Lateral coherence of longitudinal wind components in strong winds

A combination of lateral coherence measurements of wind speed at five locations suggests that the decay constant is a monotonically increasing function of the ratio of separation to height, under neutral conditions.     

On the spectral dissipation of ocean waves due to white capping

Summary The effect of white capping on the spectral energy balance of surface waves is investigated by expressing the white-cap interactions in terms of an equivalent ensemble of random pressure pulses. It is shown first that the source function for any non-expansible interaction process which is weak-in-the-mean is quasi-linear. In the case of white capping, the damping coefficient is then shown to be proportional to the square of the frequency, provided the wave scales are large compared with the white-cap dimensions. The remaining free factor is determined indirectly from consideration of the spectral energy balance. The proposed white-capping dissipation function is consistent with the structure of the energy balance derived from JONSWAP, and the existence of a ^–5 spectrum governed by a non-local energy balance between the atmospheric input, the nonlinear energy transfer and dissipation. However, closure of the energy balance involves hypotheses regarding the structure of the atmospheric input function which need to be tested by further measurements. The proposed set of source functions may nevertheless be useful for numerical wave-prediction. According to the model, nearly all the momentum transferred across the air-sea interface enters the wave field. For fetchlimited and fully developed spectra in a stationary, uniform wind field, the drag coefficient remains approximately constant. However, for more general wind conditions, this will not be the case and the wave spectrum should be included in an accurate parameterisation of the air-sea momentum transfer.Contribution from the Sonderforschungsbereich Meeresforschung Hamburg of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.     

On the relative spectral distribution of the radiation from the zenith sky

Summary Spectral intensities of the scattered radiation from the zenith sky were measured using a filter monochromator. The monochromator was calibrated by means of a tungsten-filament lamp with known spectral energy distribution. The intensities of the individual wave-bands were referred to the total radiation intensity in the wave range considered, i. e. all spectral distributions were adjusted so as to give a constant total radiation. The relative intensity distributions obtained in this way are discussed. The results indicate that the relative intensity in a wave-band around 460 m is to a large extent independent of the atmospheric scattering conditions.

---

Zusammenfassung Die spektrale Intensität der gestreuten Himmelsstrahlung des Zenithimmels wurde mit einem Filtermonochromator gemessen; der Monochromator wurde mittels einer Wolframbandlampe mit bekannter Energieverteilung geeicht. Die Intensität der einzelnen Wellenlängenbereiche ist auf die totale Strahlungsintensität des untersuchten Bereichs bezogen, d. h. alle spektralen Verteilungen wurden so umgerechnet, daß sie eine konstante Gesamtstrahlung ergaben; die in dieser Weise erhaltenen relativen Intensitätsverteilungen werden diskutiert. Die Resultate lassen erkennen, daß die relative Intensität in einem Wellenbereich um 460 m in hohem Maße von den Verhältnissen der atmosphärischen Streuung unabhängig ist.

---

Résumé On mesure l'intensité spectrale de la lumière diffuse du ciel provenant du zénith à l'aide d'un monochromateur à filtre étalonné au moyen d'une lampe au wolfram à spectre énergétique connu. L'intensité des diverses régions spectrales est rapportée à l'intensité totale du domaine étudié, c'està-dire que toutes les distributions spectrales ont été calculées de façon à donner un rayonnement total constant. Les distributions relatives ainsi obtenues front l'objet d'une discussion qui montre que, dans un domaine centré sur 460 m, l'intensité relative est dans une large mesure indépendante des conditions de la dispersion atmosphérique.

---

---

With 4 Figures     

Horizontal coherence and Pasquill's beta

Previous work has suggested that horizontal coherence between longitudinal wind components increases with decreasing stability. Further analysis now suggests that this relation is valid only for separations of 50 m or larger. For separations of a few meters, the dependence of coherence on stability has the opposite sign. A hypothesis is suggested which accounts for the rather complex relationship between coherence, stability, roughness, and separation. The theory is extended to suggest an inverse relationship between the decay of coherence with time, and the ratio of Lagrangian and pseudo-Lagrangian turbulence scales to the longitudinal Eulerian scale.     

