An Improved Three-Dimensional Simulation of the Diurnally Varying Street-Canyon Flow

The impact of diurnal variations of the heat fluxes from building and ground surfaces on the fluid flow and air temperature distribution in street canyons is numerically investigated using the PArallelized Large-eddy Simulation Model (PALM). Simulations are performed for a 3 by 5 array of buildings with canyon aspect ratio of one for two clear summer days that differ in atmospheric instability. A detailed building energy model with a three-dimensional raster-type geometry—Temperature of Urban Facets Indoor-Outdoor Building Energy Simulator (TUF-IOBES)—provides urban surface heat fluxes as thermal boundary conditions for PALM. In vertical cross-sections at the centre of the spanwise canyon the mechanical forcing and the horizontal streamwise thermal forcing at roof level outweigh the thermal forces from the heated surfaces inside the canyon in defining the general flow pattern throughout the day. This results in a dominant canyon vortex with a persistent speed, centered at a constant height. Compared to neutral simulations, non-uniform heating of the urban canyon surfaces significantly modifies the pressure field and turbulence statistics in street canyons. Strong horizontal pressure gradients were detected in streamwise and spanwise canyons throughout the day, and which motivate larger turbulent velocity fluctuations in the horizontal directions rather than in the vertical direction. Canyon-averaged turbulent kinetic energy in all non-neutral simulations exhibits a diurnal cycle following the insolation on the ground in both spanwise and streamwise canyons, and it is larger when the canopy bottom surface is paved with darker materials and the ground surface temperature is higher as a result. Compared to uniformly distributed thermal forcing on urban surfaces, the present analysis shows that realistic non-uniform thermal forcing can result in complex local airflow patterns, as evident, for example, from the location of the vortices in horizontal planes in the spanwise canyon. This study shows the importance of three-dimensional simulations with detailed thermal boundary conditions to explore the heat and mass transport in an urban area.     

不同大尺度强迫条件下考虑初始场与侧边界条件不确定性的对流尺度集合预报试验

研究了不同大尺度强迫条件下的暴雨个例中,考虑不同尺度特征的初始扰动与侧边界扰动相互作用构造对流尺度集合预报的可行性,为进一步构建“自适应”于不同强对流天气的对流尺度集合预报系统提供依据。结果表明,在大尺度强迫显著的个例1中,以大尺度扰动信息为主的动力降尺度的增长趋势较集合转换卡尔曼滤波(ETKF)更为显著,且总扰动能量在预报中后期超过集合转换卡尔曼滤波,而在大尺度强迫较弱的个例2中,集合转换卡尔曼滤波扰动能量始终高于动力降尺度。此外,当大尺度强迫显著时,初始扰动与侧边界扰动相匹配会产生相互促进的作用,而不匹配时初始扰动会在预报中后期抑制侧边界扰动的发展,当大尺度强迫较弱时,即使是互相间不匹配的初始扰动与侧边界扰动也能在大部分预报时段起到相互促进的作用,说明初始扰动与侧边界扰动的相互作用机制不仅与天气形势相关,也与二者是否匹配挂钩,另外,扰动的发展特征同样依赖于天气形势;从集合离散度的角度来看,当大尺度强迫明显时,侧边界扰动的作用会在更短的时间内取代初始扰动,从而对离散度起到主导地位;两种初始扰动方法相比,集合转换卡尔曼滤波在多数情况下对总离散度的贡献均大于动力降尺度;从降水量预报及概率预报情况来看,大尺度强迫明显的个例可预报性更高,且各集合成员间的差异较小,大尺度强迫较弱的个例则相反,且当两种初始扰动方案与侧边界扰动相结合时,较仅侧边界扰动均有一定提高。      

