Relative dispersion in the Liguro-Provençal basin: From sub-mesoscale to mesoscale

Relative dispersion in the Liguro-Provençal basin (a subregion of the Mediterranean Sea) is investigated using clusters of surface drifters deployed during two Marine Rapid Environment Assessment (MREA) experiments covering different months in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The clusters have initial radii of less than 1 km, or an order of magnitude below a typical deformation radius (approximately 10-20 km). The data set consists of 45 original pairs and more than 50 total pairs (including chance ones) in the spatial range between 1 and 200 km. Relative dispersion is estimated using the mean square separation of particle pairs and the Finite Scale Lyapunov Exponents (FSLEs). The two metrics show broadly consistent results, indicating in particular a clear exponential behaviour with an e-folding time scale between 0.5 and 1 days, or Lyapunov exponent ?? in the range of 0.7-1 days⁻¹. The exponential phase extends for 4-7 days in time and between 1 and 10-20 km in separation space. To our knowledge, this is only the third time that an exponential regime is observed in the world ocean from drifter data. This result suggests that relative dispersion in the Liguro-Provençal basin is nonlocal, namely controlled mainly by mesoscale dynamics, and that the effects of the sub-mesoscale motions are negligible in comparison. NCOM model results are used to complement the data and to quantify errors arising from the sparse sampling in the observations.     

长江三角洲典型稻作区近地层二氧化碳等湍流通量的观测研究

利用1999年和2000年长江三角洲近地层大气与农田生态系统综合观测试验资料，对常熟地区水稻插秧、拔节、抽穗等不同生长期近地层二氧化碳和感热、潜热、动量等湍流通量特征及变化规律进行了初步研究. 研究结果表明, 平均而言在水稻各生长期，近地面为二氧化碳的汇，白天水稻通过光合作用吸收二氧化碳、夜间则放出二氧化碳，抽穗期消耗的二氧化碳要多于拔节和插秧期；近地面为大气的热源，主要以潜热方式加热大气，尤其是在抽穗期，感热与潜热之比仅为0.058；二氧化碳等湍流通量的变化与辐射平衡各分量及气象要素有显著关系.     

物理海洋观测研究的进展与挑战

从当今物理海洋所面临的若干前沿科学问题出发,重点探讨了物理海洋观测研究所面临的任务与挑战,包括大洋边界流系统、海洋湍流及跨等密度面混合以及海洋热含量和淡水平衡等.在已有的基础上,对我国在深海研究领域特别是物理海洋观测方面提出了几点针对性的建议.     

Two-phase hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling of wave-generated sheet flow

This numerical investigation was carried out to advance mechanistic understanding of sediment transport under sheet flow conditions. An Euler–Euler coupled two-phase flow model was developed to simulate fluid–sediment oscillatory sheet flow. Since the concentration of sediment particles is high in such flows, the kinematics of the fluid and sediment phases are strongly coupled. This model includes interaction forces, intergranular stresses and turbulent stress closure. Each phase was modeled via the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations, with interphase momentum conservation accounting for the interaction between the phases. The generation and transformation of turbulence was modeled using the two-equation k–ε$k''–''\epsilon$ turbulence model. Concentration and sediment flux profiles were compared with experimental data for sheet flow conditions considering both symmetric and asymmetric oscillatory flows. Sediment and fluid velocity variations, concentration profiles, sediment flux and turbulence parameters of wave-generated sheet flow were studied numerically with a focus on sediment transport characteristics. In all applications, the model predictions compared well with the experimental data. Unlike previous investigations in which the flow is driven by a horizontal pressure gradient, the present model solves the Navier–Stokes equations under propagating waves. The model’s ability to predict sediment transport under oscillatory sheet flow conditions underscores its potential for understanding the evolution of beach morphology.     

The landscape Reynolds number and other dimensionless measures of Earth surface processes

An analogy between turbulent fluid systems and landscape drainage systems [Parker, G., Haff, P.K., Murray, A.B., 2001, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 82, pp. F564.] is suggested by the observation that transport in both systems can be approximated by diffusion with size-proportional effective diffusivities, with a cross-over at small scales to Fickian diffusion. The “landscape” Reynolds number of a typical fluvial landscape is estimated to be of order Re_L 10⁶ to 10⁹, these large values reflecting the relative efficiency of fluvial transport compared to creep. Re_L is the ratio of the large-scale effective diffusivity of rivers to the small-scale diffusivity of creep processes on hillslopes. The spatial dependence of the effective diffusivity produces rivers with logarithmic long-profiles, similar to the profiles of many rivers in nature, and analogous to the logarithmic dependence of mean fluid velocity on distance from a wall in turbulent flow. The landscape example suggests how other generalized “Reynolds numbers” can be constructed as ratios of large-scale to small-scale diffusivities to measure the efficiencies of complex processes that affect the surface. As an example, the global airline transportation network is estimated to have an efficacy relative to that of direct human mechanisms for transport of similar goods and materials of about 10⁸ as measured by a corresponding “technology” Reynolds number. The appearance of such large dimensionless numbers, pertaining to the consequences of human invention and design, reflects the emergence of the technosphere as an increasingly efficient overlay on the historical domain of biology and surficial geology.     

