One-year temperature records in the atmospheric surface layer above sea ice and open water

Temperature observations of three buoys drifting in the Weddell Sea for one year and covering the ice-water-ice cycle from July 1986 to July 1987 are presented. Significant differences between winter and summer are shown to be a consequence of the air-sea heat exchange being drastically modified by the sea ice cover. Over ice, prevailing variance is in the synoptic scale (periods 3 to 5 days) with amplitudes of 25 °C, whereas over water, the diurnal wave dominates with amplitudes of less than 1 °C.     

Stability dependence of the drag and bulk transfer coefficients over a coastal sea surface

Bulk transfer coefficients were evaluated from eddy correlation flux measurements on a fixed pier during onshore winds. The mean values are C _D = 1.69 × 10^-3, C _H = 2.58 × 10^-3 and C _E = 1.51 × 10^-3. The drag coefficient, C _D, gradually increases with wind speed but C _H and C _E are independent of wind speed. According to theory and empirical formulas based on experimental results over flat grassland, the transfer coefficients should gradually increase with increasing instability. This is confirmed experimentally in the stable region in our case. However, the drag coefficient appears to decrease with increasing instability, which is against the theoretical result. A stability dependence is not clearly observed for C _H or C _E.     

Temperature above the surface layer

Three published data sets of upper-air global temperatures, two from radiosondes and one from satellites, are examined and compared for the lower stratosphere and troposphere.The global lower stratosphere exhibits a downward trend for the past 16+ years of -0.53 °C (-0.33 °C per decade). Since the 1960's (using radiosondes before 1979 which are subject to known and unknown inhomogeneities) it is likely that there has been a downward trend of about the same magnitude. Significant issues of the stratospheric radiosonde data are: (1) that the long-term time series is biased toward spurious cooling; and (2) the earliest years of Angell display unrealistic variability. Inhomogeneities in satellite data due to orbit drifting and instrument calibration are examined.The tropospheric temperature has shown a downward trend of -0.11 °C since 1979 (-0.07 °C per decade). Beginning in earlier years, (relying only on radiosonde data before 1979) the estimated warming trend since the late 1950's is +0.07 to +0.11 °C per decade.Tropospheric and surface temperature anomalies are compared. There is concern that the disproportionate representation of extratropical continents, with their high temperature variance, may bias any long term global surface trend toward a maximum-possible value than would be calculated had all regions (including those with much lower responsiveness) been monitored.     

城市近地层湍流特征分析

利用中国科学院大气物理研究所在北京的325 m铁塔观测资料,本文分析了47、140和280 m三个高度的湍流统计特征.结果表明,城市近地层的湍流速度方差和湍流温度方差都较好地满足局地相似关系,140 m和280 m的湍流特征非常接近,而47 m的湍流特征与之相比表现出明显的差异,说明由于城市冠层动力和热力非均匀性的影响...     

Turbulence intermittency in the atmospheric surface layer over snow-covered sites

Wind component fluctuations have been decomposed into contributions of large and small-scale eddies to study turbulence structures in the atmospheric surface layer over snow-covered pack ice for a case with snow drift and another without. It was found that on average, the large eddies contribute little to the covariance, but significantly to the variance of the horizontal wind components. The turbulent kinetic energy and the friction velocity show clearly expressed energy and flux variations. The time series of turbulent statistics, calculated on the basis of large eddies only, show the same behavior. However, the time variations of the turbulent kinetic energy and the friction velocity, determined by the small eddies, are suppressed when there is drifting snow.The occurrence of different types of motions (ejections, sweeps and interactions) was detected by the quadrant-technique. It was found that events with strong drag reduction during snow drift correspond to a strong increase of contributions from the first and third quadrant. However, strong drag reduction events in the case without snow drift are caused by a general decrease of contributions from all four quadrants. It was also found that interactions are significantly less correlated with ejections and sweeps in the case with snow drift than in the case without.     

Turbulence in an unstable surface layer over suburban terrain

Turbulence spectra and integral statistics measured in unstable conditions over a suburban surface are presented. The stability dependence of the integral statistics is shown to be consistent with surface layer scaling, with adiabatic limits near those over much smoother surfaces. The spectra are computed over a wider range of non-dimensional frequency than previously reported for this type of surface, and show clearly the low-frequency roll-off. The horizontal components show three distinct spectral regions as elucidated by Kaimal (1978). Due to large uncertainties in the spectral amplitudes, very little systematic dependence on the Monin-Obukhov stability parameter could be detected over a wide range of unstable conditions.     

