Small-Scale Horizontal Variability of Mean and Turbulent Quantities in the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

The study of the boundary layer can be most difficult when it is in transition and forced by a complex surface, such as an urban area. Here, a novel combination of ground-based remote sensing and in situ instrumentation in central London, UK, is deployed, aiming to capture the full evolution of the urban boundary layer (UBL) from night-time until the fully-developed convective phase. In contrast with the night-time stable boundary layer observed over rural areas, the night-time UBL is weakly convective. Therefore, a new approach for the detection of the morning-transition and rapid-growth phases is introduced, based on the sharp, quasi-linear increase of the mixing height. The urban morning-transition phase varied in duration between 0.5 and 4 h and the growth rate of the mixing layer during the rapid-growth phase had a strong positive relationship with the convective velocity scale, and a weaker, negative relationship with wind speed. Wind shear was found to be higher during the night-time and morning-transition phases than the rapid-growth phase and the shear production of turbulent kinetic energy near the mixing-layer top was around six times larger than surface shear production in summer, and around 1.5 times larger in winter. In summer under low winds, low-level jets dominated the UBL, and shear production was greater than buoyant production during the night-time and the morning-transition phase near the mixing-layer top. Within the rapid-growth phase, buoyant production dominated at the surface, but shear production dominated in the upper half of the UBL. These results imply that regional flows such as low-level jets play an important role alongside surface forcing in determining UBL structure and growth.     

Tethered Balloon Observations Of The Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer In A Valley

Detailed measurements of profiles of mean and turbulent variablesthrough the nocturnal stable boundary layer over a valley arepresented. Two nights of data are analysed in detail, one with only aweakly stable boundary layer and one with a strongly stable boundarylayer. The weakly stratified night shows high levels of turbulence inwhich the flow remains attached to the valley and the boundary layeracts as a single coherent layer. On the strongly stratified night, twoflow regimes are identified: attached flow, as on the weaklystratified night, and decoupled flow in which the air in the valleybecomes so dynamically stable that there is no turbulent interactionwith the mean flow aloft. Because the valley is sloping, the decoupledlower stagnant air then forms a drainage current. We find that theFroude number evaluated at the hill height, F_H = U(H)/N(H) H,diagnoses the flow regime: when F_H = 2, the flow remainsattached and when F_H 2 the flow in the valley becomesdecoupled from the flow aloft. The dynamics of the flow regimes areshown to be understandable in terms of the gradient Richardson number,which indicates the turbulent mixing. We show that the gradientRichardson number is a key parameter in diagnosing each flow regime.     

The Morning Transition of the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

Six years of observations from a surface instrument site have been analysed to determine timings and factors influencing developmental changes in the near-surface wind and turbulent heat fluxes during the morning heating of the atmospheric boundary layer. A simple relationship has been found between near-surface wind speed and screen temperature, together with a predictive equation for the morning transition air temperature. Profile measurements from a probe mounted on a tethered balloon have beenused to supplement the surface data and study the processes underlying these surface relationships. The results have confirmed earlier work and have shown that both before and immediately after morning transition, almost all heating in the surface layer is due to turbulent diffusion from above. In order to explain the mechanisms involved in the relationships, a simple finite difference model has been run and validated against the profile data. The model predictions are compared with observations during both the morning and evening and the differences related to the different temperature profiles. Numerical forecasting rules for the surface wind speed and transition temperature are derived from the results.     

Statistical Variability of Dispersion in the Convective Boundary Layer: Ensembles of Simulations and Observations

A Lagrangian particle dispersion model (LPDM) driven by velocity fields from large-eddy simulations (LESs) is used to determine the mean and variability of plume dispersion in a highly convective planetary boundary layer (PBL). The total velocity of a “particle” is divided into resolved and unresolved or random (subfilter scale, SFS) velocities with the resolved component obtained from the LES and the SFS velocity from a Lagrangian stochastic model. This LPDM-LES model is used to obtain an ensemble of dispersion realizations for calculating the mean, root-mean-square (r.m.s.) deviation, and fluctuating fields of dispersion quantities. An ensemble of 30 realizations is generated for each of three source heights: surface, near-surface, and elevated. We compare the LPDM calculations with convection tank experiments and field observations to assess the realism of the results. The overall conclusion is that the LPDM-LES model produces a realistic range of dispersion realizations and statistical variability (i.e., r.m.s. deviations) that match observations in this highly convective PBL, while also matching the ensemble-mean properties. This is true for the plume height or trajectory, vertical dispersion, and the surface values of the crosswind-integrated concentration (CWIC), and their dependence on downstream distance. One exception is the crosswind dispersion for an elevated source, which is underestimated by the model. Other analyses that highlight important LPDM results include: (1) the plume meander and CWIC fluctuation intensity at the surface, (2) the applicability of a similarity theory for plume height from a surface source to only the very strong updraft plumes—not the mean height, and (3) the appropriate variation with distance of the mean surface CWIC and the lower bound of the CWIC realizations for a surface source.     

