A Simple Model for the Afternoon and Early Evening Decay of Convective Turbulence Over Different Land Surfaces

A simple model to study the decay of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in the convective surface layer is presented. In this model, the TKE is dependent upon two terms, the turbulent dissipation rate and the surface buoyancy fluctuations. The time evolution of the surface sensible heat flux is modelled based on fitting functions of actual measurements from the LITFASS-2003 field campaign. These fitting functions carry an amplitude and a time scale. With this approach, the sensible heat flux can be estimated without having to solve the entire surface energy balance. The period of interest covers two characteristic transition sub-periods involved in the decay of convective boundary-layer turbulence. The first sub-period is the afternoon transition, when the sensible heat flux starts to decrease in response to the reduction in solar radiation. It is typically associated with a decay rate of TKE of approximately t ⁻² (t is time following the start of the decay) after several convective eddy turnover times. The early evening transition is the second sub-period, typically just before sunset when the surface sensible heat flux becomes negative. This sub-period is characterized by an abrupt decay in TKE associated with the rapid collapse of turbulence. Overall, the results presented show a significant improvement of the modelled TKE decay when compared to the often applied assumption of a sensible heat flux decreasing instantaneously or with a very short forcing time scale. In addition, for atmospheric modelling studies, it is suggested that the afternoon and early evening decay of sensible heat flux be modelled as a complementary error function.     

黑河下游绿洲近地层湍流输送特征研究

分析2003年9月5-27日在黑河下游额济纳绿洲取得的近地面层湍流观测资料,讨论无量纲湍流方差与稳定度参数Z/L的关系.无量纲风速分量σu/u*、σv/u*和σw/u*在不稳定层结与稳定度Z/L满足1/3次方时,符合Monin-Obkuhov相似理论.在近中性时,σu/u*、σw/u*值比平坦下垫面的略小些,σv/u*值比平坦下垫面的略大.无量纲温度脉动方差和湿度脉动方差在对流状态下与Z/L满足-1/3次方,在稳定和不稳定层结下,随|Z/L|减小而增大.地面热量以感热输送为主,感热通量峰值约为250 W/m2,潜热通量的峰值为170 W/m2;夜间潜热通量较小,感热通量则出现负值.动量通量日间平均在0.2-0.3 N/m2,峰值为0.31 N/m2.黑河下游绿洲柽柳林动力学粗糙度比HEIFE戈壁及其他绿洲下垫面的大,中性时z0m=0.47551 m.中性状态下动量整体输送系数CD=22.2×10-3,不稳定层结时平均值CD=10.3×10-3,稳定层结时平均值CD=7.2 × 10-3.热量整体输送系数CH,中性状态下CH=3.2 × 10-3,不稳定层结时平均值为CH=3.3×10-3,稳定层结时平均值为CH=2.7×10-3.     

Estimation of the Exchange Coefficient of Heat During Low Wind Convective Conditions

For the first time, the exchange coefficient of heat C_H has been estimated from eddy correlation of velocity and virtual temperature fluctuations using sonic anemometer measurements made at low wind speeds over the monsoon land atJodhpur (26°18' N, 73°04' E), a semi arid station. It shows strong dependence on wind speed, increasing rapidly with decreasing wind speed, and scales according to a power law C_H = 0.025U₁₀ ^-0.7 (where U₁₀ is the mean wind speed at 10-m height). A similar but more rapid increase in the drag coefficient C_Dhas already been reported in an earlier study. Low winds (<4 m s^-1) are associated with both near neutral and strong unstable situations. It is noted that C_H increases with increasing instability. The present observations best describe a low wind convective regime as revealed in the scaling behaviour of drag, sensible heat flux and the non-dimensional temperature gradient. Neutral drag and heat cofficients,corrected using Monin–Obukhov (M–O) theory, show a more uniform behaviour at low wind speeds in convective conditions, when compared with the observed coefficients discussed in a coming paper.At low wind convective conditions, M-O theory is unable to capture the observed linear dependence of drag on wind speed, unlike during forced convections. The non-dimensional shear inferred from the present data shows noticeable deviations from Businger's formulation, a forced convection similarity. Heat flux is insensitive to drag associated with weak winds superposed on true free convection. With heat flux as the primary variable, definition of new velocity scales leads to a new drag parameterization scheme at low wind speeds during convective conditionsdiscussed in a coming paper.     

