Thermal plumes and turbulence spectra in the atmospheric boundary layer

Experimental observations on the temperature and wind fields above flat grassy terrain have been obtained with an instrumented 92-m tower during intervals of strong insolation about midday. The turbulence characteristics of the air confirm that free convection prevailed at heights between 16 and 48 m, with some tendency for departure at higher levels. The spectra of temperature and vertical velocity contain gaps at wave numbers in the range 0.01–0.025 m^–1. These are attributed to natural thermal plumes that act as sources of extra energy input to the Kolmogorov-Obukhov-Corrsin scheme of turbulence in or at the low-wave number limit of the inertial subrange. Modified forms of the K-O-C spectral laws for thermally unstable air are derived which agree with the observed spectra over the whole range of wave numbers examined, and which contain the spectral gap at wave numbers corresponding to the thermal plume diameters.     

Structure of mean winds and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer over rural terrain

A detailed analysis has been carried out of the temporal and spatial structure of mean winds and turbulence in the neutrally-stable planetary boundary layer over typically rural terrain. The data were obtained from a horizontal array of tower-mounted propeller anemometers (z = 11 m) during a five-hour period for which the mean wind direction was virtually perpendicular to the main span of the array. Various turbulence characteristics have been obtained for all three components of velocity and have been compared with idealized models for such a flow and with some of the other available atmospheric results.Considerable tower-to-tower and block-to-block variability has been observed in many of the measured results, particularly in those for the horizontal-component integral scales. Surface shear stress, roughness length and turbulence intensities were in good agreement with expected values for such a site. Power spectra for all components displayed significantly more energy at middle and lower frequencies than that observed by Kaimal et al. (1972) over flat, relatively featureless terrain. This is felt to be a result of the generally rougher gross features of the terrain in the present case and has led to the development of a modified version of the Kaimal-spectral model which fits the observed data better than either the original Kaimal model or the von Kármán model. It is suggested that it may in future be possible to represent power spectra over a wide range of terrain types by using such a modified spectral model.Integral scales of turbulence were calculated by three different techniques and in most cases displayed a strong dependence on the technique used. Averaged values of scale showed reasonable agreement with most of the available atmospheric data and with the values suggested by ESDU (1975). The anticipated elongation of turbulent eddies in the longitudinal direction was confirmed for all three velocity components, although it was found to be not as large as some other observations.     

A model of turbulence spectra in the atmospheric surface layer

The spectral equations of turbulent kinetic energy and temperature variance have been solved by using Onsager's energy cascade model and by extending Onsager's model to closure of terms that embody the interaction of turbulent and mean flow.The spectral model yields the following results: In a stably stratified shear flow, the peak wave numbers of the spectra of energy and temperature variance shift toward larger wave numbers as stability increases. In an unstably stratified flow, the peak wave numbers of energy spectra move toward smaller wave numbers as instability increases, whereas the opposite trend is observed for the peak wave numbers of temperature variance spectra. Hence, the peak wave numbers of temperature spectra show a discontinuity at the transition from stable to unstable stratification. At near neutral stratification, both spectra reveal a bimodal structure.The universal functions of the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory are predicted to behave as _m ~ _H ~ (- Z/L)^-1/3 in an extremely unstable stratification and as _m ~ _H ~ z/L in an extremely stable stratification. For a stably stratified flow, a constant turbulent Prandtl number is expected.     

Molecular dissipation of turbulent fluctuations in the convective mixed layer part I: Height variations of dissipation rates

