Turbulent measurements in the stable atmospheric boundary layer during SHEBA: ten years after

This paper surveys results of the comprehensive turbulent measurements in the stable boundary layer (SBL) made over the Arctic pack ice during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean experiment (SHEBA) in the Beaufort Gyre from October 1997 through September 1998. Turbulent fluxes and mean meteorological data were continuously measured and reported hourly at five levels on a 20-m main SHEBA tower. Eleven months of measurements during SHEBA cover a wide range of stability conditions, from the weakly unstable regime to very stable stratification, and allow studying the SBL in detail. A brief overview of the SBL regimes, the flux-profile relationships, the turbulent Prandtl number, and other parameters obtained during SHEBA is given. The traditional Monin—Obukhov approach, z-less scaling, and gradient-based scaling are evaluated and discussed based on the data from SHEBA.     

Simulation of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Characteristics during Indian Summer Monsoon using Observations from Monsoon Trough Boundary Layer Experiment at Jodhpur, India

The diurnal structure of the boundary layer during Indian summer monsoon period is studied using a one-dimensional meteorological boundary layer model and the observations collected from the Monsoon Trough Boundary Layer Experiment conducted in 1990 at Jodhpur, India. The model was initialized with the observed temperature profiles at 0530 LST on 17 July, 1990 at Jodhpur and was run for 26 hours. The study is carried out with a geostrophic wind speed of 9.5 m s⁻¹ corresponding to the strong wind simulation. The mean thermodynamic and wind structure simulated by the model are in good agreement with those observed from 30 m tower. The computed surface layer characteristics such as the surface fluxes, TKE and standard deviations of velocity components are found to be reasonably in good agreement with those based on turbulence measurements. The shear and buoyancy budget computed from the model are also compared with the turbulence measurements. The integrated cooling budget in the nocturnal boundary layer is examined.     

黄土高原复杂地形上边界层低空急流对近地层湍流的影响

利用中尺度气象数值模式（Weather Research and Forecasting Model,WRF）模拟风场,结合兰州大学半干旱气候与环境观测站（Semi-Arid Climate and Environment Observatory of Lanzhou University,SACOL）湍流观测资料,分析了黄土高原复杂地形上稳定边界层低空急流对近地层湍流活动的影响.黄土高原复杂地形上稳定边界层低空急流的形成与地形作用引发的局地环流有关.低空急流对近地层湍流活动有强烈影响,剪切作用使小尺度湍涡活动加剧,湍动能增大,同时非平稳运动被压制.低空急流发生时,观测数据有87.3%是弱稳定情形（梯度理查森数小于0.25）;而无低空急流时,对应时段的观测表明65.4%属于强稳定层结（梯度理查森数大于0.3）,非平稳运动造成湍流功率谱在低频端迅速增大.与无低空急流和弱低空急流情形相比,强低空急流发生时,近地层湍动能增大1倍,湍动能在垂直方向上的传递增大1个量级,且方向向下,约为-3 × 10^-3 m³·s^-3,湍流在上层产生并向下传递.     

Effects of shear in the convective boundary layer: analysis of the turbulent kinetic energy budget

Effects of convective and mechanical turbulence at the entrainment zone are studied through the use of systematic Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) experiments. Five LES experiments with different shear characteristics in the quasi-steady barotropic boundary layer were conducted by increasing the value of the constant geostrophic wind by 5 m s^-1 until the geostrophic wind was equal to 20 m s^-1. The main result of this sensitivity analysis is that the convective boundary layer deepens with increasing wind speed due to the enhancement of the entrainment heat flux by the presence of shear. Regarding the evolution of the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget for the studied cases, the following conclusions are drawn: (i) dissipation increases with shear, (ii) the transport and pressure terms decrease with increasing shear and can become a destruction term at the entrainment zone, and (iii) the time tendency of TKE remains small in all analyzed cases. Convective and local scaling arguments are applied to parameterize the TKE budget terms. Depending on the physical properties of each TKE budget contribution, two types of scaling parameters have been identified. For the processes influenced by mixed-layer properties, boundary layer depth and convective velocity have been used as scaling variables. On the contrary, if the physical processes are restricted to the entrainment zone, the inversion layer depth, the modulus of the horizontal velocity jump and the momentum fluxes at the inversion appear to be the natural choices for scaling these processes. A good fit of the TKE budget terms is obtained with the scaling, especially for shear contribution.     