Estimation of surface heat and momentum fluxes using the flux-variance method above uniform and non-uniform terrain

Eddy-correlation measurements above an uneven-aged forest, a uniform-irrigated bare soil field, and within a grass-covered forest clearing were used to investigate the usefulness of the fluxvariance method above uniform and non-uniform terrain. For this purpose, the Monin and Obukhov (1954) variance similarity functions were compared with direct measurements. Such comparisons were in close agreement for momentum and heat but not for water vapor. Deviations between measured and predicted similarity functions for water vapor were attributed to three factors: 1) the active role of temperature in surface-layer turbulence, 2) dissimilarity between sources and sinks of heat and water vapor at the ground surface, and 3) the non-uniformity in water vapor sources and sinks. It was demonstrated that the latter non-uniformity contributed to horizontal gradients that do not scale with the vertical flux. These three factors resulted in a turbulence regime that appeared more efficient in transporting heat than water vapor for the dynamic convective sublayer but not for the dynamic sublayer. The agreement between eddy-correlation measured and flux-variance predicted sensible heat flux was better than that for latent heat flux at all three sites. The flux-variance method systematically overestimated the latent heat flux when compared to eddy-correlation measurements. It was demonstrated that the non-uniformity in water vapor sources reduced the surface flux when compared to an equivalent uniform terrain subjected to identical shear stress, sensible heat flux, and atmospheric water vapor variance. Finally, the correlation between the temperature and water vapor fluctuations was related to the relative efficiency of surface-layer turbulence in removing heat and water vapor. These relations were used to assess critical assumptions in the derivation of the flux-variance formulation.     

A Surface-Layer Study of the Transport and Dissipation of Turbulent Kinetic Energy and the Variances of Temperature,Humidity and CO$$_$$

We discuss scalar similarities and dissimilarities based on analysis of the dissipation terms in the variance budget equations, considering the turbulent kinetic energy and the variances of temperature, specific humidity and specific CO\(_2\) content. For this purpose, 124 high-frequency sampled segments are selected from the Boundary Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence experiment. The consequences of dissipation similarity in the variance transport are also discussed and quantified. The results show that, for the convective atmospheric surface layer, the non-dimensional dissipation terms can be expressed in the framework of Monin–Obukhov similarity theory and are independent of whether the variable is temperature or moisture. The scalar similarity in the dissipation term implies that the characteristic scales of the atmospheric surface layer can be estimated from the respective rate of variance dissipation, the characteristic scale of temperature, and the dissipation rate of temperature variance.     

Scaling Variances of Scalars in a Convective Boundary Layer Under Different Entrainment Regimes

For the presentation and analysis of atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) data, scales are used to non-dimensionalise the observed quantities and independent variables. Usually, the ABL height, surface sensible heat flux and surface scalar flux are used. This works well, so long as the absolute values of the entrainment ratio for both the scalar and temperature are similar. The entrainment ratio for temperature naturally ranges from −0.4 to −0.1. However, the entrainment ratio for passive scalars can vary widely in magnitude and sign. Then the entrainment flux becomes relevant as well. The only customary scalar scale that takes into account both the surface flux and the entrainment flux is the bulk scalar scale, but this scale is not well-behaved for large negative entrainment ratios and for an entrainment ratio equal to −1. We derive a new scalar scale, using previously published large-eddy simulation results for the convective ABL. The scale is derived under the constraint that scaled scalar variance profiles are similar at those heights where the variance producing mechanisms are identical (i.e., either near the entrainment layer or near the surface). The new scale takes into account that scalar variance in the ABL is not only related to the surface flux of that scalar, but to the scalar entrainment flux as well. Furthermore, it takes into account that the production of variance by the entrainment flux is an order of magnitude larger than the production of variance by the surface flux (per unit flux). Other desirable features of the new scale are that it is always positive (which is relevant when scaling standard deviations) and that the scaled variances are always of order 1–10.     

