Thomas SEKIYAMA

and 1 more

It was investigated that the reproducibility of surface wind and tracer transport simulations over complex terrain in wintertime using high-resolution (5-km, 3-km, and 1-km grid) weather and transport models, in which radioactive cesium (Cs-137) emitted from the Fukushima nuclear power plant was used as a tracer. Fukushima has complex terrain, such as mountains and valleys. The model results were validated by observations collected from the national networks of the automated meteorological data acquisition system and the hourly air pollution sampling system. The reproducibility depended on the model resolution, topographic complexity, and synoptic weather conditions. Higher model resolution led to higher reproducibility of surface winds, especially in mountainous areas when the Siberian winter monsoon was disturbed. In contrast, the model improvement was negligible or nonexistent over plain/coastal areas when the synoptic field was steady. The statistical scores of the tracer transport simulations often deteriorated due to small errors in the plume locations. However, the higher-resolution models advantageously performed better transport simulations in the mountainous areas because of the lower numerical diffusion and higher reproducibility of the mass flux. The reproducibility of the tracer distribution in the valley of the Fukushima mountainous region was dramatically improved with increasing model resolution. In conclusion, a higher-resolution model is definitely recommended for tracer transport simulations over mountainous terrain at least in the range of mesoscale model resolutions (commonly 1~10 km grids).