Characteristics of turbulence over the semi-fixed desert area north of Xinjiang,China

As the largest fixed and semi-fixed desert in China, the Gurbantünggüt Desert undergoes a long period of snow cover in the winter and the rapid growth of ephemeral plants in the spring, presenting obvious seasonal changes in the underlying desert surface type, which can lead to variation in the turbulence of the near-surface boundary layer turbulence over the desert. In this study, gradient tower data and eddy covariance data from 2017 were analysed to investigate the turbulence characteristics of the different surface boundary layers in the hinterland of the Gurbantünggüt Desert. The results indicate that stable atmospheric conditions in the desert occur exclusively during the early morning and at night in the desert, and the onset and duration of this stable state varies seasonally. Two regimes of intermittent turbulence occur during the night, a weak turbulent regime that occurs when the wind speed is less than the threshold and a strong turbulent regime when the wind speed exceeds the threshold, and different wind speed thresholds were observed at each level. These parameters follow a seasonal pattern of summer (July) > spring (April) > autumn (October) > winter (January) in terms of magnitude. The mean turbulence intensities of the along-wind, cross-wind and vertical wind are 0.5, 0.47 and 0.14, respectively, with I_u > I_v > I_w. The normalized standard deviation of the wind velocity components (σ_u, σ_v and σ_w) generally satisfies a 1/3 power-law relation. Our results show that the night-time turbulence regime classification for the Gurbantünggüt Desert strongly depends on meteorological and orographic features, and the intermittent turbulent events have the non-stationarity of the flow in common. The results can contribute to the study of land surface processes, climate change and desertification in inland arid desert areas.     

Turbulence measurements in a submarine canyon

Profiles of velocity turbulence in Monterey Canyon, made with a recently developed expendable probe, show the existence of a very turbulent bottom boundary layer. The turbulent flow is up to 170 m thick and has peak microscale shears of 1 m s⁻¹ per meter. The rate of dissipation of kinetic energy, based on the observed shear variance, averaged over the depth of the turbulent boundary layer ranged from 70 to 500 × 10⁻⁶W m⁻³. Temperature measurements indicate that the flow was up canyon at a time of low tide. The upper bound for the vertical eddy viscosity is estimated to be17 × 10⁻⁴m²s⁻¹ and for the vertical eddy diffusivity is estimated to be 15 × 10⁻⁴m²s⁻¹. The large vertical scale and the intensity of the observed boundary layer suggest that the flow in Monterey Canyon may be important for the renewal and circulation of water over the continental shelf in the bay area.     

Early spring turbulent mixing in an ice-covered Arctic fjord during transition to melting

Observations are presented of currents, hydrography and turbulence in a jet-type tidally forced fjord in Svalbard. The fjord was ice covered at the time of the experiment in early spring 2004. Turbulence measurements were conducted by both moored instruments within the uppermost 5 m below the ice and a microstructure profiler covering 3–60 m at 75 m depth. Tidal choking at the mouth of the fjord induces a tidal jet advecting relatively warmer water past the measurement site and dominating the variability in hydrography. While there was no strong correlation with the observed hydrography or mixing and the phase of the semidiurnal tidal cycle, the mean structure in dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy, work done under the ice and the mixing in the water column correlated with the current when conditionally sampled for tidal jet events. Observed levels of dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy per unit mass, 1.1×10⁻⁷ W kg⁻¹, and eddy diffusivity, 7.3×10⁻⁴ m² s⁻¹, were comparable to direct measurements at other coastal sites and shelves with rough topography and strong forcing. During spring tides, an average upward heat flux of 5 W m⁻² in the under-ice boundary layer was observed. Instantaneous (1 h averaged) large heat flux events were correlated with periods of large inflow, hence elevated heat fluxes were associated with the tidal jet and its heat content. Vertical heat fluxes are derived from shear-probe measurements by employing a novel model for eddy diffusivity [Shih et al., 2005. Parameterization of turbulent fluxes and scales using homogeneous sheared stably stratified turbulence simulations. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 525, 193–214]. When compared to the direct heat flux measurements using the eddy correlation method at 5 m below the ice, the upper 4–6 m averaged heat flux estimates from the microstructure profiler agreed with the direct measurements to within 10%. During the experiment water column was stably, but weakly, stratified. Destabilizing buoyancy fluxes recorded close to the ice were absent at 5 m below the ice, and overall, turbulence production was dominated by shear. A scaling for dissipation employing production by both stress and buoyancy [Lombardo and Gregg, 1989. Similarity scaling of viscous and thermal dissipation in a convecting boundary layer. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, 6273–6284] was found to be appropriate for the under-ice boundary layer.     

