A model for the horizontal exchange between ice-supersaturated regions and their surrounding area

Summary A simple model is devised to simulate the turbulent exchange of humidity between ice-supersaturated regions in the upper troposphere and their subsaturated environment. The model works as a random version of a 2-dimensional cellular automaton, and does not contain dynamics nor microphysics. In spite of its simplicity the model helps to interpret certain stochastic properties of ice-supersaturated regions, namely the exponential distribution of the degree of supersaturation and the Weibull distribution of path-lengths through these regions. In particular, the exponential distribution of the degree of supersaturation evolves from permanent humidity exchange in spite of a rather peculiar initial distribution of supersaturation, that is, two Dirac delta functions. Such a robust feature is advantageous for future parameterisations of ISSRs for large-scale models. Received October 19, 2000 Revised June 25, 2001     

A 500 hPa synoptic wildland fire climatology for large Canadian forest fires, 1959–1996

Summary In Canada, the average annual area of burned forest has increased from around 1 million ha in the 1970’s to over 2.5 million ha in the 1990’s. A previous study has identified the link between anomalous mid-tropospheric circulation at 500 hPa over northern North America and wildland fire severity activity in various large regions of Canada over the entire May to August fire season. In this study, a northern North American study region of the hemispheric gridded 5° latitude by 10° longitude 500 hPa dataset is identified and analysed from 1959 to 1996 for a sequence of six monthly periods through the fire season, beginning in April and ending in September. Synoptic types, or modes of upper air behavior, are determined objectively by the eigenvector method employing K-means cluster analysis. Monthly burned areas from the Canadian Large Fire Database (LFDB) for the same period, 1959 to 1996, are analysed in conjunction with the classified monthly 500 hPa synoptic types. Relationships between common monthly patterns of anomalous upper flow and spatial patterns of large fire occurrence are examined at the ecozone level. Average occurrence of a monthly synoptic type associated with very large area burned is approximately 18% of the years from 1959 to 1996. The largest areas burned during the main fire (May to August) season occur in the western Boreal and Taiga ecozones – the Taiga Plains, Taiga Shield, Boreal West Shield and Boreal Plains. Monthly burned areas are also analysed temporally in conjunction with a calculated monthly zonal index (Zi_m) for two separate areas defined to cover western and eastern Canada. In both western and eastern Canada, high area burned is associated with synoptic types with mid-tropospheric ridging in the proximity of the affected region and low Zi_m with weak westerlies and strong meridional flow over western Canada. Received April 3, 2001 Revised July 13, 2001     

Microclimatological characteristics of a miscanthus (Miscanthus cv. giganteus) stand during stable conditionsat night in the nonvegetative winter period

Summary ?Microclimatological data obtained during a field experiment in the nongrowing winter period were used to study the microclimatologically stable night conditions of a 200 × 150 m miscanthus (Miscanthus cv. giganteus) stand and compared to open field conditions. The microclimatological pattern within the miscanthus canopy was characterized by long-wave radiative cooling of the plant stand and by an established temperature inversion within the canopy at calm nights. The results show that there are significant differences in air temperature and energy balance components between the open field and the miscanthus field during calm and clear nights. In general, net radiation difference during the cold and calm nights was relatively constant and about 20 W m⁻² less negative in miscanthus (because of lower surface temperatures) than at the open field. Air temperature differences also remained fairly constant and were up to 3 °C lower than at the open field (at the height of 1 m). Through thermal inversion cold air accumulated in the lower parts of the canopy as shown by the vertical air temperature profiles. They showed a greater amplitude within the diurnal cycle in the miscanthus stand than in the open field. Through the onset of wind, temperature profiles changed rapidly and differences diminished. Vertical katabatic air drainage into the canopy layers was estimated indirectly by using the energy balance approach. It was calculated from the significant energy balance closure gap and showed a mean air exchange rate of up to 22 m³ m⁻² h⁻¹, related to a stand volume of 1 m² area and 4 m height, during the mostly calm and clear nights, depending on the canopy net radiation and turbulent heat exchange forced by slight wind spells. Quantitative uncertainties in calculated cold air drainage which are introduced by the measurement method and certain assumptions in the calculations, were considered in a sensitivity analysis. In spite of these uncertainties evidence of katabatic cold air flow is given. Received July 29, 1999; revised June 11, 2001; accepted March 14, 2002     

Townsend's Hypothesis, Coherent Structures And Monin–Obukhov Similarity

Townsend's hypothesis states that turbulence near a wall can be divided into an activepart that transports momentum, and an inactive part that does not, and that these twokinds of turbulence do not interact. Active turbulence is generated by wind shear and has properties that scale on local parameters of the flow, while inactive turbulence isthe product of energetic processes remote from the surface and scales on outer-layerparameters. Both kinds of motion can be observed in the atmospheric surface layer, soMonin–Obukhov similarity theory, which is framed in terms of local parameters only,can apply only to active motions. If Townsend's hypothesis were wrong, so that activeand inactive motions do interact in some significant way, then transport processes nearthe ground would be sensitive to outer-layer parameters such as boundary-layer depth,and Monin–Obukhov theory would fail.Experimental results have shown that heat transport near the ground does depend onprocesses in the outer layer. We propose a mechanism for this whereby inactive motionsinitiate active, coherent ejection/sweep structures that carry much of the momentum andheat. We give evidence that the inactive motions take the form of streak patterns of fasterand slower air, and argue that these are induced by the pressure effects of large eddiespassing overhead. The streak pattern includes regions where faster streams of air overtakeand engulf slower-moving streaks. Transverse vortices form across the spines of the streaksat these places and some of them develop into horseshoe vortices. These horseshoe vorticesgrow rapidly and are rotated forward in the sheared flow so they soon contact the ground,squirting the air confined between the legs of the horseshoe vortex outwards as a forcefulejection. This model is consistent with a wide range of results from the field and laboratoryexperiments. Heat transport is significantly affected, so undermining the dimensionalassumptions of Monin–Obukhov similarity theory.     