夜间边界层的一维数值模拟

本文用一维数值模式,模拟了平坦地形情况下小风、晴空夜间边界层内风、温、湿的演变,计算结果与观测事实有较好的一致性。对有高云或少量中、低云存在时的计算结果分析表明,模式对风速的模拟仍然较好,对温度的模拟比实测值可偏低0.3—1℃,对相对湿度的模拟比实测值可偏高5—10％在符合模式使用范围的情况下,本模式可作为夜间边界层预报的一种方法参考使用。     

Radiative Processes in the Stable Boundary Layer: Part II. The Development of the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

The interaction between radiation and turbulence in the stable boundary layer over land is explored using an idealized model, with a focus on the surface layer after the evening transition. It is shown that finer vertical resolution is required in transitional boundary layers than in developed ones. In very light winds radiative cooling determines the temperature profile, even if similarity functions without a critical Richardson number are used; standard surface similarity theory applied over thick layers then yields poor forecasts of near-surface air temperatures. These points are illustrated with field data. Simulations of the developing nocturnal boundary layer are used to explore the wider role of radiation. Comparatively, radiation is less significant within the developed stable boundary layer than during the transition; although, as previous studies have found, it remains important towards the top of the stable layer and in the residual layer. Near the ground, reducing the surface emissivity below one is found to yield modest relative radiative warming rather than intense cooling, which reduces the potential importance of radiation in the developed surface layer. The profile of the radiative heating rate may be strongly dependent on other processes, leading to quite varied behaviour.     

Small-Scale Variability in the Coastal Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The influence of the main large-scale wind directions on thermally driven mesoscale circulations at the Baltic southwest coast, southeast of Sweden, is examined. The aim of the study is to highlight small-scale alterations in the coastal atmospheric boundary layer. A numerical three-dimensional mesoscale model is used in this study, which is focused on an overall behaviour of the coastal jets, drainage flows, sea breezes, and a low-level eddy-type flow in particular. It is shown that synoptic conditions, together with the moderate terrain of the southeast of Sweden (max. height h₀ 206 m), governs the coastal mesoscale dynamics triggered by the land-sea temperature difference T. The subtle nature of coastal low-level jets and sea breezes is revealed; their patterns are dictated by the interplay between synoptic airflow, coastline orientation, and T.The simulations show that coastal jets typically occur during nighttime and vary in height, intensity and position with respect to the coast; they interact with downslope flows and the background wind. For the assigned land surface temperature (varying ±8 K from the sea temperature) and the opposing constant geostrophic wind 8 m s^-1, the drainage flow is more robust to the opposing ambient flow than the sea breeze later on. Depending on the part of the coast under consideration, and the prevailing ambient wind, the sea breeze can be suppressed or enhanced, stationary at the coast or rapidly penetrating inland, locked up in phase with another dynamic system or almost independently self-evolving. A low-level eddy structure is analyzed. It is governed by tilting, divergence and horizontal advection terms. The horizontal extent of the coastal effects agrees roughly with the Rossby radius of deformation.     

Mesoscale Variability in the Summer Arctic Boundary Layer

Observations from the summer Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001 (AOE-2001) are analysed with a focus on the interactions between mesoscale and boundary-layer dynamics. Wavelet analyses of surface-pressure variations show daylong periods with different characteristics, some featuring episodes of pronounced high-frequency surface-pressure variability, here hypothesized to be caused by trapped gravity waves. These episodes are accompanied by enhanced boundary-layer turbulence and an enhanced spectral gap, but with only minor influence on the surface stress. During these episodes, mesoscale phenomena were often encountered and usually identified as front-like features in the boundary layer, with a peak in drizzle followed by changing temperature. These phenomena resemble synoptic fronts, though they are generally shallow, shorter-lasting, have no signs of frontal clouds, and do not imply a change in air mass. Based on this analysis, we hypothesize that the root cause of the episodes with high-frequency surface-pressure variance are shallow, mesoscale fronts moving across the pack ice. They may be formed due to local-to-regional horizontal contrasts, for example, between air with different lifetimes over the Arctic or with perturbations in the cloud field causing differential cooling of the boundary layer. Thermal contrasts sharpen as the air is transported with the mean flow. The propagating mesoscale fronts excite gravity waves, which affect the boundary-layer turbulence and also seem to favour entrainment of free tropospheric air into the boundary layer.     

