Convective characteristics of the nocturnal urban boundary layer as observed with Doppler sodar and Raman lidar

Convective plume patterns, characteristic of clear sky and light wind daytime boundary layers over land, were observed for two nights with a tri-axial Doppler sodar operated in the central area of Rome during the summer of 1994. An urban heat island effect, combined with a continuation of a breeze from the sea late into night during both days, is believed to be responsible for the observed nocturnal convection. Estimates of the surface heat flux and the vertical velocity scaling parameter are obtained from profiles of vertical velocity variance, and the Raman lidar water vapor measurements are used to obtain the humidity scaling parameter. Convective scaling results for vertical wind and humidity fairly agree with the results of other experiments and models. On the basis of available measurements, it appears that mixed-layer similarity formulations used to characterize the daytime convective boundary layer over horizontally homogeneous surfaces can also be applied to the nocturnal urban boundary layer during periods of reasonable convective activity.