LEAD-INDUCED ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATIONS

Leads provide a significant source of heat and moisture to the Arctic winter atmosphere, and plumes from wide leads have been observed to pe netrate the Arctic inversion. We have developed a two-dimensional, hig h-resolution, deep anelastic numerical model to investigate the atmosp heric convection from leads with widths ranging from 100 m to 10 km. A second-order turbulence closure scheme is used to parameterize the at mospheric turbulence in the horizontally inhomogeneous system. This st udy describes how the lead-induced circulations can enhance the vertic al transport of heat into the atmospheric boundary layer. This model i s compared with large-eddy simulation results and with lidar observati ons of a lead-induced ice crystal plume. The model is used to study th e effect of varying lead widths and ambient atmospheric conditions on the resultant convection from leads, and some preliminary results are described.