Systematic Vertical Variation of Mesoscale Fluxes in the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

The vertical mesoscale flux in the nocturnal boundary layer is generally considered to be difficult to estimate because of the small mesoscale vertical velocities and the large random variation of the mesoscale fluxes. However, the mesoscale vertical flux of heat, computed from FLOSSII data, varies quasi-systematically with height, stability and time scale. Such systematic variation requires correction for sonic misalignment and averaging over a large quantity of data. The relation of the mesoscale heat flux to the vertical structure of the nocturnal boundary layer is examined. For the most common conditions, the vertical convergence of the mesoscale heat flux acts to reduce the nocturnal cooling rate. Important uncertainties are discussed as well as the need for improved observations.     

Interaction Between Waves and Turbulence Within the Nocturnal Boundary Layer

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - Within the roughness sublayer (RSL) of dense urban canopies composed of uniformly distributed cuboids, the time and planar-averaged mean velocity profile exhibits an...     

Characterisation of the Nocturnal Boundary Layer at a Site in Northern Spain

The availability of well-calibrated meteorological data for a 10-month period on a 100-m tower has allowed a statistical study to be carried out of many boundary-layer variables. The analyses are restricted to nighttime conditions with stable stratification most of the time, allowing the checking of a number of similarity proposals and the quantifying of the frequency of the different nighttime regimes. We study in detail two typical nights at the site: one weakly stable and one with very strong stratification, highlighting the different aspects between the nights.     

Observations of the Nitrate Radical in the Marine Boundary Layer

A study of the nitrate radical (NO3) has been conducted through a series of campaigns held at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, located on the coast of north Norfolk, England. The NO3 concentration was measured in the lower boundary layer by the technique of differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS). Although the set of observations is limited, seasonal patterns are apparent. In winter, the NO3 concentration in semi-polluted continental air masses was found to be of the order of 10 ppt, with an average turnover lifetime of 2.4 minutes. During summer in clean northerly air flows, the concentration was about 6 ppt with a lifetime of 7.2 minutes. The major loss mechanisms for the radical were investigated in some detail by employing a chemical box model, constrained by a suite of ancillary measurements. The model indicates that during the semi-polluted conditions experienced in winter, the major loss of NO3 occurred indirectly through reactions of N2O5, either in the gas-phase with H2O, or through uptake on aerosols. The most important direct loss was via reactions of NO3 with a number of unsaturated nonmethane hydrocarbons. The cleaner air masses observed during the summer were of marine origin and contained elevated concentrations of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which provided the major loss route for NO3. The box model was then used to investigate the conditions in the remote marine boundary layer under which DMS will be oxidised more rapidly at night (by NO3) than during the day (by OH). This should occur if the concentration of NO2 is more than about 60% that of DMS.     

Observations of Solitary Waves in the Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Large amplitude, isolated, wave-like phenomena have been observed in the lowest 40 m of the strongly stably stratified atmospheric boundary layer overlying a coastal Antarctic ice shelf. The waves only occur when prevailing wind speeds are low. They always propagate from over the land, with phase speeds exceeding the local mean wind speed. They have wavelengths of the order of 200 m. Several examples are described and a summary of the statistical properties of these waves events is presented.     

Observations of Atmospheric Solitary Waves in the Urban Boundary Layer

The simultaneous operation of a three-axis Doppler sodar system in the centralurban area of Rome and two similar systems in the suburban area, forming atriangle about 20 km on each side, provided evidence of solitary-type wavesin the urban boundary layer. Three events, each lasting from a few minutes toabout 30 min, and ranging in depth from the minimum range of the sodar (39 m) to over 500 m, are reported here. Two events were recognizable onall three sodar records while the third event could be observed at the urbanlocation only. Time-height acoustic echo intensity records showed no-echoregions within the wave indicating transport of trapped recirculating air.This is typical of large amplitude solitary waves. The time series plots ofsodar-derived vertical wind velocity revealed a maximum peak-to-peakvariation of about 5 m s^-1 during periods of wave-associated disturbance.The vertical velocity is found to increase with height up to the top of the closedcirculation within the wave and decreases further above. The normalisedamplitude-wavelength relationship for the two events indicates that theobserved waves are close to a strongly nonlinear regime.     