GRAPES区域集合预报模式的初值扰动增长特征

基于GRAPES-REPS（Global and Regional Assimilation and Prediction Enhanced System-Regional Ensemble Prediction System）区域集合预报模式和集合变换卡尔曼滤波（Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter,ETKF）初值扰动方法,对2015年6月1~15日10 km与15 km水平分辨率分别进行集合预报试验,通过分析ETKF初值扰动分量、初值扰动方差准确率、动能谱、扰动能量演变、日变化及集合离散度、均方根误差等特征,揭示GRAPES-REPS区域集合预报ETKF初值扰动结构及增长特征。结果表明:（1）ETKF初值扰动方案产生的扰动能够保持所有正交、不相关方向的误差方差,且ETKF分量α参数值及放大因子具有较好的稳定性。（2）ETKF初值扰动方法生成的扰动场以大尺度扰动为主,扰动结构及能量具有随流型依赖特征,低层以内能扰动为主,高层以动能扰动为主,且集合扰动可以有效捕捉预报误差的结构。（3）GRAPES区域集合预报初值扰动总能量和集合离散度随预报时效的延长均呈发展趋势,但离散度增长率小于均方根误差增长率,即集合预报总体存在集合离散度不足的问题。（4）水平分辨率提高可以增加中高层大尺度扰动波谱能量,明显改进等压面及近地面风场及温度场的集合预报效果。值得指出的是,GRAPES-REPS区域集合预报低层内能扰动能量存在明显的日变化特征,特别是青藏高原地区更加显著,需要进一步研究青藏高原初值扰动结构的合理性。     

Bridging the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Turbulence in Numerical Weather Prediction Models

With a focus towards developing multiscale capabilities in numerical weather prediction models, the specific problem of the transition from the mesoscale to the microscale is investigated. For that purpose, idealized one-way nested mesoscale to large-eddy simulation (LES) experiments were carried out using the Weather Research and Forecasting model framework. It is demonstrated that switching from one-dimensional turbulent diffusion in the mesoscale model to three-dimensional LES mixing does not necessarily result in an instantaneous development of turbulence in the LES domain. On the contrary, very large fetches are needed for the natural transition to turbulence to occur. The computational burden imposed by these long fetches necessitates the development of methods to accelerate the generation of turbulence on a nested LES domain forced by a smooth mesoscale inflow. To that end, four new methods based upon finite amplitude perturbations of the potential temperature field along the LES inflow boundaries are developed, and investigated under convective conditions. Each method accelerated the development of turbulence within the LES domain, with two of the methods resulting in a rapid generation of production and inertial range energy content associated to microscales that is consistent with non-nested simulations using periodic boundary conditions. The cell perturbation approach, the simplest and most efficient of the best performing methods, was investigated further under neutral and stable conditions. Successful results were obtained in all the regimes, where satisfactory agreement of mean velocity, variances and turbulent fluxes, as well as velocity and temperature spectra, was achieved with reference non-nested simulations. In contrast, the non-perturbed LES solution exhibited important energy deficits associated to a delayed establishment of fully-developed turbulence. The cell perturbation method has negligible computational cost, significantly accelerates the generation of realistic turbulence, and requires minimal parameter tuning, with the necessary information relatable to mean inflow conditions provided by the mesoscale solution.     

Effects of building-roof cooling on flow and air temperature in urban street canyons

The effects of building-roof cooling on flow and air temperature in 3D urban street canyons are numerically investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The aspect ratios of the building and street canyon considered are unity. For investigating the building-roof cooling effects, the building-roof temperatures are systematically changed. The traditional flow pattern including a portal vortex appears in the spanwise canyon. Compared with the case of the control run, there are minimal differences in flow pattern in the cases in which maximum building-roof cooling is considered. However, as the building roof becomes cooler, the mean kinetic energy increases and the air temperature decreases in the spanwise canyon. Building-roof cooling suppresses the upward and inward motions above the building roof, resultantly increasing the horizontal velocity near the roof level. The increase in wind velocity above the roof level intensifies the secondarily driven vortex circulation as well as the inward (outward) motion into (out of) the spanwise canyon. Finally, building-roof cooling reduces the air temperature in the spanwise canyon, supplying much relatively cool air from the streamwise canyon into the spanwise canyon.     