边界层参数化方案对边界层热力和动力结构特征影响的比较

本文利用高分辨率中尺度WRF模式,通过改变边界层参数化方案进行多组试验,评估该模式对美国北部森林地区边界层结构的模拟能力,同时比较了五种不同边界层参数化方案模拟得出的边界层热力和动力结构.结果表明：除个别方案外,配合不同边界层方案的WRF模式都能成功模拟出白天对流边界层强湍流混合特征和夜间稳定边界层内强逆温、逆湿和低空急流等热力和动力结构.非局地YSU、ACM2方案在白天表现出强的湍流混合和卷夹,相比于局地MYJ、UW方案,模拟的对流边界层温度更高、湿度更低、混合层高度更高、感热通量更大,更接近实际观测,这表明在不稳定层结下考虑非局地大涡输送更为合理,但局地方案在风速和风向的预报上存在一定优势.TEMF方案得到的白天局地湍流混合强度为所有方案中最弱,混合层难以发展,无法体现对流边界层内气象要素垂直分布均匀的特点.对于夜间稳定边界层的模拟,不同参数化方案之间的差异较小,但是YSU方案在一定程度上高估了机械湍流,导致局地湍流混合偏强,从而影响了其对稳定边界层的模拟能力.     

Near‐bed shear stress,turbulence production and dissipation in a shallow and narrow tidal channel

Near‐bed, highly resolved velocity profiles were measured in the lower 0.03 m of the water column using acoustic Doppler profiling velocimeters in narrow tidal channels in a salt marsh. The bed shear stress was estimated from the velocity profiles using three methods: the log‐law, Reynolds stress, and shear stress derived from the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). Bed shear stresses were largest during ebbing tide, while near‐bed velocities were larger during flooding tide. The Reynolds stress and TKE method gave similar results, while the log‐law method resulted in smaller bed shear stress values during ebbing tide. Shear stresses and turbulent kinetic energy followed a similar trend with the largest peaks during ebbing tide. The maximum turbulent kinetic energy was on the order of 1 × 10^{? 2} m²/s². The fluid shear stress during flooding tide was approximately 30% of the fluid shear stress during ebbing tide. The maximum TKE‐derived shear stress was 0.7 N/m² and 2.7 N/m² during flooding and ebbing tide, respectively, and occurred around 0.02 m above the bed. Turbulence dissipation was estimated using the frequency spectrum and structure function methods. Turbulence dissipation estimates from both methods were maximum near the bed (~0.01 m). Both the structure function and the frequency spectrum methods resulted in maximum dissipation estimates on the order of 4 × 10^{? 3} m²/s³. Turbulence production exceeded turbulence dissipation at every phase of the tide, suggesting that advection and vertical diffusion are not negligible. However, turbulence production and dissipation were within a factor of 2 for 77% of the estimates. The turbulence production and dissipation decreased quickly away from the bed, suggesting that measurements higher in the water column cannot be translated directly to turbulence production and dissipation estimates near the bed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shallow water tidal currents in close proximity to the seafloor and boundary-induced turbulence

Velocity measurements with vertical resolution 0.02 m were conducted in the lowest 0.5 m of the water column using acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) at a test site in the western part of the East China Sea. The friction velocity u _* and the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate ε _wl(ζ) profiles were calculated using log-layer fits; ζ is the height above the bottom. During a semidiurnal tidal cycle, u _* was found to vary in the range (1–7) × 10⁻³ m/s. The law-of-the-wall dissipation profiles ε _wl(ζ) were consistent with the dissipation profiles ε _mc(ζ) evaluated using independent microstructure measurements of small-scale shear, except in the presence of westward currents. It was hypothesized that an isolated bathymetric rise (25 m height at a 50-m seafloor) located to the east of the measurement site is responsible for the latter. Calculation of the depth integrated internal tide generating body force in the region showed that the flanks of the rise are hotspots of internal wave energy that may locally produce a significant turbulent zone while emitting tidal and shorter nonlinear internal waves. This distant topographic source of turbulence may enhance the microstructure-based dissipation levels ε _mc(ζ) in the bottom boundary layer (BBL) beyond the dissipation ε _wl(ζ) associated with purely locally generated turbulence by skin currents. Semi-empirical estimates for dissipation at a distance from the bathymetric rise agree well with the BBL values of ε _mc measured 15 km upslope.     

