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N. Haikin et al.
77.1 Introduction
Atmospheric modeling has enormously advanced over the last decades, due to the
growing strength of computing, scientific development of numerical schemes which
better represent physical behaviour of the atmosphere, newer capabilities of assimilation of observations into the models, and great minds on top of all. Dr. Yitzhak
Mahrer was an Atmospheric modeller, who started his way with room-size computer
and had gone a long way into the era of very strong computers of a notebook size.
This paper is a brief presentation of his contribution to the scientific atmospheric
modeling community.
77.2 Dr. Mahrer’s Research—A Brief Overview
Yitzhak Mahrer started his atmospheric journey with his Msc. and PhD studies in
meteorology, as Prof Neumann’s student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He passed away after four decades of atmospheric research covering a wide range
of interests, including mesoscale meteorology, agricultural meteorology, microclimatology, and coastal and complex terrain air pollution modeling. In the 1970’s he
developed one of the first two-dimensional numerical model, and performed simulations of mesoscale atmospheric flow over mountainous slopes including sea-breeze
dynamics over an island (e.g. [11, 13]).
The RAMS concept was created in the early 1980’s at Colorado State University
by merging three related models: the CSU cloud-mesoscale model [18], a hydrostatic
version of the cloud model [17], and the sea breeze model Mahrer and Pielke [10],
Cotton et al. [4]. A radiation scheme named after Mahrer-Pielke was integrated into
the RAMS.
In the 1980’s Dr. Mahrer published papers on a new numerical coordinate system; simulations over complex terrain including the need for a balance between the
horizontal and vertical grid resolution, in order to represent the terrain features with
reduced numerical error. To do this Mahrer [9] suggested an improved scheme for the
terrain-following coordinate system which reduces numerical near-surface pressure
errors, when calculating high vertical resolution near steep slopes. He was among the
first scientists to introduce atmospheric dynamics into air-pollution modeling (e.g.
[14]) Dr. Mahrer also used numerical simulations to explore atmospheric processes
with important impacts on agriculture (e.g. [2]).
During his academic career as a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Mahrer led microclimate studies of flow
within greenhouses and in the open field (e.g. [3, 12, 16]). Most of these studies
combined observational field campaigns to support his modeling vision and developments.
N. Haikin et al.
77.1 Introduction
Atmospheric modeling has enormously advanced over the last decades, due to the
growing strength of computing, scientific development of numerical schemes which
better represent physical behaviour of the atmosphere, newer capabilities of assimilation of observations into the models, and great minds on top of all. Dr. Yitzhak
Mahrer was an Atmospheric modeller, who started his way with room-size computer
and had gone a long way into the era of very strong computers of a notebook size.
This paper is a brief presentation of his contribution to the scientific atmospheric
modeling community.
77.2 Dr. Mahrer’s Research—A Brief Overview
Yitzhak Mahrer started his atmospheric journey with his Msc. and PhD studies in
meteorology, as Prof Neumann’s student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He passed away after four decades of atmospheric research covering a wide range
of interests, including mesoscale meteorology, agricultural meteorology, microclimatology, and coastal and complex terrain air pollution modeling. In the 1970’s he
developed one of the first two-dimensional numerical model, and performed simulations of mesoscale atmospheric flow over mountainous slopes including sea-breeze
dynamics over an island (e.g. [11, 13]).
The RAMS concept was created in the early 1980’s at Colorado State University
by merging three related models: the CSU cloud-mesoscale model [18], a hydrostatic
version of the cloud model [17], and the sea breeze model Mahrer and Pielke [10],
Cotton et al. [4]. A radiation scheme named after Mahrer-Pielke was integrated into
the RAMS.
In the 1980’s Dr. Mahrer published papers on a new numerical coordinate system; simulations over complex terrain including the need for a balance between the
horizontal and vertical grid resolution, in order to represent the terrain features with
reduced numerical error. To do this Mahrer [9] suggested an improved scheme for the
terrain-following coordinate system which reduces numerical near-surface pressure
errors, when calculating high vertical resolution near steep slopes. He was among the
first scientists to introduce atmospheric dynamics into air-pollution modeling (e.g.
[14]) Dr. Mahrer also used numerical simulations to explore atmospheric processes
with important impacts on agriculture (e.g. [2]).
During his academic career as a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Mahrer led microclimate studies of flow
within greenhouses and in the open field (e.g. [3, 12, 16]). Most of these studies
combined observational field campaigns to support his modeling vision and developments.