Temperature structure in the atmospheric surface layer

Production, transport and dissipation terms in the temperature variance equation have been measured in the atmospheric surface layer. The transport term is, within the experimental uncertainty, negligible. The dissipation term, determined by assuming local isotropy, is approximately equal to production under near-neutral conditions. For moderately unstable conditions, the ratio of production to dissipation is 1.4. The resulting imbalance in the budget is attributed to the inequality between the three components of the dissipation term. The Kolmogorov constant for temperature is found to be about 0.8.     

Turbulent characteristics and bulk transfer coefficients over the desert in the HEIFE area

Observations of surface-layer turbulence and turbulent fluxes were made over a desert in northwestern China as a part of HEIFE (HEIhe river Field Experiment). These show that the normalized variations of the vertical wind component and of the air temperature obey Monin-Obukhov similarity well, especially in free convective conditions. However, the variations of specific humidity do not obey Monin-Obukhov similarity.Mean bulk transfer coefficients of sensible heat and momentum flux are obtained as functions of stability over a wide stability range from the observed data of turbulent fluxes and mast profiles. However, the bulk transfer coefficient for water vapor could not be obtained because of the large scatter of the data. In free convective conditions, the sensible heat flux was found to be approximately proportional to the 1.4 power of temperature difference between the surface and 20m. The bulk transfer coefficient of sensible heat is also obtained as a function of the bulk Richardson number for practical convenience.     

TIPEX高原东南部近地层湍流参数的分析

The characteristics of the turbulence spectrum, turbulence variance, and turbulence flux at Qamdo overthe Southeastern Tibetan Plateau measured during the TIPEX experiment from 18 May to 30 June 1998are analyzed by the eddy correlation method. During periods of intense convection, most of the spectraof the 3D winds, temperature, and humidity follow a power law with a slope of -2/3. The normalizedvariances of the 3D winds in relation to z/L satisfy the similarity law but the normalized variances oftemperature and humidity are related to z/L by a -1/3 power law only in unstable conditions. In near-neutral stratification, σu/u* and σy/u* at Qamdo and Gerze are nearly constant in rugged terrain andσw/u* at Qamdo and Gerze is similar to the value found in plains, which indicates that the, effects oflandform on vertical turbulence is not significant over the southeast and western Tibetan Plateau. Duringthe dry period, the sensible heat dominates, comprising 81% of the heat intensity, with the other 19%being latent heat; during the wet period on the other hand, the latent heat accounts for about 64% ofthe available energy and the sensible heat only around 36%. The maximum intensity of the heating of airoccurs in the middle of the Plateau during the summertime.     

Local similarity functions derived from second-moment budgets in the convective boundary layer

A further discussion of local similarity in the convective boundary layer is presented. The similarity functions are derived from budget equations for the turbulent heat flux and temperature variance. The obtained similarity curves are compared with atmospheric measurements and with large-eddy simulation results.     

Large Aperture Scintillometer Used Over A Homogeneous Irrigated Area, Partly Affected By Regional Advection

Scintillometer measurements were collected over an irrigated wheat field ina semi-arid region in northwest Mexico. Conditions were unstable in the morning andstable during the afternoon, while latent heat fluxes remained high throughout the day.Regional advection was observed during near-neutral conditions. Monin–Obukhovsimilarity relationships for the structure parameter of temperature were verified in both unstable and stable conditions, but were violated close to near-neutral conditions. We found that, using additional measurements of radiation, soil heat flux and windspeed, areally averages of both sensible and latent heat fluxes can be reliably predicted by large aperture scintillometer measurements, as long as the net radiation is greater than zero.     

The respective effects of water vapor and temperature on the turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat

Various aspects of the Brook correction for the effects of moisture fluctuations or gradients on atmospheric specific heat and, consequently, on the vertical flux of sensible heat are discussed, and additional forms of the complete and approximate equations are derived. Corollary expressions for the influence of temperature fluctuations or gradients on vertical latent heat flux are presented. Errors due to neglecting these temperature and moisture effects on the respective fluxes are compared in terms of the Bowen ratio. Either of these normally neglected effects can change the direction (sign) and very substantially affect the magnitude of the corresponding flux. The effects sometimes compensate in the total, sensible plus latent, heat flux. Calculations include practical examples from the very different climates of the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Great Plains of Nebraska.     