Boundary-layer pollutant concentrations over complex terrain

Given the incident profiles of wind velocity and pollutant concentration, we seek to determine the 3-dimensional concentration field of a pollutant upon a region with complex terrain. The analytic solution of the wind velocity in a 3-dimensional boundary-layer model by Walmsley et al. (1980) is utilized as a forcing function in the simplified concentration perturbation equation for a pollutant. The resulting solution applies to an isolated cosine-squared hill in a neutrally stratified boundary-layer flow with a surface type which absorbs the pollutant totally. The solution shows that the concentration perturbation field is organized in accordance with the wind field. In particular, the east-west cross-section is 180° out of phase with the velocity perturbation field. The vertical profiles of the concentration perturbations for selected grid points approach the value of the upper boundary condition very rapidly.     

Effects of Street-Bottom and Building-Roof Heating on Flow in Three-Dimensional Street Canyons

Using a computational fluid dynamics(CFD)model,the effects of street-bottom and building-roof heating on flow in three-dimensional street canyons are investigated.The building and street-canyon aspect ratios are one.In the presence of street-bottom heating,as the street-bottom heating intensity increases,the mean kinetic energy increases in the spanwise street canyon formed by the upwind and downwind buildings but decreases in the lower region of the streamwise street canyon.The increase in momentum due to buoyancy force intensifies mechanically induced flow in the spanwise street canyon.The vorticity in the spanwise street canyon strengthens.The temperature increase is not large because relatively cold above-roof-level air comes into the spanwise street canyon.In the presence of both street-bottom and building-roof heating,the mean kinetic energy rather decreases in the spanwise street canyon.This is caused by the decrease in horizontal flow speed at the roof level,which results in the weakening of the mean flow circulation in the spanwise street canyon.It is found that the vorticity in the spanwise street canyon weakens.The temperature increase is relatively large compared with that in the street-bottom heating case,because relatively warm above-roof-level air comes into the spanwise street canyon.     

Large-Scale Structures over a Single Street Canyon Immersed in an Urban-Type Boundary Layer

An analysis of the dynamics of the flow over a street canyon immersed in an atmospheric boundary layer is presented, using particle image velocimetry measurements in a wind tunnel. Care was taken to generate a 1:200 model scale urban type boundary layer that is correctly scaled to the size of the canyon buildings. Using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the velocity field and conditional averaging techniques, it is first shown that the flow above the opening of the canyon consists of a shear layer separating from the upstream obstacle, animated by a coherent flapping motion and generating large-scale vortical structures. These structures are alternately injected into the canyon or shed off the obstacle into the outer flow. It is shown that unsteady fluid exchanges between the canyon and the outer flow are mainly driven by the shear layer. Finally, using POD, the non-linear interaction between the large-scale structures of the oncoming atmospheric boundary layer and the flow over the canyon is demonstrated.     

Turbulent Transfer Between Street Canyons and the Overlying Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The turbulent exchange of momentum between a two-dimensional cavity and the overlying boundary layer has been studied experimentally, using hot-wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry (PIV). Conditions within the boundary layer were varied by changing the width of the canyons upstream of the test canyon, whilst maintaining the square geometry of the test canyon. The results show that turbulent transfer is due to the coupling between the instabilities generated in the shear layer above the canyons and the turbulent structures in the oncoming boundary layer. As a result, there is no single, unique velocity scale that correctly characterizes all the processes involved in the turbulent exchange of momentum across the boundary layer. Similarly, there is no single velocity scale that can characterize the different properties of the turbulent flow within the canyon, which depends strongly on the way in which turbulence from the outer flow is entrained into the cavity and carried round by the mean flow. The results from this study will be useful in developing simple parametrizations for momentum exchange in the urban canopy, in situations where the street geometry consists principally of relatively long, uniform streets arranged in grid-like patterns; they are unlikely to be applicable to sparse geometries composed of isolated three-dimensional obstacles.     

Structures of dynamically unstable shear flows and their implications for shallow internal gravity waves

Summary In this study, the response of a dynamically unstable shear flow with a critical level to periodic forcing is presented. An energy argument is proposed to explain the upshear tilt of updrafts associated with disturbances in two-dimensional stably stratified flows. In a dynamically unstable flow, the energy equation requires an upshear tilt of the perturbation streamfunction and vertical velocity whereU _z is positive. A stability model is constructed using an iteration method. An upshear tilt of the vertical velocity and the streamfunction fields is evident in a dynamically unstable flow, which is required by energy conversion from the basic shear to the growing perturbation wave energy according to the energy argument. The momentum flux profile indicates that the basic flow is decreased (increased) above (below) the critical level. Thus, the shear instability tends to smooth the shear layer. Following the energy argument, a downshear tilt of the updraft is produced in an unstably stratified flow since the perturbation wave energy is negative. The wave energy budget indicates that the disturbance is caused by a thermal instability modified by a shear flow since the potential energy grows faster than the kinetic energy.With 4 Figures     