南极近地层大气的热量逆梯度输送现象

根据南极中山站观测结果 ,分析了南极地区近地层热量逆梯度输送的现象。结果表明南极地区在近地层逆温较明显时 ,常会出现热量逆梯度输送的现象 ;同时也探讨了近地层在稳定层结条件下 ,热量逆梯度输送通量的多尺度计算方法。计算结果表明 ,逆梯度输送的感热通量主要是由浮力湍涡的穿越能力决定的 ,而经典的梯度输送公式在该场合下无法使用。     

Linear Time-Invariant Compensation of Cup Anemometer and Vane Inertia

We propose a method to compensate for the phase lag and the amplitudeattenuation in the cup anemometer signal. These two effects, caused by theinstrument's inertia, are the major flaws of the cup anemometer in additionto over-speeding. Since the instrument's response is invariant in wavenumber (not frequency) representation, we transform the signals to becompensated from the time domain to the spatial domain by using Taylor'shypothesis. In the spatial domain we apply a linear time-invariant filterto eliminate the phase lag and the amplitude attenuation. The proposedprocedure improves instrument performance down to spatial scales equal toor smaller than the distance constant of the anemometer. The method for cupanemometer compensation is presented in detail and later adapted for vanes.     

Turbulence Statistics Above And Within Two Amazon Rain Forest Canopies

The turbulence structure in two Amazon rain forestswas characterised for a range of above-canopystability conditions, and the results compared withprevious studies in other forest canopies and recenttheory for the generation of turbulent eddies justabove forest canopies. Three-dimensional wind speedand temperature fluctuation data were collectedsimultaneously at up to five levels inside and abovetwo canopies of 30–40 m tall forests, during threeseparate periods. We analysed hourly statistics, jointprobability distributions, length scales, spatialcorrelations and coherence, as well as power spectraof vertical and horizontal wind speed.The daytime results show a sharp attenuation ofturbulence in the top third of the canopies, resultingin very little movement, and almost Gaussianprobability distributions of wind speeds, in the lowercanopy. This contrasts with strongly skewed andkurtotic distributions in the upper canopy. At night,attenuation was even stronger and skewness vanishedeven in the upper canopy. Power spectral peaks in thelower canopy are shifted to lower frequencies relativeto the upper canopy, and spatial correlations andcoherences were low throughout the canopy. Integrallength scales of vertical wind speed at the top of thecanopy were small, about 0.15 h compared to avalue of 0.28 h expected from the shear lengthscale at the canopy top, based on the hypothesis that theupper canopy air behaves as a plane mixing layer. Allthis suggests that, although exchange is not totallyinhibited, tropical rain forest canopies differ from other forests in that rapid, coherentdownward sweeps do not penetrate into the lowercanopy, and that length scales are suppressed. This isassociated with a persistent inversion of stability inthat region compared to above-canopy conditions. Theinversion is likely to be maintained by strong heatabsorption in the leaves concentrated near thecanopy top, with the generally weak turbulence beingunable to destroy the temperature gradients over thelarge canopy depth.     

Probability Density Function Integrals And Small-Scale Mixing In Turbulent Plumes

We analyse cross-wind-integrated statistics of theconcentration field of a conserved scalar for pointand line sources in grid turbulence. In particular,using wind-tunnel measurements we calculate thecross-wind integrated probability density function(pdf) for the scalar concentration. We then use thatquantity in the exact evolution equation for the pdfto calculate the cross-wind integrated mean of therate of dissipation of scalar variance, conditional onthe scalar concentration. Much of the variation ofthese statistics with distance downstream is accountedfor by scaling with concentration, length and timescales based on the development of the mean plume.This scaling thus suggests some simple practicalparameterisations of these statistics in terms ofmean-field quantities. One of the motivations for thiswork is to find a simple parameterisation for thescalar dissipation that can be used for modellingchemical reactions in plumes.We also consider the cross-wind integral of the firstfew moments of the concentration field and show thatthe integration greatly simplifies the budgets forthese moments. Thus the first moment is just thedownstream flux of the scalar, which is constant. Thesecond moment budget provides a check on the meandissipation estimated directly from the pdf evolutionequation.     

Turbulence Characteristics In The Surface Boundary Layer Over The South American Pampa

This paper presents results of turbulence measurementsmade in the south of Brazil in the Pampa region.Data collected at 1Hz are used to calculatestandard deviations of temperature and velocities. Onthe other hand data collected at 10Hz areused to study the behaviour of spectra and cospectraof turbulence in the surface layer. Dimensionless dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy and temperature variance are also presented. The frameworkof Monin–Obukhov Similarity theory is used and allresults are compared with other experimentalstudies.