Cut-cell extension with non-orthogonal surfaces for the PALM model

This dataset contains the cut-cell extension of the PALM model system. This is a significant modification which allows grid cells to be partially atmospheric and partially obstacle, as opposed to just full-atmosphere or full-obstacle, as is the case of the standard PALM model.

The most significant changes are in the LES atmospheric model, the Radiative Transfer Model (RTM) and in the model data structures and initialization code. More details will be provided in the referencing research paper.

The palm_source subdirectory contains the modified source code based on the feature branch in the PALM gitlab repository. To install, extract the source code archive and follow the README.md file. Further support is available on the PALM website.

The test_cases subdirectory contains testing and debugging scenarios.

• slant_00 - slant_04 are two buildings parallel to each other creating small urban canyon. Domain size is 300m x 300m in 1m resolution. 00 is parallel with S-N direction, 04 is rotated by 45 degrees. Input data were artificially created in order to study dicrepancy between orthogonal and slanted approach when buildings are perfectly alligned with grid and when rotated.
• reichstag - Small domain 256x256m in 1m resolution around Berlin's building - Reichstag. Data for simulation were obtained from UrbanAtlas, EU-DEM, OpenStreetMaps.
• cut_cell_topography - Child domain of cut_cell_nested
• cut_cell_nested - Two domain scenarios placed in Prague-Dejvice location (14.38573398151189, 50.10439607268668). Child domain is 40m x 40m in 1m resolution and parent is 160, x 160m in 2m resolution. Input data were obtained from publicly available data from Prague municipalities.

All domain cover both LSM / USM with non-trivial topography. Input data were prepared using the palm_gem tool.

For surface representation visualization use the provided Python script. Run as:

python3 slanted_surface_output.py "surface_output_netcdf_file"

Visualize using Paraview, open as XML format. There are two visualization examples in visualization_examples folder.