北太平洋冬季西部发展型天气尺度涡旋对平均流的影响

在中纬度北太平洋大气强斜压区,存在频繁的天气尺度涡旋活动,通过水分、动量和能量输送维持大气环流。为了进一步研究天气尺度涡旋发生发展与大尺度环流之间的联系,利用1981—2013年再分析资料,筛选出西部发展型天气尺度涡旋114个偏强日和87个偏弱日,给出了西部发展型天气尺度涡旋异常导致的动力和热力强迫的变化,同时从能量转换的角度分析了西部发展型天气尺度涡旋与平均流之间的相互作用,并探讨了其与西太平洋遥相关型的关系。结果表明:西部发展型天气尺度涡旋通过动力强迫和热力强迫影响平均流,其中动力强迫主要造成北太平洋中纬度上空的西风气流加速并向北移动;热力强迫的作用则是减弱中纬度大气斜压性。同时,强西部发展型天气尺度涡旋有利于西北太平洋上空对流层低层斜压有效位能向扰动动能的转化增大和扰动动能向平均流的转化增大,有利于中纬度地区对流层高层平均流向扰动动能的转化增大。此外,西部发展型天气尺度涡旋通过与平均流的作用,对维持西太平洋遥相关型的负位相有一定影响。     

正压大气中基态定常波对强迫响应的影响

本文利用正压涡度方程模式研究了热带不同经度位置异常强迫激发的中纬响应类型与北半球冬季基本气流定常波结构的关系。发现对热带印度洋和太平洋的大部分地区,中纬的响应类型主要由基态定常波的结构决定,并且基态定常波通过向扰动转换动能维持了中纬的响应。通过这些结果解释了GCM研究中发现的中综异常响应类型对El Nino成熟期海表面温度异常位置变化的不敏感性。此外还讨论了观测和GCM中出现的热带印度洋——太平洋地区低频尺度上的纬向偶极强迫源对GCM响应结果的作用。     

Treatment of LBCs in 2D simulation of convection over hills

A series of idealized model simulations are analyzed to determine the sensitivity of model results to different configurations of the lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) in simulating mesoscale shallow convection over hilly terrain, In the simulations with steady thermal forcing at the model surface, a radiation condition at both boundaries is the best choice under high wind conditions, and the best results are produced when both the normal velocities and the temperature are treated with the radiation scheme in which the phase speed is the same for different variables, When the background wind speed is reasonably small, the LBC configuration with either the radiation or the zero gradient condition at both boundaries tends to make the numerical solution unstable. The choice of a constant condition at the inflow boundary and a radiation outflow boundary condition is appropriate in most cases, In the simulations with diurnal thermal forcing at the model surface, different LBC schemes are combined together to reduce spurious signals induced by the outflow boundary, A specification inflow boundary condition, in which the velocity fields at the inflow boundary are provided using the time-dependent results of a simulation with periodic LBCs over a flat domain, is tested and the results indicate that the specification condition at the inflow boundary makes it possible to use a smaller model domain to obtain reasonable results. The model horizontal domain length should be greater than a critical length, which depends on the domain depth H and the angle between gravity wave phase lines and the vertical, An estimate of minimum domain length is given by [(H-zi)/πU]√N^2L2x-4π^2u^2, where N and U are the background stability and wind speed,respectively, Lx is the typical gravity wavelength scale, and zi is the convective boundary layer (CBL)depth.     