Observations of the Daytime Boundary Layer in Deep Alpine Valleys

Mixing depth structure and its evolution have been diagnosed from radar wind profiler data in the Chamonix and the Maurienne valleys (France) during summer 2003. The behaviour of refractive index structure parameter C _n ² peaks coupled with the vertical velocity variance σ _w ² was used to estimate the height of the mixed layer. Tethersonde vertical profiles were carried out to investigate the lower layers of the atmosphere in the range of approximately 400–500 m above ground level. The tethersonde device was especially useful to study the reversal of the valley wind system during the morning transition period. Specific features such as wind reversal and the convective mixed layer up to approximately the altitude of the surrounding mountains were documented. The wind reversal was observed to be much more sudden in the Maurienne valley than in the Chamonix valley     

Large-Eddy Simulation of air Pollution Dispersion in the Nocturnal Cloud-Topped Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Effects of stratocumulus clouds on the dispersion of contaminants are studied in the nocturnal atmospheric boundary layer. The study is based on a large-eddy simulation (LES) model with a bulk parametrization of clouds. Computations include Lagrangian calculations of atmospheric dispersion of a passive tracer released from point sources at various heights above the ground. The results obtained show that the vertical diffusion is non-Gaussian and depends on the location of a source in the boundary layer.     

夜间城市大气边界层和气溶胶的相互作用

本文利用能量闭合的二维非线性、非定常模式,结合地面热量平衡方程,研究了夜间城市边界层和气溶胶的相互作用问题。结果表明：气溶胶在夜间对大气低层起保温作用,对大气上层起冷却作用;使大气低层稳定度减小,上层稳定度增加;此外,气溶胶还能够削弱贴地逆温强度。在正常城市气溶胶污染情况下,气溶胶对城市热岛强度影响不大,但可使城市热岛环流稍有增加。夜间城市边界层对气溶胶的反馈作用使大气下层气溶胶浓度减小,上层气溶胶浓度增加。上述部分结论得到了在天津取得的城市热岛观测资料的直接验证。     

Variability and Maintenance of Turbulence in the Very Stable Boundary Layer

The relationship of turbulence quantities to mean flow quantities, such as the Richardson number, degenerates substantially for strong stability, at least in those studies that do not place restrictions on minimum turbulence or non-stationarity. This study examines the large variability of the turbulence for very stable conditions by analyzing four months of turbulence data from a site with short grass. Brief comparisons are made with three additional sites, one over short grass on flat terrain and two with tall vegetation in complex terrain. For very stable conditions, any dependence of the turbulence quantities on the mean wind speed or bulk Richardson number becomes masked by large scatter, as found in some previous studies. The large variability of the turbulence quantities is due to random variations and other physical influences not represented by the bulk Richardson number. There is no critical Richardson number above which the turbulence vanishes. For very stable conditions, the record-averaged vertical velocity variance and the drag coefficient increase with the strength of the submeso motions (wave motions, solitary waves, horizontal modes and numerous more complex signatures). The submeso motions are on time scales of minutes and not normally considered part of the mean flow. The generation of turbulence by such unpredictable motions appears to preclude universal similarity theory for predicting the surface stress for very stable conditions. Large variation of the stress direction with respect to the wind direction for the very stable regime is also examined. Needed additional work is noted.     

Observations of Coherent Turbulence Structures in the Near-Neutral Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Turbulence structures of high Reynolds number flow in the near-neutral atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) are investigated based on observations at Shionomisaki and Shigaraki, Japan. A Doppler sodar measured the vertical profiles of winds in the ABL. Using the integral wavelet transform for the time series of surface wind data, the pattern of a descending high-speed structure with large vertical extent (from the surface to more than 200-m level) is depicted from the Doppler sodar data. Essentially this structure is a specific type of coherent structure that has been previously shown in experiments on turbulent boundary-layer flows. Large-scale high-speed structures in the ABL are extracted using a long time scale (240 s) for the wavelet transform. The non-dimensional interval of time between structures is evaluated as 3.0–6.2 in most cases. These structures make a large contribution to downward momentum transfer in the surface layer. Quadrant analyses of the turbulent motion measured by the sonic anemometer (20-m height) suggest that the sweep motion (high-speed downward motion) plays a substantial role in the downward momentum transfer. In general, the contribution of sweep motions to the momentum flux is nearly equal to that of ejection motions (low-speed upward motions). This contribution of sweep motions is related to the large-scale high-speed structures.     

Comparing Estimates of Turbulence Based on Near-Surface Measurements in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer

Tethered Lifting System (TLS) estimates of the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy (e){(\varepsilon)} are reasonably well correlated with concurrent measurements of vertical velocity variance (s_w²){(\sigma_{w}^{2})} obtained from sonic anemometers located on a nearby 60-m tower during the CASES-99 field experiment. Additional results in the first 100 m of the nocturnal stable boundary layer confirm our earlier claim that the presence of weak but persistent background turbulence exists even during the most stable atmospheric conditions, where e{\varepsilon} can exhibit values as low as 10⁻⁷ m² s⁻³. We also present a set of empirical equations that incorporates TLS measurements of temperature, horizontal wind speed, and e{\varepsilon} to provide a proxy measurement for s_w²{\sigma_{w}^{2}} at altitudes higher than tower heights.