Atmospheric Surface-Layer Processes During the Total Solar Eclipse Of 11 August 1999

The central path of the total solar eclipse (TSE) of 11 August 1999 mostly passedthrough a region of active monsoon in India, with the eclipse ending around localsunset. Measurements in the surface layer (SL) were carried out close to the eclipseaxis at Akola (20°42' N, 77°2' E) in central India. The globalradiation flux reaching the surface vanishes around totality at 1803:24 (LT), followedby a small recovery before again dipping to zero at sunset. The temperatures in the SL, and subsoil at 50-mm depth, show a local minimum with a lag of about 10 min after the second contact, whereas the lag appears to vanish when the temperature series is detrended. The SL exhibits near-neutral, though generally stable, conditions from about 1500 hr itself due to heavy cloud cover followed by the eclipse-induced cooling of the surface. The wind component across the eclipse axis vanishes at totality, the wind vector aligning with the azimuth of the traversing moon shadow. The deceleration of the mean flow can be due to the combined effect of the colder surface and downward heat flux, where the locally altered horizontal temperature gradients may cause, as in this instance, the cessation of the cross flow.The oscillations in temperature and wind that show significant peaks, around 90–100 min as well as the semi-period of the eclipse near 60 min, persist for several hours past the eclipse event. A fresh analysis of the published data on the TSE of 7 March 1970 shows spectral peaks in the temperature nearly coincident with those already reported from the surface pressure records. The oscillations in the SL fields during the two TSE events are very similar implying that the source mechanism is also likely to be the same in both the cases.     

Determination of Area-Averaged Water Vapour Fluxes with Large Aperture and Radio Wave Scintillometers over a Heterogeneous Surface – Flevoland Field Experiment

A large aperture scintillometer (LAS) andradio wave scintillometer (RWS)were installed over a heterogeneous areato test the applicability of the scintillation method.The heterogeneity in the area, whichconsisted of many plots, was mainly caused bydifferences in thermal properties ofthe crops; the variations in theaerodynamic roughness lengthwere small. The water vapour fluxesderived from the combined LAS-RWSsystem, also known as the two-wavelengthmethod, agreed fairly well with the aggregatedwater vapour fluxes derived from in-situeddy covariance measurements. The water vapourfluxes derived from a stand-alone LASare also presented. It was found that a single LASand an estimate of the area averagedavailable energy (using a simple parameterisationscheme) can provide also reasonablearea-averaged water vapour fluxes.     

Particle size dependent response of aerosol counters

During an international workshop at the Institute for Experimental Physics of the University of Vienna, Austria, which was coordinated within the Committee on Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols (IAMAS-IUGG), 10 instruments for aerosol number concentration measurement were studied, covering a wide range of methods based on various different measuring principles. In order to investigate the detection limits of the instruments considered with respect to particle size, simultaneous number concentration measurements were performed for monodispersed aerosols with particle sizes ranging from 1.5 to 50 nm diameter and various compositions.The instruments considered show quite different response characteristics, apparently related to the different vapors used in the various counters to enlarge the particles to an optically detectable size. A strong dependence of the 50% cutoff diameter on the particle composition in correlation with the type of vapor used in the specific instrument was found. An enhanced detection efficiency for ultrafine hygroscopic sodium chloride aerosols was observed with water operated systems, an analogous trend was found for n-butanol operated systems with nonhygroscopic silver and tungsten oxide particles.     

Optimal design of passive energy dissipation systems based on H∞ and H2 performances

Passive energy dissipation devices (EDDs), such as viscous dampers, viscoelastic dampers, etc., have been used to effectively reduce the dynamic response of civil infrastructures, such as buildings and bridges, subject to earthquakes and strong winds. The design of these passive energy dissipation devices (EDDs) involves the determination of the optimal locations and the corresponding capacities. In this paper, we present two optimal design methodologies for passive EDDs based on active control theories, including H_∞ and H₂ performances, respectively. The optimal design methodologies presented are capable of determining the optimal locations and the corresponding capacities of EDDs. Emphasis is placed on the application of linear matrix inequality (LMI) for the effective design of passive EDDs using the popular MATLAB toolboxes. One important advantage of the proposed approaches is that the computation of the structural response is not needed in the design process. The proposed optimal design methodologies have been applied to: (i) a 10‐storey building and a 24‐storey building both subject to earthquake excitations, and (ii) a 76‐storey wind‐excited benchmark building, to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed design methodologies over the conventional equal capacity design. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.