线性定常响应有效强迫与遥相关型动力学

对线性定常强迫问题，本文发展了具有能量意义的内积空间中建立一组完备正交强迫模的动力学方法，其中这组正交强迫模是正定对称阵的特征矢量，相应的特征值则决定了强迫模产生的大气响应强度。以冬季３００ｈＰａ气候平均流为基本状态进行具体计算。结果表明，有实际意义的遥相关型只是由很少几个使大气产生大响应的最有效强迫模产生。这些最有效的强迫模产生的大气响应同实际观测到的遥相关型有很好的对应关系。能量分析表明，有利强迫模建立遥相关型，基本流向大气响应提供的动能比强迫产生的动能更大。所以，强迫建立遥相关型不只依赖于外源产生的动能的传播，更主要依赖于大气响应能否从基本流吸取动能。     

The effect of idealized water waves on the turbulence structure and kinetic energy budgets in the overlying airflow

The influence of an idealized moving wavy surface on the overlying airflow is investigated using direct numerical simulations (DNS). In the present simulations, the bulk Reynolds number is Re = 8000 (; where U₀ is the forcing velocity of the flow, h the height of the domain and v the kinematic viscosity) and the phase speed of the imposed waves relative to the friction velocity, i.e., the wave age varies from very slow to fast waves. The wave signal is clearly present in the airflow up to at least 0.15λ (where λ is the wave length) and is present up to higher levels for faster waves. In the kinetic energy budgets, pressure transport is mainly of importance for slow waves. For fast waves, viscous transport and turbulent transport dominate near the surface. Kinetic energy budgets for the wave and turbulent perturbations show a non-negligible transport of turbulent kinetic energy directed from turbulence to the wave perturbation in the airflow. The wave-turbulent energy transport depends on the size, tilt, and phase of the wave-induced part of the turbulent Reynolds stresses.According to the DNS data, slow waves are more efficient in generating isotropic turbulence than fast waves.Despite the differences in wave-shape as well as in Reynolds number between the idealized direct numerical simulations and the atmosphere, there are intriguing similarities in the turbulence structure. Important information about the turbulence above waves in the atmosphere can be obtained from DNS—the data must, however, be interpreted with care.     

A comparison of low-latitude cloud properties and their response to climate change in three AGCMs sorted into regimes using mid-tropospheric vertical velocity

Low-latitude cloud distributions and cloud responses to climate perturbations are compared in near-current versions of three leading U.S. AGCMs, the NCAR CAM 3.0, the GFDL AM2.12b, and the NASA GMAO NSIPP-2 model. The analysis technique of Bony et al. (Clim Dyn 22:71–86, 2004) is used to sort cloud variables by dynamical regime using the monthly mean pressure velocity ω at 500 hPa from 30S to 30N. All models simulate the climatological monthly mean top-of-atmosphere longwave and shortwave cloud radiative forcing (CRF) adequately in all ω-regimes. However, they disagree with each other and with ISCCP satellite observations in regime-sorted cloud fraction, condensate amount, and cloud-top height. All models have too little cloud with tops in the middle troposphere and too much thin cirrus in ascent regimes. In subsidence regimes one model simulates cloud condensate to be too near the surface, while another generates condensate over an excessively deep layer of the lower troposphere. Standardized climate perturbation experiments of the three models are also compared, including uniform SST increase, patterned SST increase, and doubled CO₂ over a mixed layer ocean. The regime-sorted cloud and CRF perturbations are very different between models, and show lesser, but still significant, differences between the same model simulating different types of imposed climate perturbation. There is a negative correlation across all general circulation models (GCMs) and climate perturbations between changes in tropical low cloud cover and changes in net CRF, suggesting a dominant role for boundary layer cloud in these changes. For some of the cases presented, upper-level clouds in deep convection regimes are also important, and changes in such regimes can either reinforce or partially cancel the net CRF response from the boundary layer cloud in subsidence regimes. This study highlights the continuing uncertainty in both low and high cloud feedbacks simulated by GCMs.     

