Numerical Experiment Research of a Marine Fog Event in the Pearl River Estuary Region

A marine fog event that occurred near the Pearl River Estuary region on 26 March 2002 was investigated with the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5). The results of numerical experiment are very consistent with the surface observations,especially in the processes of marine fog formation and evolution. Besides, a series of sensitivity numerical experiments were performed by varying the distribution of landuse type and the turbulence exchange process. It is shown that the marine fog forms along the coastal line. Tests have indicated that when the distribution of landuse type is modified, the regions where the marine fog can intrude into are obviously different. The turbulence process in the model is important for fog formation and evolution. If the influence of turbulence process is ignored in numerical simulation experiment, the simulated maximum of the cloud liquid water content and the height of fog top will be decreased greatly.