During the Limagne and Beauce experiments, the INAG-IGN Aerocommander FL 280 aircraft made extensive ‘in situ’ measurements of turbulent fluctuations in diurnally evolving convective boundary layers. In this paper, these measurements were used to investigate characteristics of the molecular dissipation of turbulent fluctuations through the mixed layer and well into the overlying stable layer. The dimensionless dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy, temperature and humidity variances, and temperature-humidity covariance (ψ, ψ_θ, ψ _qand ψ _θq) were computed and their height variations analysed. The behaviour of the dissipation rate ψ was found to differ significantly from those observed for the other rates. In the lowest region of the mixed layer, ψ does not obey the local free convection prediction. Instead, it follows practically a relationship similar to the one established in the surface layer by Wyngaard et al. (1971). The dissipation rate ψ remains fairly constant in the bulk of the mixed layer (0.3 ≤ z/Z _i≤ 0.8) and shows a very rapid decrease above the inversion. These results confirm those reported previously from the Minnesota and Ashchurch data by Kaimal et al. (1976), Caughey and Palmer (1979), etc. The height variations for the other dissipation rates were found to obey, as expected, the (z/Z _i)^-4/3 decrease predicted under the local free convection similarity hypothesis in the lowest region of the mixed layer. This region extends to the height z/Z _i- 0.4, 0.1, and 0.3, respectively, for ψ_θ, ψ_q, and ψ_θq. Above these levels, the dissipation rates ψ_θ and ψ_q show, on average, a slight increase to reach peak-values near the mixed-layer top, while the ‘dissipation’ rate ψ _θqchanges sign from positive to negative around the height z/Z _i, - 0.7. These characteristics confirm the fact that the structures of temperature and humidity fluctuations are considerably affected by their entrainment-induced fluctuations. Therefore, an attempt has been made to non-dimensionalize the dissipation rates near the mixed-layer top with the interfacial scaling factors.     

An aircraft study of turbulence dissipation rate and temperature structure function in the unstable marine atmospheric boundary layer

The dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy, , and the temperature structure function parameter, C _T ², have been measured over water from the near surface (Z = 3 m) to the top of the boundary layer. The near surface values of and C _T ² were used to calculate the velocity and temperature Monin-Obukhov scaling parameters u _* and T _*. The data collected during unstable lapse rates were used to evaluate the feasibility of extrapolating the values of and C _T ² as a function of height with empirical scaling formulae. The dissipation rate scaling formula of Wyngaard et al. (l971 a) gave a good fit to an average of the data for Z < 0.8 Z _i. In the surface layer the scaling formula of Wyngaard et al. (1971b) disagreed with the C _T ² values by as much as 50%. This disagreement is due to an unexpected reduction in the measured values of C _T ² forZ < 30 m. At this point it is not clear if the discrepancy is a unique property of the marine boundary layer or if it is simply some unknown instrumental or analytical problem. The mixed layer scaling results were similar to the overland results of Kaimal et al. (1976).     

An observational study of instability and turbulence in nighttime drainage winds

A detailed analysis of two nighttime drainage wind events that commenced on the evenings of 7 and 8 October, 1980 is presented. Data on wind velocity and temperature (10-s values), obtained from each of the eight instrumented levels of the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory, are used to construct 10-min means and root-mean-square values of all the variables. Additional information is provided by acoustic sounder data for 8 October.The analyses reveal that the passage of the drainage front occurs abruptly, between two 10-s observations, on both days. Relatively intense root-mean-square variability in the velocity and temperature fields accompanies the passage of the drainage front. In addition, the undercutting cold drainage air initiates significant variability in the vertical velocity field that extends above the 300 m level of the tower. The most significant variability in the other meteorological fields is primarily restricted to the lowest 150 m with the passage of the drainage front.A principal feature of the analysis is the delineation of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and billow development, breakdown into turbulence and ultimate decay to a less turbulent state that occurs intermittently behind the drainage front. These features are interpreted in light of Thorpe's (1973a, b) experimental work on stability and turbulence in stratified shear flow and the predictions of linear instability theory. The interpretations are carried out by considering the distributions of the Richardson number, the peak shears of the mean flow and the vertical fluxes of horizontal momentum associated with the unstable growth of the disturbances. Additional comparisons are made between the turbulent structures in Thorpe's laboratory experiments and the turbulence exhibited in traces of the 10-s vertical velocity data measured at various levels both above and below the interface.The relevance of the present results to the design of future field programs, and to the observational data requirements that should be met to incorporate turbulent entrainment processes in models of pollutant dispersal is discussed.     