Equilibrium Atmospheric Boundary-Layer Flow: Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation with Balanced Forces

Forcing relationships in steady, neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) flow are thoroughly analyzed. The ABL flow can be viewed as balanced between a forcing and a drag term. The drag term results from turbulent stress divergence, and above the ABL, both the drag and the forcing terms vanish. In computational wind engineering applications, the ABL flow is simulated not by directly specifying a forcing term in the ABL but by specifying boundary conditions for the simulation domain. Usually, these include the inflow boundary and the top boundary conditions. This ‘boundary-driven’ ABL flow is dynamically different from its real counterpart, and this is the major reason that the simulated boundary-driven ABL flow does not maintain horizontal homogeneity. Here, first a dynamical approach is proposed to develop a neutrally stratified equilibrium ABL flow. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software (Fluent 6.3) with the standard \(k\) – \(\varepsilon \) turbulence model is employed, and by applying a driving force profile, steady equilibrium ABL flows are simulated by the model. Profiles of wind speed and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) derived using this approach are reasonable in comparison with the conventional logarithmic law and with observational data respectively. Secondly, the equilibrium ABL profiles apply as inflow conditions to simulate the boundary-driven ABL flow. Simulated properties between the inlet and the outlet sections across a fetch of 10 km are compared. Although profiles of wind speed, TKE, and its dissipation rate are consistently satisfactory under higher wind conditions, a deviation of TKE and its dissipation rate between the inlet and outlet are apparent (7–8 %) under lower wind-speed conditions (2 m s \(^{-1}\) at 10 m). Furthermore, the simulated surface stress systematically decreases in the downwind direction. A redistribution of the pressure field is also found in the simulation domain, which provides a different driving pattern from the realistic case in the ABL.     

A subgrid-scale model for large-eddy simulation of planetary boundary-layer flows

A long-standing problem in large-eddy simulations (LES) of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is that the mean wind and temperature profiles differ from the Monin-Obukhov similarity forms in the surface layer. This shortcoming of LES has been attributed to poor grid resolution and inadequate sub-grid-scale (SGS) modeling. We study this deficiency in PBL LES solutions calculated over a range of shear and buoyancy forcing conditions. The discrepancy from similarity forms becomes larger with increasing shear and smaller buoyancy forcing, and persists even with substantial horizontal grid refinement. With strong buoyancy forcing, however, the error is negligible.In order to achieve better agreement between LES and similarity forms in the surface layer, a two-part SGS eddy-viscosity model is proposed. The model preserves the usual SGS turbulent kinetic energy formulation for the SGS eddy viscosity, but it explicitly includes a contribution from the mean flow and a reduction of the contributions from the turbulent fluctuations near the surface. Solutions with the new model yield increased fluctuation amplitudes near the surface and better correspondence with similarity forms out to a distance of 0.1–0.2 times the PBL depth, i.e., a typical surface-layer depth. These results are also found to be independent of grid anisotropy. The new model is simple to implement and computationally inexpensive.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Physical experiments to investigate the effects of street bottom heating and inflow turbulence on urban street-canyon flow

The effects of street bottom heating and inflow turbulence on urban street-canyon flow are experimentally investigated using a circulating water channel. Three experiments are carried out for a street canyon with a street aspect ratio of 1. Results from each experiment with bottom heating or inflow turbulence are compared with those without bottom heating and appreciable inflow turbulence. It is demonstrated that street bottom heating or inflow turbulence increases the intensity of the canyon vortex. A possible explanation on how street bottom heating or inflow turbulence intensifies the canyon vortex is given from a fluid dynamical viewpoint.     

The Budget of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in the Urban Roughness Sublayer

Full-scale observations from two urban sites in Basel, Switzerland were analysed to identify the magnitude of different processes that create, relocate, and dissipate turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the urban atmosphere. Two towers equipped with a profile of six ultrasonic anemometers each sampled the flow in the urban roughness sublayer, i.e. from street canyon base up to roughly 2.5 times the mean building height. This observational study suggests a conceptual division of the urban roughness sublayer into three layers: (1) the layer above the highest roofs, where local buoyancy production and local shear production of TKE are counterbalanced by local viscous dissipation rate and scaled turbulence statistics are close to to surface-layer values; (2) the layer around mean building height with a distinct inflexional mean wind profile, a strong shear and wake production of TKE, a more efficient turbulent exchange of momentum, and a notable export of TKE by transport processes; (3) the lower street canyon with imported TKE by transport processes and negligible local production. Averaged integral velocity variances vary significantly with height in the urban roughness sublayer and reflect the driving processes that create or relocate TKE at a particular height. The observed profiles of the terms of the TKE budget and the velocity variances show many similarities to observations within and above vegetation canopies.