Obtaining Potential Virtual Temperature Profiles,Entrainment Fluxes,and Spectra from Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Data

We present a simple but effective small unmanned aerial vehicle design that is able to make high-resolution temperature and humidity measurements of the atmospheric boundary layer. The air model used is an adapted commercial design, and is able to carry all the instrumentation (barometer, temperature and humidity sensor, and datalogger) required for such measurements. It is fitted with an autopilot that controls the plane’s ascent and descent in a spiral to 1800 m above ground. We describe the results obtained on three different days when the plane, called Aerolemma-3, flew continuously throughout the day. Surface measurements of the sensible virtual heat flux made simultaneously allowed the calculation of all standard convective turbulence scales for the boundary layer, as well as a rigorous test of existing models for the entrainment flux at the top of the boundary layer, and for its growth. A novel approach to calculate the entrainment flux from the top-down, bottom-up model of Wynagaard and Brost is used. We also calculated temperature fluctuations by means of a spectral high-pass filter, and calculated their spectra. Although the time series are small, tapering proved ineffective in this case. The spectra from the untapered series displayed a consistent −5/3 behaviour, and from them it was possible to calculate a dimensionless dissipation function, which exhibited the expected similarity behaviour against boundary-layer bulk stability. The simplicity, ease of use and economy of such small aircraft make us optimistic about their usefulness in boundary-layer research.     

Estimating Heat Sources And Fluxes In Thermally Stratified Canopy Flows Using Higher-Order Closure Models

Over the past two decades, several inverse methods have been proposed to estimatescalar source and sink strengths from measured mean concentration profiles withinthe canopy volume (hereafter termed the `inverse' problem). These inverse methodscommonly assumed neutral atmospheric stability conditions for the entire canopyvolume. For non-neutral conditions, atmospheric stability corrections in inverseschemes were limited to adjusting the integral time scale or other flow statistics tomatch well-established surface-layer similarity relations above the canopy. Suchstability corrections do not explicitly consider the local stability effects within thecanopy volume. Currently, there is no satisfactory inverse scheme that explicitlyaccounts for local atmospheric stability for canopy turbulence. A Eulerian inversemethod that explicitly accounts for local atmospheric stability within the canopy isdeveloped using second-order closure principles. Field testing the method is conductedusing temperature measurements from two field experiments collected in an even-ageduniform loblolly pine forest. It is demonstrated that by accounting for local atmospheric stability in the inversion scheme, the agreement between modelled sensible heat flux calculations and measurements improve by 60% for stable conditions, 10% for near-neutral conditions and 20% for unstable conditions     

Inertial-dissipation methods and turbulent fluxes at the air-ocean interface

The use of high frequency atmospheric turbulence properties (inertial subrange spectra, structure function parameters or dissipation rates) to infer surface fluxes of momentum, sensible heat and latent heat is more practical for most ocean going platforms than direct covariance measurement. The relationships required to deduce the fluxes from such data are examined in detail in this paper and several ambiguities and uncertainties are identified. It is noted that, over water, data on water vapor properties (the dimensionless functions for the mean profile, the structure function parameter and the variance transport term) are extremely sparse and the influence of sea spray is largely unknown. Special attention is given to flux estimation on the basis of the structure function formalism. Existing knowledge about the relevant similarity functions is summarized and discussed in light of the ambiguities identified above.     

欧亚中高纬陆面感热异常影响我国夏季气候的数值模拟

使用区域气候模式RegCM4.4.5.7,通过改变春季欧亚大陆中高纬地区的陆面感热通量,对欧亚中高纬感热异常影响中国夏季气候进行模拟分析,并探讨其影响机制。试验结果表明:当春季欧亚中高纬陆面感热通量加强时,我国长江流域和东北东部夏季气温降低,降水偏多;华北地区气温升高,降水偏少。春季陆面感热增强引起近地面和对流层低层大气热力状况异常,进而导致高度场和环流场的异常,长江流域和东北地区有气旋环流,对流运动旺盛,结合充足的水汽条件,对应降水偏多,而华北地区则相反,有反气旋环流和微弱的气流辐合,对应降水偏少。研究表明欧亚中高纬陆面感热异常是影响我国夏季气候的一个不可忽视的因子。     

The Characteristics of Turbulence Structure and Transfer over the Middle Area of the Tibetan Plateau