On the dynamics of the molecular temperature boundary layer above the sea

Results of measurements carried out in the Caspian Sea in 1975 and 1976 have been used to study the thickness of the molecular temperature boundary layer and the difference of temperature in this layer as functions of hydrometeorological parameters. This thickness of the molecular temperature boundary layer was found to be dependent on both the friction velocity and wave phase. The same is also true for the temperature difference. On the other hand, it was not possible to observe a definite dependence upon the roughness of the surface of the sea and the stability.     

Variances and spectra of vertical velocity just above the surface layer

Variances and spectra of vertical velocity at 75 m and 225 m obtained by aircraft have been analyzed. Given effective roughness lengths for the different terrain types, nomograms for the standard deviations were constructed as functions of wind speed and lapse rate, guided by theoretical considerations.Normalized spectra agree well with analogous spectra obtained elsewhere, and with requirements of similarity theory; however, over mountainous terrain, low-frequency spectra peaks appear, the frequency of which appears to be independent of height.     

Microhydrodynamics of flotation processes in the sea surface layer

The uppermost surface of the ocean forms a peculiarly important ecosystem, the sea surface microlayer (SML). Comprising the top 1–1000 μm of the ocean surface, the SML concentrates many chemical substances, particularly those that are surface active. Important economically as a nursery for fish eggs and larvae, the SML unfortunately is also especially vulnerable to pollution. Contaminants that settle out from the air, have low solubility, or attach to floatable matter tend to accumulate in the SML.Bubbles contribute prominently to the dynamics of air–sea exchanges, playing an important role in geochemical cycling of material in the upper ocean and SML. In addition to the movement of bubbles, the development of a bubble cloud interrelates with the single particle dynamics of all other bubbles and particles. In the early sixties, several in situ oceanographic techniques revealed an “unbelievably immense” number of coastal bubbles of radius 15–300 μm. The spatial and temporal variation of bubble numbers were studied; acoustical oceanographers now use bubbles as tracers to determine ocean processes near the ocean surface. Sea state and rain noises have both been definitively ascribed to the radiation from huge numbers of infant micro bubbles [The Acoustic Bubble. Academic Press, San Diego].Our research programme aims at constructing a hydrodynamic model for particle transport processes occurring at the microscale, in multi-phase flotation suspensions. Current research addresses bubble and floc microhydrodynamics as building blocks for a microscale transport model. This paper reviews sea surface transport processes in the microlayer and the lower atmosphere, and identifies those amenable to microhydrodynamic modelling and simulation. It presents preliminary simulation results including the multi-body hydrodynamic mobility functions for the modelling of “dynamic bubble filters” and floc suspensions. Hydrodynamic interactions versus spatial anisotropy and size of particle clouds are investigated.     

Stability dependence of fluxes and bulk transfer coefficients in a tropical boundary layer

Turbulence data obtained aboard a NOAA P-3 research aircraft during flights over the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean are used to obtain mean vertical profiles of water vapor density, potential temperature, wind speed and fluxes of latent heat, buoyancy and momentum. The variation of eddy fluxes and bulk transfer coefficients as a function of atmospheric stability are plotted for two of the flights. The observed transfer coefficients generally agree with those obtained from parameterizations based on surface-layer similarity theory (Deardorff, 1968; Kondo, 1975).     

Turbulence spectra in the near-neutral surface layer over the Loess Plateau in China

We present the power spectra of wind velocity and the cospectra of momentum and heat fluxes observed for different wind directions over flat terrain and a large valley on the Loess Plateau. The power spectra of longitudinal (u) and lateral (v) wind speeds satisfy the −5/3 power law in the inertial subrange, but do not vary as observed in previous studies within the low frequency range. The u spectrum measured at 32 m height for flow from the valley shows a power deficit at intermediate frequencies, while the v spectrum at 32 m downwind of the valley reaches another peak in the low frequency range at the same frequency as the u spectrum. The corresponding peak wavelength is consistent with the observed length scale of the convective outer layer at the site. The v spectrum for flat terrain shows a spectral gap at mid frequencies while obeying inner layer scaling in its inertial subrange, suggesting two sources of turbulence in the surface layer. All the spectra and cospectra from the valley direction show a height dependency over the three levels.     

Turbulence Reynolds number and the turbulent kinetic energy balance in the atmospheric surface layer

The relation between the turbulence Reynolds numberR and a Reynolds numberz* based on the friction velocity and height from the ground is established using direct measurements of the r.m.s. longitudinal velocity and turbulent energy dissipation in the atmospheric surface layer. Measurements of the relative magnitude of components of the turbulent kinetic energy budget in the stability range 0 >z/L 0.4 indicate that local balance between production and dissipation is maintained. Approximate expressions, in terms of readily measured micrometeorological quantities, are proposed for the Taylor microscale and the Kolmogorov length scale .     