Scales and spectra of turbulence over the gulf stream during offshore cyclogenesis

Turbulence structure of the marine boundary layer (MBL) over the Gulf Stream and the adjacent coastal waters during the development of a storm is discussed. Prestorm conditions prevailed on 9 February and a meso-low formed on 10 February which intensified into an offshore cyclone on 11 February. Observations from aircraft, buoys and ships were made as part of the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE, 86) during these three days. Analysis of the high frequency (20 Hz) turbulence data collected from low-level flights by the NCAR King Air and Electra indicates the effect of the storm development on the turbulence structure of the MBL.Observational data over the stable region near the coast on 10 February revealed the presence of internal gravity waves. Spectral analysis indicates that the size and energy of the eddies increased over the Gulf Stream and also increased as the storm developed. Results obtained using conditional sampling techniques suggest that intense narrower warm updrafts dominate the total heat flux. The broader, less intense cool downdrafts seem to occupy a large portion of the Gulf Stream.     

Boundary-layer turbulence spectra in stable conditions

Simultaneous measurements of horizontal and vertical wind speeds and temperature fluctuations at heights up to 91 m in the stable atmospheric boundary layer are described. The power and cospectral shapes show a low-frequency peak (near the Brunt-Väisälä frequency) separated by a spectral gap from a peak at high frequency due to turbulence. Spectral shapes in the turbulence subrange at 8 m are in good agreement with the universal curves previously presented by Kaimal (1973). Further information is given on the variation of the scaling parameter, f ₀, with stability; and the applicability of the normalising procedure to the spectra from the higher levels is discussed.     

两次台风过程近地层湍流度和阵风因子分析

利用2005年台风"麦莎"和"卡努"期间青岛海岸实测三维风观测资料,挑选6个10 min平均风速≥8 m/s的强风时段,使用矢量分析方法研究台风影响华东地区时近地层的平均风速风向变化、湍流度和阵风因子变化等湍流特性,结果表明台风影响期间,近地层湍流脉动风速不稳定,水平方向、垂直方向风速风向快速变化;虽然台风"麦莎"、"卡努"入海地点不同,不同强风时段近地层湍流度差异也较大,但湍流强度都表现为Iu(横向)＞Iv(纵向)＞Iw(垂直向).两次台风影响过程不同强风时段近地层阵风因子的变化与湍流度的变化是一致的,在风速增大风向转变的时段,湍流度和阵风因子明显增大.     

Scaling turbulence in the planetary boundary layer

Two different approaches to scaling turbulence in the planetary boundary layer over Lake Ontario are investigated. The height up to the inversion was found to be the appropriate scaling height while u. for near‐neutral and w* for unstable conditions were the appropriate scaling velocities. The results were in general agreement with the numerical models of Deardorff (1972) and Wyngaard, Cote, and Rao (1974).     

Energy dissipation and vortex structure in freely decaying, stratified grid turbulence

Full field digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) measurements of strongly stratified grid turbulence have been carried out for long times (up to Nt ≈ 1000). Quasi-2D vortices were formed that were separated vertically by strong horizontal vortex sheets. Dissipation scales were resolved and the relative dissipation fractions in the horizontal and vertical planes were determined. A simple vortex model, involving a dense packing of discus-shaped structures connected by vortex lines that alternate between horizontal and vertical orientation, is shown to be consistent with both the observed velocity and vorticity fields, and the evolution of the measured length scales in orthogonal planes.     

Diabatic heating and the low frequency dynamics in the tropics

Summary Using a General Circulation Model developed at FSU (FSUGCM), the role of the diabatic heating on the 30–60-day oscillation is investigated. To concentrate on the radiation and the moist convection processes, an aqua planet model is employed in this paper. We have obtained a 40-day oscillation with relatively lower frequency than other GCMs without strong heating in the lower troposphere. Unlike some GCMs and simple models, the convective area does not move eastward along with the oscillation. Adiabatic cooling due to the upward motion is mostly compensated by diabatic heating. This implies that Kelvin CISK theory might not explain our 40-day oscillation. We have also examined the impact of radiative heating on the low frequency oscillation. When we reduce the radiative cooling rate, our 40-day mode does not appear and a Kelvin CISK mode appears with a faster phase speed. The impact of the different convection schemes is also investigated. With an enhanced convection scheme, zonal wave number two with a 40-day period is generated.With 12 FiguresOn leave from Japan Meteorological Agency.     

