Stable Atmospheric Boundary-Layer Experiment in Spain (SABLES 98): A Report

This paper describes the Stable AtmosphericBoundary Layer Experiment in Spain (SABLES 98),which took place over the northern Spanish plateaucomprising relatively flat grassland,in September 1998. The main objectives of the campaign were to study the properties of themid-latitude stable boundary layer (SBL).Instrumentation deployed on two meteorologicalmasts (of heights 10 m and 100 m)included five sonic anemometers, 15 thermocouples,five cup anemometers and three propeller anemometers,humidity sensors and radiometers.A Sensitron mini-sodar and a tetheredballoon were also operated continuously. Atriangular array of cup anemometers wasinstalled to allow the detection ofwave events. Two nocturnal periods analysedon 14–15 and 20–21 September are used toillustrate the wide-ranging characteristics of the SBL.     

SOLAR ECLIPSE EFFECTS OBSERVED IN THE PLANETARY BOUNDARY LAYER OVER A DESERT

Boundary-layer meteorologicalmeasurements were made before, during, and after theMay 10, 1994 partial (94%) solar eclipse over thedesert at the Atmospheric Profiler Research Facilityat White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, U.S.A. A largenumber of sensors were located in the middle of theTularosa Basin to measure mean and turbulentquantities and the refractive index structureparameter (Cn2). This event permitted a rareopportunity to measure, examine, and document theeffects upon the atmospheric boundary layer of asudden cut-off and subsequent turn-on of the sun'sradiant energy. At the peak of the eclipse, whichoccurred for more than three hours, all of the heatexchange parameters were affected, the turbulentprocesses were diminished, and the refractive indexstructure parameter decreased dramatically. A time-heightdisplay from the FM-CW radar shows a Kelvin–Helmholtzwave that developed during theeclipse. The results of several analyses arepresented to document and characterize the eclipse-modifiedboundary layer.     

Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layers

Various features of different stability regimes of the stable boundary layer are discussed. Traditional layering is examined in terms of the roughness sublayer, surface layer, local similarity, z-less stratification and the region near the boundary-layer top. In the very stable case, the strongest turbulence may be detached from the surface and generated by shear associated with a low level jet, gravity waves or meandering motions. In this case, similarity theory and the traditional concept of a boundary-layer break down. The elevated turbulence may intermittently recouple to the surface. Inability to adequately measure turbulent fluxes in very stable conditions limits our knowledge of this regime.     

Boundary-Layer Adjustment Over Small-Scale Changes of Surface Heat Flux

Four months of eddy correlation data collected over a grass field and a nearby sage brush community are analyzed to examine the adjustment of the boundary-layer structure as it flows from the heated brush to the snow-covered grass. The grass site includes a 34-m tower with seven levels of eddy correlation data. The midday heat flux over the snow-covered grass and bare ground surfaces is often downward particularly with melting conditions, while the corresponding heat flux over the brush is almost always upward. For most of these cases, a stable internal boundary layer over the snow is well defined in terms of vertical profiles of the buoyancy flux over the snow-covered grass. The stable internal boundary layer is generally embedded within a deeper layer of flux divergence corresponding to increasing upward heat flux with height above the internal boundary layer. With thin snow cover, the surface heat flux over the grass is weak upward due to heating of grass protruding above the snow so that the flow adjusts to a decrease of the upward surface heat flux in the downwind direction. This common case of an adjusting boundary layer contrasts with the formation of an internal boundary layer due to a change of sign of the surface heat in flux the downwind direction. The adjustment of the boundary layer to the decrease of the surface heat flux leads to vertical divergence of the upward heat flux in contrast to the usual heated boundary layer over homogeneous surfaces. The consequences of the cooling due to the vertical divergence of the heat flux are discussed in terms of the heat budget of the adjusting and internal boundary layers.     

自由对流与稳定层结边界层风廓线的解析表达和边界层顶抽吸速度

基于近年来对自由对流和稳定边界层湍流交换特征的研究,求解边界层运动方程,得到这两种层结下边界层风的解析表达式.所得廓线与边界层特性参数符合观测特征.还求出了这二种层结下边界层顶抽吸速度的解析表达及其与某些参数的关系.结果表明,抽吸速度与层结有关,其特征可从物理上加以解释.     