Turbulent entrainment at an inversion

Three separate conditions controlling the structure of the inversion are discussed. The rate of change of boundary layer temperature and the vertical gradient of potential temperature in the overlying air set the maximum limit to possible rise rates. In transient conditions, the rise of the inversion layer is sometimes dominated by turbulent transport and erosion, however this cannot continue indefinitely. The horizontal advection above the inversion can also change the relative temperature increase at the inversion, and so may partly determine inversion history.In this paper the theory of the plume-connective boundary layer has been extended to allow the plumes to erode material from the overlying stable air, and so permit study of how the boundary layer could deepen by eroding upward into the capping inversion. Only clear-air processes without condensation are included in the model described here.When the mechanism of convection is examined, it is demonstrated that, because of energetic considerations, the rate of erosion, by buoyancy generated turbulence of the overlying air down across the inversion, will not usually determine the rate of rise of the inversion, except briefly. Other effects often dominate in determining the average erosion rate. Furthermore, because of the limitations set by the buoyancy of the entrained air, sharp inversions, exceeding about 1°C, cannot be formed without the action of latent heat from evaporating droplets. An intermediate buffer layer forms in the inversion zone whenever the erosion rate is high enough to produce a temperature increase above the boundary layer, sufficient to inhibit direct entrainment.     

Experimental observation on the characteristics of the near-surface turbulence over the Antarctic ice sheets during the polar day period

Based on the ultrasonic anemometer/thermometer data in the East Antarctic coastal area ice sheets ob-tained first by Chinese scientists, turbulent intensity, kinetic energy and sensible heat of turbulence, surface roughness height drag coefficient and normalized variation were calculated and analysed using the eddy-correlation method. The results show that the values of roughness height and drag coefficient are 4.3 X 10 m and 1.8x 10 -³, respectively. These turbulent parameters have apparent diurnal variations. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 49675252).     

Two-dimensional simulations of katabatic layers observed during the GIMEX experiment

The hydrostatic model SALSA is used to simulate a particular event observed during the Greenland Ice Margin EXperiment “GIMEX” (on July 12th, 1991). The time evolution of the large-scale flow was incorporated in the model through time dependent boundary conditions which were updated using the closest upwind sounding. A turbulent scheme for the stable boundary layer and an appropriate parametrization of the surface fluxes implemented in the same model, are used for this study. The simulation results are discussed and compared to the available observations. The computed turbulent fluxes are correctly estimated. The model predicts a mixing zone of about 1500 m high which is in good agreement with tundra site observations. Over the ice cap, the katabatic layer is correctly simulated by the model. Its height of 80–300 m is well estimated. The comparison between the simulation and observations taken at ice cap sites is reasonably valid. The ablation computed along the ice cap corresponds well to the values reconstructed of observations at sites 4 and 9. Finally, a sensibility study to a specified westward geostrophic wind (2 ms⁻¹) shows that the consideration of this latter improves the simulated tundra wind evolution.     

Modeling high-order statistics in the turbulent Ekman layer

Results from a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the neutral and unstable turbulent Ekman layer at a Reynolds number of 1000 were used to evaluate turbulence closure models. For the neutrally stratified Ekman layer, the higher-order moments of velocity were examined and the accuracy of a kurtosis model was assessed. For the unstable Ekman layer, the analysis of higher-order moments was extended to temperature-velocity correlations. Model coefficients were optimised using DNS data and it was shown that the optimised models accurately captured the distributions of all fourth-order moments. These low-Reynolds number results can be extrapolated to higher Reynolds numbers to parameterise turbulence in other flow fields with rotational effects such as the atmospheric boundary layer.     