On the estimate of errors of sample moments of radiometeorological parameters with consideration of their coherence

It is shown that the influence of coherence of radiometeorological parameters on errors in their sample statistical characteristics must be taken into account. Formulas are proposed for estimating errors in calculating the mean and standard deviations of radiometeorological parameters with consideration of their coherence. It is shown that these errors under particular conditions may be 1.5 to 2 times as large as those calculated without taking into account their coherence.     

Horizontal coherence of wind fluctuations

The coherence for streamwise and cross-stream wind components is studied at four meteorological sites and compared with a representative wind-tunnel experiment. The coherence is approximated by a negative exponential in terms of a non-dimensional frequency, Δf and a decay parameter, a. Theoretical guidelines are developing to aid in identifying the pertinent variables affecting the decay parameters. These theoretical discussions indicate that for longitudinal separations, both the streamwise and cross-stream decay parameters are functions of roughness; the cross-stream decay parameter is a strong function of stability while the streamwise component is not. For lateral separations, it is found that both the streamwise and cross-stream decay parameters are functions of stability. Isopleths of the decay parameter are drawn on graphs with coordinates of angle and Richardson number for both the streamwise and cross-stream decay parameters of coherence. These empirical curves give an indication of the behavior of the decay parameters of coherence for a range of stabilities given by -0.9<Ri<0.08, and a range of angles between zero and ninety degrees. Department of Meteorology. Department of Aerospace Engineering.     

Two-point coherence in the atmospheric surface layer

Two-point, one-dimensional coherence in horizontally homogeneous atmospheric turbulence is studied, both by experiment and analysis. Measurements are carried out using horizontally spaced sensors with the separation perpendicular to the mean velocity. Two-dimensional spectral models and three-dimensional inertial-range spectral tensors are used in the coherence calculations. The one-dimensional coherence for both velocity and scalar fluctuations is found to roll off at a wavenumber much smaller than we would expect from the classical notion of eddy correlation. This is a consequence of the cancellation of Fourier components aliased from the direction of the sensor separation into the streamwise direction. However, the coherence for the three velocity components behaves somewhat differently, reflecting the relative orientations of the velocity component, sensor separation and the mean velocity. These features are well predicted by the calculation. The analysis is also extended to calculate the two-point scalar-vertical velocity cospectrum and the results are in good agreement with our experimental data. The ratio of two- to one-point cospectra decreases at slightly larger wavenumber than the two-point scalar coherence does.     

Taylor’s hypothesis and two-point coherence measurements

Experimentally obtained time coherence has traditionally been interpreted as streamwise one-dimensional spatial coherence through Taylor’s hypothesis. We calculate corrections to the highwavenumber part of the coherence to account for the errors caused by the deviation from Taylor’s hypothesis in high-intensity turbulent flows. The small-scale turbulence is assumed to be frozen and convected by a fluctuating convection velocity. Both Lumley’s two-term approximation and the Gaussian approximation are used in the calculations. In general, we find that the coherence for crossstream separations is significantly overestimated by the direct use of Taylor’s hypothesis, the error increasing with wavenumber; that for streamwise separations is underestimated. The analyses are compared with cross-stream coherence measurements in the atmospheric surface layer. Our results indicate that predictions from Lumley’s approximation yield better agreement with experimental data for cross-stream separations than those from the Gaussian model. Our study suggests that reliable measurement of two-point spatial coherence can be achieved only for scales not too small compared to the sensor separation.     

