The radiation fog usually is preceded by a strong nocturnal cooling rate. Some times the observed cooling is so high that weather forecast models are not able to reproduce it accurately. Simulations were used to reproduce the formation of radiation fog at dawn on 18 April, 2007. Parameters and parameterizations related to turbulence available in BRAMS version 3.2 were tested. To calculate the vertical diffusion coefficients the Mellor-Yamada and Smagorinsky schemes were tested; and for the ratio of vertical diffusion coefficients between scalars and momentum the values 1 and 3 were tested. The best results were provided by the Mellor-Yamada parameterization scheme and when the ratio of vertical diffusion coefficients equal to 1. The maximum cooling rate obtained was -5,7ºC/10h and the moistening rate was -27,1%/10h, but the observed data showed values of -8,8ºC/10h and 29%/10h, respectively. In terms of surface cooling and moistening rate errors, the tested schemes led to small improvements in the results, but were sufficient to develop the fog over the surface.
fog; regional model; weather forecasting