Investigation of the broadband ELF turbulence by observations of the FAST satellite

Scaling properties of variable electric fields in the topside ionosphere have been investigated on scales s from ∼30 m to 2 km by FAST electric field observations with sample rate of 512 s⁻¹, in sixteen events of the broadband ELF turbulence. It is shown that down to scales of a few hundred meters, the power of turbulent electric fluctuations is a power law, ∼s ^α. Scaling index α derived from the slope of logarithmic diagrams (LD) constructed by the discrete wavelet transform of data can be estimated as α = 2.2 ± 0.3, which is close to α estimate earlier reported for scales 1–30 km by electric field observations of the Dynamics Explorer 2 satellite. The behavior of α index is analyzed near the scale of the order of electron inertial length λ_e = c/ω₀ (ω₀ being the electron plasma frequency). At altitudes considered (700–2500 km), λ_e makes 100–900 m. We demonstrate that at scales ≤λ_e, a decrease of LD slope and deviation from the power law are typically observed. As pointed out in the discussion, this feature cannot be identified as a transition to the diffusion range, where dissipation of the turbulence occurs.     

Stable Atmospheric Surface Layer in Modelling with Constant Ground Temperature

Influence of the surface roughness, geostrophic wind speed and initial stable stratification on surface layer scales, namely the friction velocity, temperature scale and the Monin-Obukhov length, and on non-dimensional profiles has been studied in quasi-stationary PIAPBLM (Prague Institute of Atmospheric Physics Boundary Layer Model) runs. Modifications of the stability functions, of the non-local mixing length concept, and of surface layer parametrization have improved the model results. With the ground temperature kept constant in time, the boundary layer is subjected to a turbulent cooling induced by surface roughness and to a counteracting turbulent heat transfer directed downwards. If the wind speed is lower, a rather mixed layer develops capped by a more stable layer. The estimated Monin-Obukhov length then slightly increases and the non-dimensional gradients overpredict the empirical values even more.     

Vertical dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics of urban lower boundary layer and its relationship with aerosol concentration over Beijing

By utilizing observational data from a 325 m tower of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on March 19-29, 2001 and August 11-25, 2003, a comprehensive study was conducted on the vertical dynamical and thermodynamic characteristics of the urban lower boundary layer (ULBL) and its relationship with aerosol concentration over Beijing. Firstly, a comparative analysis was made on the gradient data (wind, temperature and humidity), ultrasonic data (atmospheric turbulences) and air-quality observations at different tower heights (47, 120 and 280 m). Secondly, a diagnosis was made to reveal the major features of normalized variances of velocity and temperature, turbulence kinetic energy as well as their relationship with aerosol concentrations. Furthermore, the characteristics of the ULBL vertical structure and the TSP concentration/distribution variations during a sand/dust weather process were also analyzed. The outcome of the study showed that under unstable stratification, the normalized variances of velocity (σu/u*, σv/u*, σw/u*) and temperature (σT/T*) at 47 and 120 m heights fit the Monin-Obukhov similarity (MOS) framework and the fitting formulas were given out accordingly. According to the stratification parameter (z′/L), the stable ULBL could be divided into 2 zones. With z′/L<0.1, it was a weakly stable zone and MOS framework was applicable. The other was a highly stable zone with z′/L>0.1 and the normalized velocity variances tended to increase along with higher stability, but it remained constant for normalized temperature variances. At daytime, the near-surface layer includes two heights of 47 and 120 m, while 280 m has been above it. The ULBL analysis in conjunction with a sand/dust weather process in Beijing in March 2001 indicated that the maximum concentration of Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) at 320 m reached 913.3 μg/m3 and the particles were transported from the upper to lower ULBL, which was apparently related to the development process of a low-level jet and its concomitant strong sinking motion.     

大气边界层湍流的动力非平稳性的验证

首次用验证时间序列中是否存在动力非平稳性的一种简单图示方法——space time index法来分析大气边界层湍流的动力平稳性特征.本文以取自淮河流域和威斯康星森林下垫面条件下的三维高精度风速和温度、湿度湍流脉动资料对大气边界层湍流的平稳性特征进行了分析.结果表明space time index方法能有效地检验大气边界层湍流信号中是否存在动力平稳性.另外,均匀下垫面条件（水稻田）及复杂下垫面条件（森林）下的大气边界层湍流信号中几乎都存在动力非平稳性,大气湍流动力学非平稳性可能是边界层湍流信号相当普遍具有的一种特性.大气边界层湍流中的间歇性和相干结构使得其非平稳性图形的特征不同于一般时间序列非平稳性图形的“V”型特征;森林下垫面条件下的湍流信号比相对均匀下垫面（水稻田）下的湍流信号更有组织性,相干结构更强.