Observed winds,turbulence, and dispersion in built-up downtown areas of Oklahoma City and Manhattan

Wind and tracer data from the Oklahoma City Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) and the Manhattan Madison Square Garden 2005 (MSG05) urban field experiments are being analyzed to aid in understanding air flow and dispersion near street-level in built-up downtown areas. The mean winds are separately calculated for groups of anemometers having similar exposures such as “near street level” and “on building top”. Several general results are found, such as the scalar wind speed at street level is about 1/3 of that at building top. Turbulent standard deviations of wind speed components and temperature, and vertical fluxes of momentum and sensible heat, are calculated from sonic anemometers near street level at 20 locations in JU2003 and five locations in MSG05, and from two rooftop locations in MSG05. The turbulence observations are consistent with observations in the literature at other cities, although the JU2003 and MSG05 data are unique in that many data are available near street level. For example, it is found that the local (i.e., at the measuring height) averages about 1.5 and the local averages about 0.25 in the two cities, where is the standard deviation of vertical velocity fluctuations, is the friction velocity, and u is the wind speed. The ratio of temperature fluctuations to temperature scale, , averages about −3 in both cities, consistent with similarity theory for slightly unstable conditions, where is the standard deviation of temperature fluctuations, and is the temperature scale. The calculated Obukhov length, L, is also consistent with slightly unstable conditions near street level, even at night during JU2003. The SF₆ tracer concentration observations from JU2003 are analyzed. Values of for the continuous releases are calculated for each release and arc distance, where is the 30-min average arc maximum concentration, Q is the continuous source emission rate, and u is the spatial-averaged wind speed in the downtown area. The basic characteristics of the JU2003 plot of averaged agree reasonably well with similar plots for other urban experiments in Salt Lake City and London (i.e., at . A is found to be about 3 during the day and about 10 during the night.     

Generation and dissipation of microwave refractive-index fluctuations in the boundary layer

The index of refraction and its short-term variations have been measured on a 152-m meteorological tower at three fixed levels and on a moveable platform. Analysis of the data reveals that the time rates of production and dissipation of refractivity fluctuations are approximately in balance under a variety of meteorological conditions, and that changes in the rate of dissipation usually coincide with comparable changes in the rate of production. Under reasonably stationary conditions, terms corresponding to the rate of change and vertical diffusion of refractivity variance are found to be negligible. Power spectral densities of the variations increase when the rate of generation (and dissipation) increase, and conversely. Comparison of the results with simultaneous acoustic sounder returns provides a valuable insight into the mechanisms responsible for changes in the rates of production and dissipation.     

An observation of waves and turbulence in the earth's boundary layer

An account is given of an observation of a wave-like phenomenon obtained during a study of nocturnal inversions. Associated bursts of turbulent activity are also described.     

On the gap in the spectra of surface-layer atmospheric turbulence

A large set of tower data was used to identify the gap that separates small-scale turbulence and mesoscale structures in the cospectra of surface fluxes. The cospectra were obtained using a multi-resolution decomposition algorithm. The gap time scale τ _g was found by fitting a fifth-order polynomial to the cospectra and identifying special points occurring after the peak at small scales. In unstable conditions (day) τ _g was found to fall as the mean wind speed increased, while no such dependence was observed in stable conditions (night). The gap scale was found to change very weakly with stability both in moderately stable and moderately unstable conditions, with a sharp drop from about 1100 to 250 s occurring in near-neutral conditions. The vertical fluxes computed at different averaging intervals were found to correlate exceptionally well with each other, the scatter being somewhat larger during the night. Although considerable discrepancy may occur for individual records, when averaged over 10 months, the difference in the flux estimated at 7 to 109 min intervals never exceeded 4%, which is comparable or less than the instrumental error.     