Conditional Analysis of an Internal Boundary Layer

Data from a convective internal boundary layer (IBL) are analyzed by focusing on the instantaneousstructure of the top of the IBL instead of the time-average structure.A conditional averaging technique is developed todiscriminate between air from above the IBL and air from below the IBL , which alternately invade some instrument levels due tosubstantial variation of the top of the convective IBL.Sensitivity to the conditional sampling criteria is examined.Inside the IBL , buoyant and mechanicalproduction and dissipation dominate the turbulent kinetic energy budget.The horizontal advection and turbulent transport terms are smaller, but not negligible. The inferred pressure correlation term is negligible.Above the IBL , buoyant production and dissipation, although weak,dominate the turbulent kinetic energy budget. Shear generation andturbulent transport are smaller but significant.     

On the turbulent Prandtl number in the stable atmospheric boundary layer

This study focuses on the behaviour of the turbulent Prandtl number, Pr _t , in the stable atmospheric boundary layer (SBL) based on measurements made during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean experiment (SHEBA). It is found that Pr _t increases with increasing stability if Pr _t is plotted vs. gradient Richardson number, Ri; but at the same time, Pr _t decreases with increasing stability if Pr _t is plotted vs. flux Richardson number, Rf, or vs. ζ = z/L. This paradoxical behaviour of the turbulent Prandtl number in the SBL derives from the fact that plots of Pr _t vs. Ri (as well as vs. Rf and ζ) for individual 1-h observations and conventional bin-averaged values of the individual quantities have built-in correlation (or self-correlation) because of the shared variables. For independent estimates of how Pr _t behaves in very stable stratification, Pr _t is plotted against the bulk Richardson number; such plots have no built-in correlation. These plots based on the SHEBA data show that, on the average, Pr _t decreases with increasing stability and Pr _t < 1 in the very stable case. For specific heights and stabilities, though, the turbulent Prandtl number has more complicated behaviour in the SBL.     

Turbulent carbon exchange in very stable conditions

Turbulent fluxes obtained using the conventional eddy covariance approach result in erratic results with large time fluctuations in extremely stable conditions. This can limit efforts to estimate components of the nocturnal energy budget and respiratory CO₂ fluxes. Well-organized fluxes that show a clear dependence on turbulent intensity were obtained when multiresolution decomposition was used to estimate turbulent exchanges. CO₂, heat and water vapour fluxes were observed at a site in the eastern Amazon basin that had been cleared for agricultural purposes. Temporal scales of the carbon transfer were determined and shown to be similar to those of latent heat, but as much as three times larger than those of sensible heat. CO₂ eddy diffusivities at the temporal scales on which most of the vertical CO₂ exchange occurs are shown to be 50 times larger than the eddy diffusivity for heat. A process associated with the vertical scale of the scalar accumulation layer is suggested to explain these different scales and turbulent diffusivities of carbon and sensible heat transfer. For an appreciable range of turbulence intensities, the observed vertical turbulent carbon exchange is insufficient to account for the locally respired CO₂ estimated independently. Evidence that shallow drainage currents may account for this is given.     

Coherent Structures in the Atmospheric Surface Layer under Stable and Unstable Conditions

Simultaneous measurements of the instantaneous values of absolute temperatureat seven heights within the lower 36 m of the atmospheric boundary layer underdifferent stability conditions were carried out, accompanied by measurements ofthe wind velocity components at two levels and of solar radiation flux at the surface.The data obtained allow one to investigate individual convective cells known ascoherent structures (CS). Outside the CS, i.e., during quiet periods, an instanttemperature profile is in close agreement with the dry-adiabatic lapse rate, butwithin CS the temperature changes much faster with height, and the shape ofthe profile varies significantly.A method was developed to transform temperature records from sensors atseveral heights into an other form, namely, into temporal variations of theheights of isothermal surfaces. Since coherent structures were found to advectwith the mean wind velocity, these temporal height variations may be transformedinto the spatial ones, i.e., into the xoz-plane section of the temperature field.In such a pictorial presentation coherent structures look like asymmetric columnsof heat, penetrating the whole atmospheric surface layer.Coherent structures also exist in the stable stratified surface layer, but they have aninverse asymmetry and occupy only the lower several metres. Wavelike activitydominates in the upper part of the stable surface layer.The characteristic time of surface-layer adjustment to the rapid changes of solarradiation (due to cloud shadows or cloud gaps) was found to be on the order ofone minute. Such a time interval is required for coherent structure to reach the topof surface layer.     

