SIMBAD references

In this study, we assess the validity of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical model for estimating precipitable water vapor (PWV) at the Ali observatory, located in the southwestern part of the Tibetan Plateau. We have run WRF in three nested domains with different horizontal resolutions, centered at the Ali observatory, and the ability of the WRF model on estimating PWV conditions at an astronomical observatory on the Tibetan Plateau with complex terrain has been discussed. In the validation, we make use of a verification sample of 1 yr of radiosonde data set obtained directly at the Ali radiosonde station in 2016, which is about 25 km north of the observatory. The results from model with the highest horizontal resolution of 1 km and the temporal resolution of 0.5 hr in domain 03 are presented in this article. On the Tibetan Plateau, it should be noted that the WRF model slightly overestimates the PWV, while there are high correlation coefficients between the PWV from model and that from observation. In summary, the WRF model shows an excellent performance in estimating PWV at the observatory, and a good agreement between model simulation and radiosonde observation has been found, including for the extremely low value of the PWV (<=1 mm), thus allowing it to complement the PWV estimation above the Tibetan Plateau.