On the Kinetic Energy Budget of the Unstable Atmospheric Surface Layer

We present a new account of the kinetic energy budget within an unstable atmospheric surface layer (ASL) beneath a convective outer layer. It is based on the structural model of turbulence introduced by McNaughton (Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 112: 199–221, 2004). In this model the turbulence is described as a self-organizing system with a highly organized structure that resists change by instability. This system is driven from above, with both the mean motion and the large-scale convective motions of the outer layer creating shear across the surface layer. The outer convective motions thus modulate the turbulence processes in the surface layer, causing variable downwards fluxes of momentum and kinetic energy. The variable components of the momentum flux sum to zero, but the associated energy divergence is cumulative, increasing both the average kinetic energy of the turbulence in the surface layer and the rate at which that energy is dissipated. The tendency of buoyancy to preferentially enhance the vertical motions is opposed by pressure reaction forces, so pressure production, which is the work done against these reaction forces, exactly equals buoyant production of kinetic energy. The pressure potential energy that is produced is then redistributed throughout the layer through many conversions, back and forth, between pressure potential and kinetic energy with zero sums. These exchanges generally increase the kinetic energy of the turbulence, the rate at which turbulence transfers momentum and the rate at which it dissipates energy, but does not alter its overall structure. In this model the velocity scale for turbulent transport processes in the surface layer is (kzɛ)^1/3 rather than the friction velocity, u_*. Here k is the von Kármán constant, z is observation height, ɛ is the dissipation rate. The model agrees very well with published experimental results, and provides the foundation for the new similarity model of the unstable ASL, replacing the older Monin–Obukhov similarity theory, whose assumptions are no longer tenable.