Drag coefficients and turbulence spectra within three boreal forest canopies

Atmospheric turbulence was measured within a black spruce forest, a jack pine forest, and a trembling aspen forest, located in southeastern Manitoba, Canada. Drag coefficients (C _d ) varied little with height within the pine and aspen canopies, but showed some height dependence within the dense spruce canopy. A constant C _d of 0.15, with the measured momentum flux and velocity profiles, gave good estimates of leaf-area-index (LAI) profiles for the pine and aspen canopies, but underestimated LAI for the spruce canopy.Velocity spectra were scaled using the Eulerian integral time scales and showed a substantial inertial subrange above the canopies. In the bottom part of the canopies, the streamwise and cross-stream spectra showed rapid energy loss whereas the vertical spectra showed an apparent energy gain, in the region where the inertial subrange is expected. The temperature spectra showed an inertial subrange with the expected -2/3 slope at all heights. Cospectra of momentum and heat flux had slopes of about -1 in much of the inertial subrange. Possible mechanisms to explain some of the spectral features are discussed.     

Temperature and humidity spectra in the atmospheric surface layer

Temperature and humidity spectra have been measured at 3 and 12 m above the ground, together with profiles of wind, temperature and humidity, and flux measurements. Both temperature and humidity spectra appear to follow Monin-Obukov similarity as well as Kolmogorov's prediction for the inertial subrange. The standard deviations of temperature and humidity fluctuations support Monin-Obukov similarity and the predictions of local free convection. The spectral constants for the inertial subrange have been estimated as 0.8 for temperature and 0.6 for humidity.     

Impact of surface heterogeneity on a buoyancy-driven convective boundary layer in light winds

Land-use practices such as deforestation or agricultural management may affect regional climate, ecosystems and water resources. The present study investigates the impact of surface heterogeneity on the behaviour of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), at a typical spatial scale of 1 km. Large-eddy simulations, using an interactive soil–vegetation–atmosphere surface scheme, are performed to document the structure of the three-dimensional flow, as driven by buoyancy forces, over patchy terrain with different surface characteristics (roughness, soil moisture, temperature) on each individual patch. The patchy terrain consists of striped and chessboard patterns. The results show that the ABL strongly responds to the spatial configuration of surface heterogeneities. The stripe configuration made of two patches with different soil moisture contents generates the development of a quasi- two-dimensional inland breeze, whereas a three-dimensional divergent flow is induced by chessboard patterns. The feedback of such small-scale atmospheric circulations on the surface fluxes appears to be highly non-linear. The surface sensible and latent heat fluxes averaged over the 25-km² domain may vary by 5% with respect to the patch arrangement.     

Characteristics of atmospheric turbulence in the surface layer over Antarctica

This paper presents meteorological measurements made during the antarctic summer period, on two 9 m and 3 m towers, on the rocky and ice shelf terrains of the Indian antarctic stations Maitri and Dakshin Gangotri, respectively. The measurements of fluctuations in temperature and wind speed made with relatively lesser precision instrumentation pertain to smaller wave numbers ~10^-2 m^-1 appropriate to outer scale L ₀ of the atmospheric turbulence spectrum. Autocorrelation analysis of the fluctuations in temperature and wind speed has been performed. A new autoregressive scheme has been developed to represent the computed autocorrelation functions by a Yule statistical model, and to estimate the correlation period T ₀ of the turbulent medium. Height profiles of outer scale L ₀ of turbulence may be given in terms of T ₀ and mean wind speed u. Further, the similarity theory of Monin-Obukhov has been used to compute height profiles of temperature structure parameter C _T ². At Maitri, values of L ₀ and C _T ² are higher between 03–22 h local time than between 22–03 h. Values of L ₀ and C _T ² are smaller over the ice shelf terrain of the Dakshin Gangotri station, compared to those over the rocky terrain of the Maitri station.