On the use of a cloud modification factor for solar UV (290–385 nm) spectral range

Summary  Knowledge of ultraviolet radiation is necessary in different applications, in the absence of measurements, this radiometric flux must be estimated from available parameters. To compute this flux under all sky conditions one must consider the influence of clouds. Clouds are the largest modulators of the solar radiative flux reaching the Earth’s surface. The amount and type of cloud cover prevailing at a given time and location largely determines the amount and type of solar radiation received at the Earth’s surface. This cloud radiative effect is different for the different solar spectral bands. In this work, we analyse the cloud radiative effect over ultraviolet radiation (290–385 nm). This could be done by defining a cloud modification Factor. We have developed such cloud modification Factor considering two different types of clouds. The efficiency of the cloud radiative effect scheme has been tested in combination with a cloudless sky empirical model using independent data sets. The performance of the model has been tested in relation to its predictive capability of global ultraviolet radiation. For this purpose, data recorded at two radiometric stations are used. The first one is located at the University of Almería, a seashore location (36.83° N, 2.41° W, 20 m a.m.s.l.), while the second one is located at Granada (37.18° N, 3.58° W, 660 m a.m.s.l.), an inland location. The database includes hourly values of the relevant variables that cover the years 1993–94 in Almería and 1994–95 in Granada. Cloud cover information provided by the Spanish Meteorological Service has been include to compute the clouds radiative effect. After our study, it appears that the combination of an appropriate cloudless sky model with the cloud modification Factor scheme provides estimates of ultraviolet radiation with mean bias deviation of about 5% that is close to experimental errors. Comparisons with similar formulations of the cloud radiative effect over the whole solar spectrum provides evidence for the spectral dependency of the cloud radiative effect. Received November 15, 1999 Revised September 11, 2000     

A solely radiance-based spectral angular distribution model and its application in deriving clear-sky spectral fluxes over tropical oceans

The radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere plays a critical role in climate research. Compared to the broadband flux, the spectrally resolved outgoing longwave radiation or flux(OLR), with rich atmospheric information in different bands,has obvious advantages in the evaluation of GCMs. Unlike methods that need auxiliary measurements and information, here we take atmospheric infrared sounder(AIRS) observations as an example to build a self-consistent algorithm by an angular distribution model(ADM), based solely on radiance observations, to estimate clear-sky spectrally resolved fluxes over tropical oceans. As the key step for such an ADM, scene type estimations are obtained from radiance and brightness temperature in selected AIRS channels. Then, broadband OLR as well as synthetic spectral fluxes are derived by the spectral ADM and validated using both synthetic spectra and CERES(Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) observations. In most situations, the mean OLR differences between the spectral ADM products and the CERES observations are within ±2 W m~(-2), which is less than 1% of the typical mean clear-sky OLR over tropical oceans. The whole algorithm described in this study can be easily extended to other similar hyperspectral radiance measurements.     

Spatial coherence of temperature fluctuations in the atmospheric surface layer

Simultaneous temperature fluctuations have been measured along directions both parallel and orthogonal to the wind direction in the atmospheric surface layer. Ensemble-averaged temperature distributions associated with the ramp-like feature observed in instantaneous temperature traces indicate that the average duration of the ramp is approximately independent of height. Application of Davenport's geometric similarity of coherence of temperature fluctuations yields approximate estimates for the spatial extent of the structure characterized by the ramp. The longitudinal extent is approximately 12 times the vertical extent and 17 times the lateral extent.     

Lateral coherence in isotropic turbulence and in the natural wind

A short review of experimental findings is given, followed by a theoretical derivation, based on Taylor's hypothesis, of formulas for lateral coherences. It is assumed that the flow is stationary and homogeneous. Explicit formulas are derived assuming an energy spectrum pertaining to the inertial subrange. Even when the last assumption is not fulfilled, there are only four different types of non-zero velocity coherences. These four coherences correspond to the combinations uu, vv, ww, and uv, where u, v, and w are the longitudinal, the transversal, and the vertical component of the turbulent velocity with respect to the direction of the horizontal mean wind velocity U. In the case of small displacements relative to the scale of turbulence, the coherences are shown to be universal functions of the non-dimensional frequency nD/¦U¦, where n is the frequency and D the lateral displacement. It is shown that these theoretical formulas for spectral coherences are in good agreement with atmospheric data. Finally, the role of the scale of the turbulence is discussed.