Calculation of the MIXDEPTH-planetary boundary layer at a mountain ?

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Carlo
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Joined: June 8th, 2021, 10:41 am
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Calculation of the MIXDEPTH-planetary boundary layer at a mountain ?

Post by Carlo »

Dear HYSPLIT community,

I have relatively little experience with HYSPLIT and therefore some, possibly silly, comprehension questions.
I have made a measurement campaign on a mountain and now I want to know if I have taken samples below or
above the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL).

Using the offline version of the program, the mixing depth can be calculated via Advanced/Configuration Setup/Trajectory/Add Met...(6).
Is the MIXDEPTH given in the text file equivalent to the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL)? Is the MIXDEPTH given in the text
file equivalent to the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL)?
(Unfortunately I am not a meteorologist, the explanations in the help suggest this, but nowhere is it explicitly stated that MIXDEPTH = PBL).

If this is the case

a) is the output altitude logically to be seen as a reference to the model ground and not to the start altitude of the trajectory ?

b) which calculation method do you recommend when using high resolution GFS0p25 data:

1 Use meteorological model
2 From temperature profile
3 Compute from TKE profile
4 Compute using a modified Richardson number approach
5 Set a constant value (m)

As I said, the questions are probably stupid, but I prefer to be on the safe side before I do something wrong.

Best wishes,
Carlo
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