Growth Of The Summer Daytime Convective Boundary Layer At Anand

The heights of the daytime convective boundary layer (CBL), computed by a one-dimensional model for a bare soil surface at a semi-arid station,Anand, during the dry and hot summer month of May 1997, are presented. As input, the model requires surface heat flux, friction velocity and air temperature as functions of time. Temperature data at the one-metre level from a tower and sonic anemometer data at 9.5 m collected during the period 13–17 May 1997 in the Land Surface Processes Experiment (LASPEX-97) are used to compute hourly values of surface heat flux, friction velocity and Obukhov length following the operational method suggested by Holtslag and Van Ulden [J. Climate Appl. Meteorol.22,517–529 (1983)]. The model has been tested with different values for the potential temperature gradient ( ) above the inversion. The model-estimated CBL heights comparefavourably with observed heights obtained from radiosonde ascents.