness condition up to 2 octas, and for these r.sun model can be considered as a reliable and flexible tool providing spatial data on solar radiation for the study area.