Time-varying microscale model

The Time-Varying Microscale (TVM) model is a microscale diagnostic model specifically designed to compute data for extremely high-resolution mapping (tens of meters to a few hundred meters) without the high computational costs of running a mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model such as Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF).

TVM uses high-resolution land surface data to calculate the effects of microscale terrain features, near-surface roughness features, and other terrain blocking effects typically left unresolved by coarser mesoscale NWP models. Microscale terrain features are resolved using a kinematic terrain adjustment, near-surface roughness features are resolved using a log-profile surface roughness adjustment, and a Froude number adjustment is applied to calculate terrain-blocking effects on wind flow.

All of these effects are computed at each time step in the study period and based not only on wind speed and elevation, but also on quantities such as wind direction and thermodynamic properties of the lower atmosphere, enabling a sophisticated time-varying spatial analysis.