The Near-Calm Stable Boundary Layer

For the near-calm stable boundary layer, nominally 2-m mean wind speed <0.5 ms⁻¹, the time-average turbulent flux is dominated by infrequent mixing events. These events are related to accelerations associated with wave-like motions and other more complex small-scale motions. In this regime, the relationship between the fluxes and the weak mean flow breaks down. Such near-calm conditions are common at some sites. For very weak winds and strong stratification, the characteristics of the fluctuating quantities change slowly with increasing scale and the separation between the turbulence and non-turbulent motions can become ambiguous. Therefore, a new analysis strategy is developed based on the scale dependence of selected flow characteristics, such as the ratio of the fluctuating potential energy to the kinetic energy. In contrast to more developed turbulence, correlations between fluctuating quantities are small, and a significant heat flux is sometimes carried by very weak vertical motions with large temperature fluctuations. The relation of the flux events to small-scale increases of wind speed is examined. Large remaining uncertainties are noted.