Laboratory and Numerical Studies of the Convective Boundary Layer Capped by a Strong Inversion

The convective boundary layer (CBL) with a wide range of stability is simulated experimentally using a thermally stratified wind tunnel, and numerically by direct numerical simulation (DNS). The turbulence structures and flow characteristics of various CBL flows, capped by a strong temperature inversion and affected by surface shear, are investigated. The various vertical profiles of turbulence statistics similar to those from the observed CBL in the field are successfully simulated in both the wind-tunnel experiment and in DNS. The comparison of the wind-tunnel data and DNS results with those of atmospheric observations and water-tank studies shows the crucial dependence of the turbulence statistics in the upper part of the layer on the strength of the inversion layer, as well as the modification of the CBL turbulence regime by the surface shear.     

Spatial representativeness of single tower measurements and the imbalance problem with eddy-covariance fluxes: results of a large-eddy simulation study

A large-eddy simulation (LES) study is presented that investigates the spatial variability of temporal eddy covariance fluxes and the systematic underestimation of representative fluxes linked to them. It extends a prior numerical study by performing high resolution simulations that allow for virtual measurements down to 20 m in a convective boundary layer, so that conditions for small tower measurement sites can be analysed. It accounts for different convective regimes as the wind speed and the near-surface heat flux are varied. Moreover, it is the first LES imbalance study that extends to the stable boundary layer. It reveals shortcomings of single site measurements and the necessity of using horizontally-distributed observation networks. The imbalances in the convective case are attributed to a locally non-vanishing mean vertical advection due to turbulent organised structures (TOS). The strength of the TOS and thus the imbalance magnitude depends on height, the horizontal mean wind and the convection type. Contrary to the results of a prior study, TOS cannot generally be responsible for large energy imbalances: at low observation heights (corresponding to small towers and near-surface energy balance stations) the TOS related imbalances are generally about one order of magnitude smaller than those in field experiments. However, TOS may cause large imbalances at large towers not only in the case of cellular convection and low wind speeds, as found in the previous study, but also in the case of roll convection at large wind speeds. In the stably stratified boundary layer for all observation heights neither TOS nor significant imbalances are observed. Attempting to reduce imbalances in convective situations by applying the conventional linear detrending method increases the systematic flux underestimation. Thus, a new filter method is proposed.     

On Monin–Obukhov Similarity In The Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Atmospheric measurements from several field experiments have been combined to develop a better understanding of the turbulence structure of the stable atmospheric boundary layer. Fast response wind velocity and temperature data have been recorded using 3-dimensional sonic anemometers, placed at severalheights (1 m to 4.3 m) above the ground. The measurements wereused to calculate the standard deviations of the three components of the windvelocity, temperature, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation andtemperature variance dissipation. These data were normalized and plottedaccording to Monin–Obukhov similarity theory. The non-dimensional turbulencestatistics have been computed, in part, to investigate the generalapplicability of the concept of z-less stratification for stable conditions. From the analysis of a data set covering almost five orders ofmagnitude in the stability parameter = z/L (from near-neutral tovery stable atmospheric stability), it was found that this concept does nothold in general. It was only for the non-dimensional standard deviation oftemperature and the average dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energythat z-less behaviour has been found. The other variables studied here(non-dimensional standard deviations of u, v, and w velocity components and dissipation of temperature variance) did not follow the concept of z-less stratification for the very stable atmospheric boundary layer. An imbalance between production and dissipation of TKE was found for the near-neutral limit approached from the stable regime, which matches with previous results for near-neutral stability approached from the unstable regime.