In this paper, turbulent data obtained from the Damxung site during the Secondary Tibetan Plateau Science Experiment (TIPEX) in 1998 are used to study the characteristics of the turbulent spectra, turbulence transport, and the dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy, temperature variance, and humidity variance in the middle area of the Tibetan Plateau. The turbulent spectra of wind velocity, potential temperature, and humidity satisfy the-2/3 power law in the high frequency range. Horizontal transportation of heat and water vapor is negligible compared with vertical transportation under strong unstable conditions, and as the stability parameter z/L increases (where z is the observational height, and L is the Monin Obukhov length), horizontal transportation becomes dominant under near-neutral, neutral, and stable conditions. The non-dimensional temperature and humidity variances are 20% less than the temperature and humidity gradient variances. These deficits appear to increase as the absolute stability parameter increases. Moreover, the effects of turbulence transportation and pressure variance exist throughout the entire stability region.     

A Note on the Flux-Variance Similarity Relationships for Heat and Water Vapour in the Unstable Atmospheric Surface Layer

Atmospheric surface layer (ASL) experiments over the past 10 years demonstrate that the flux-variance similarity functions for water vapour are consistently larger in magnitude than their temperature counterpart. In addition, latent heat flux calculations using the flux-variance method do not compare as favorably to eddy- correlation measurements when compared to their sensible heat counterpart. These two findings, in concert with measured heat to water vapour transport efficiencies in excess of unity, are commonly used as evidence of dissimilarity between heat and water vapour transport in the unstable atmospheric surface layer. In this note, it is demonstrated that even if near equality in flux-profile similarity functions for heat and water vapour is satisfied, the flux-variance similarity functions for water vapour are larger in magnitude than temperature for a planar, homogeneous, unstably-stratified turbulent boundary-layer flow.     

Heat fluxes and roll circulations over the western Gulf Stream during an intense cold-air outbreak

Turbulence and heat fluxes in the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) for the roll vortex regime, observed during the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE) over the western Gulf Stream, have been studied. The spectral analysis suggests that cloud streets (roll vortices) are vertically organized convection in the MABL having the same roll scale for both the cloud layer and subcloud layer, and that the roll spacing is about three times the MABL depth. The roll circulations contribute significantly to the sensible (temperature) and latent heat (moisture) fluxes with importance increasing upward. Near the MABL top, these fluxes are primarily due to roll vortices which transfer both sensible heat and moisture upward in the lower half of the convective MABL. Near the MABL top, the roll circulations transfer sensible heat downward and moisture upward in the clear thermal-street region, but roll vortices influenced by evaporative cooling can transfer sensible heat upward and moisture downward in the cloud-street region. Near the cloud-top, the upward buoyancy flux due to evaporative cooling is highly related to the roll circulations near the inversion.For the lower half of the MABL, the normalized temperature flux decreases upward more rapidly than the humidity flux, which is mainly because potential temperature () increases slightly upward while humidity (q) decreases slightly upward above the unstable surface layer. The gradient production (associated with the gradient) is a source for the temperature flux in the unstable surface layer but changes to a sink in the mixed layer, while the gradient production (associated with the q gradient) acts as a source for the humidity flux in both the unstable surface and mixed layers. The results suggest that the entrainment at the MABL top might affect the budgets of temperature and humidity fluxes in the lower MABL, but not in the unstable surface layer.Caelum Research Corporation, Silver Spring, MD, 20901, U.S.A.     

Nighttime convection in the interior of a dense Douglas fir forest

Infrared radiative surface temperatures as observed over a dense Douglas fir forest during stable atmospheric conditions are analyzed. It is shown that the concept of a single surface temperature to describe both the thermal coupling and the radiative coupling between atmosphere and forest fails when longwave cooling is large and wind speeds are low. In such cases a decoupling of the radiative surface temperature from the air temperature aloft is observed. Conditions for decoupling are formulated in terms of an appropriate Richardson number. It is shown that a convective surface temperature comes into play that is coupled to the forest interior air temperature. Observed radiative surface temperature is then composed of this convective surface temperature and the aerodynamic surface temperature. Forest interior air temperature during nighttime is, in general, lower than air temperature above the canopy. A simple two-layer canopy model is used to explain this phenomenon in terms of the distribution of atmospheric sensible heat flux and storage heat flux over the two canopy layers.