Wind profile development above a locally adjusted sea surface

Results are presented from a numerical experiment of wind and shear stress profile development away from a shore line; the water surface is assumed to obey the Charnock-Ellison relation between surface roughness and friction velocity. In typical cases the upwind, land surface is rough relative to the sea and the velocity and shear stress results are qualitatively similar to those for flows from relatively rough to relatively smooth solid surfaces. In the present case, however, the downwind surface roughness and friction velocity vary with position and we find that wind profile development may play a significant role in the relationship between sea surface roughness and fetch.     

Drag and bulk transfer coefficients associated with a shallow water surface

During September, 1971, measurements of Reynolds stress and sensible heat flux were made over a shallow coral reef off the coast of Papua. The water varied (with the tide) from 0 to 2.5 m in depth. Two independent measurements of the momentum flux confirmed that the surface deviated only slightly from aerodynamically smooth. The independent determinations of the sensible heat flux are consistent with this result, indicating a much lower Stanton number than would be expected over deeper water (viz., 1.1 × 10^–3 rather than about 1.5 × 10^–3).The near smoothness of the surface appears to be associated with either the attenuation of small surface waves resulting from the presence of a surface film or their inability to grow in the absence of longer wave components. Although it is not clear which of these effects was predominant, the data show that great care should be taken in extrapolating shallow water results to open ocean conditions, particularly when it is conceded that surface films may exist in either situation.Now with Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, U.S.A.Now with CSIRO Division of Mineral Physics, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia.     

Momentum and heat transfers in the surface layer over a frozen sea

Wind and temperature profiles from a 10-m mast were measured over the frozen Baltic Sea. The Monin-Obukhov similarity theory applies well to runs carefully selected according to stationarity criteria. This provides relatively low-scattered results with the roughness length z ₀ 0.04 cm, the drag coefficient C _D 1.5 × 10^-3 and the Stanton number C _H 1.00 × 10^-3 under near-neutral conditions. The roughness length, however, behaves in a peculiar way under intense stratification conditions. The reasons proposed for this could lead to an extension of the theory. The mechanisms for momentum and heat transfers are also examined, revealing that there are two different regimes, the smooth and the rough, for the wall friction but not for the heat transfer. Further, the scatter of the data for momentum and heat transfer under the aerodynamically rough regime can be explained by the distinction between the type of thermal stability conditions.     

The dependence of the bulk Richardson number on stability in the surface layer

Relationships between the bulk Richardson number, B, and other stability parameters were derived for the atmospheric surface layer. Nomograms were constructed, relating the Monin-Obukhov stability parameter, z/L, to B. The nomograms and the graph of Golder (1972) were used to establish various schemes for classifying z/L, B and Ri, in terms of the Pasquill stability classes.     

Turbulence structure in the planetary boundary layer

This review of the last three years of progress in the understanding of wind profiles and the structure of turbulence in the planetary boundary layer is divided into three parts. The first part, by N. E. Busch, deals with the atmospheric surface layer below 30 m. It is shown that the Monin-Oboukhov similarity hypotheses fail at low frequencies and large wave-lengths, probably due to mesoscale influences. Also, it is suggested that the neutral surface layer is a poor reference state in some respects, because the structure of turbulence in unstable conditions is quite different from that in stable stratification. The second part, by H. Tennekes, is concerned with the intermittency of the dissipative structure of turbulence and its effects on the velocity and temperature structure functions. It is shown that the modified Kolmogorov-Oboukhov theory, which attempts to explain the consequences of the dissipative intermittency, is unable to predict the shape of the temperature structure functions. The third part of this review, by H. A. Panofsky, deals with wind profiles and turbulence structure above 30 m. It is shown that between 30 and 150 m, surface-layer formulas can be used, if such mesoscale effects as changes of terrain roughness are taken into account where needed. Experimental data on turbulence above 150 m are quite sparse; some of the current scaling laws that can be used in this region are described.     

Correlation of optical propagation near the sea surface with bulk meteorological measurements

A time-dependent integrated dynamical boundary-layer model is used to study various features of the nocturnal low-level jet (LLJ). The basic concept is that of Thorpe and Guymer (1977). It is extended by entrainment processes, advection and an equation for the upper height of the turbulent layer. Applications show the role of the energy terms and how the LLJ changes considerably under synoptic forcing processes of variable geostrophic wind.