Assessing the shear-sheltering theory applied to low-level jets in the nocturnal stable boundary layer

2012 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique F. Duarte ◽  
Monique Y. Leclerc ◽  
Gengsheng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Low Level Jets

scholarly journals Wind–Temperature Regime and Wind Turbulence in a Stable Boundary Layer of the Atmosphere: Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor A. Banakh ◽  
Igor N. Smalikho ◽  
Andrey V. Falits
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Richardson Number ◽  
Atmospheric Waves ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Wind Turbulence ◽  
Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Low Level Jets

The paper presents the results of probing the stable atmospheric boundary layer in the coastal zone of Lake Baikal with a coherent Doppler wind lidar and a microwave temperature profiler. Two-dimensional height–temporal distributions of the wind velocity vector components, temperature, and parameters characterizing atmospheric stability and wind turbulence were obtained. The parameters of the low-level jets and the atmospheric waves arising in the stable boundary layer were determined. It was shown that the stable atmospheric boundary layer has an inhomogeneous fine scale layered structure characterized by strong variations of the Richardson number Ri. Layers with large Richardson numbers alternate with layers where Ri is less than the critical value of the Richardson number Ricr = 0.25. The channels of decreased stability, where the conditions are close to neutral stratification 0 < Ri < 0.25, arise in the zone of the low-level jets. The wind turbulence in the central part of the observed jets, where Ri > Ricr, is weak, increases considerably to the periphery of jets, at heights where Ri < Ricr. The turbulence may intensify at the appearance of internal atmospheric waves.

The Very Stable Boundary Layer on Nights with Weak Low-Level Jets

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 3068-3090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
Larry Mahrt ◽  
Dean Vickers ◽  
Jielun Sun ◽  
Ben B. Balsley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Density Currents ◽  
Lower Boundary Condition ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Low Level Jets

Abstract The light-wind, clear-sky, very stable boundary layer (vSBL) is characterized by large values of bulk Richardson number. The light winds produce weak shear, turbulence, and mixing, and resulting strong temperature gradients near the surface. Here five nights with weak-wind, very stable boundary layers during the Cooperative Atmosphere–Surface Exchange Study (CASES-99) are investigated. Although the winds were light and variable near the surface, Doppler lidar profiles of wind speed often indicated persistent profile shapes and magnitudes for periods of an hour or more, sometimes exhibiting jetlike maxima. The near-surface structure of the boundary layer (BL) on the five nights all showed characteristics typical of the vSBL. These characteristics included a shallow traditional BL only 10–30 m deep with weak intermittent turbulence within the strong surface-based radiation inversion. Above this shallow BL sat a layer of very weak turbulence and negligible turbulent mixing. The focus of this paper is on the effects of this quiescent layer just above the shallow BL, and the impacts of this quiescent layer on turbulent transport and numerical modeling. High-frequency time series of temperature T on a 60-m tower showed that 1) the amplitudes of the T fluctuations were dramatically suppressed at levels above 30 m in contrast to the relatively larger intermittent T fluctuations in the shallow BL below, and 2) the temperature at 40- to 60-m height was nearly constant for several hours, indicating that the very cold air near the surface was not being mixed upward to those levels. The presence of this quiescent layer indicates that the atmosphere above the shallow BL was isolated and detached both from the surface and from the shallow BL. Although some of the nights studied had modestly stronger winds and traveling disturbances (density currents, gravity waves, shear instabilities), these disturbances seemed to pass through the region without having much effect on either the SBL structure or on the atmosphere–surface decoupling. The decoupling suggests that under very stable conditions, the surface-layer lower boundary condition for numerical weather prediction models should act to decouple and isolate the surface from the atmosphere, for example, as a free-slip, thermally insulated layer. A multiday time series of ozone from an air quality campaign in Tennessee, which exhibited nocturnal behavior typical of polluted air, showed the disappearance of ozone on weak low-level jets (LLJ) nights. This behavior is consistent with the two-stratum structure of the vSBL, and with the nearly complete isolation of the surface and the shallow BL from the rest of the atmosphere above, in contrast to cases with stronger LLJs, where such coupling was stronger.

The Response of Simulated Nocturnal Convective Systems to a Developing Low-Level Jet

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 3384-3408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. French ◽  
Matthew D. Parker
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Squall Line ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Convective Systems ◽  
Squall Lines ◽  
Central United States ◽  
Low Level Jet

Abstract Some recent numerical experiments have examined the dynamics of initially surface-based squall lines that encounter an increasingly stable boundary layer, akin to what occurs with the onset of nocturnal cooling. The present study builds on that work by investigating the added effect of a developing nocturnal low-level jet (LLJ) on the convective-scale dynamics of a simulated squall line. The characteristics of the simulated LLJ atop a simulated stable boundary layer are based on past climatological studies of the LLJ in the central United States. A variety of jet orientations are tested, and sensitivities to jet height and the presence of low-level cooling are explored. The primary impacts of adding the LLJ are that it alters the wind shear in the layers just above and below the jet and that it alters the magnitude of the storm-relative inflow in the jet layer. The changes to wind shear have an attendant impact on low-level lifting, in keeping with current theories for gust front lifting in squall lines. The changes to the system-relative inflow, in turn, impact total upward mass flux and precipitation output. Both are sensitive to the squall line–relative orientation of the LLJ. The variations in updraft intensity and system-relative inflow are modulated by the progression of the low-level cooling, which mimics the development of a nocturnal boundary layer. While the system remains surface-based, the below-jet shear has the largest impact on lifting, whereas the above-jet shear begins to play a larger role as the system becomes elevated. Similarly, as the system becomes elevated, larger changes to system-relative inflow are observed because of the layer of potentially buoyant inflowing parcels becoming confined to the layer of the LLJ.

Spectra, variances and length scales in a marine stable boundary layer dominated by a low level jet

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Sofi Smedman ◽  
Hans Bergstr�m ◽  
Ulf H�gstr�m
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Length Scales ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Low Level Jet

scholarly journals Turbulent Velocity-Variance Profiles in the Stable Boundary Layer Generated by a Nocturnal Low-Level Jet

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 2700-2719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Banta ◽  
Yelena L. Pichugina ◽  
W. Alan Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Strong Wind ◽  
Surface Exchange ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
Velocity Scale ◽  
Low Level Jet ◽  
Wind Profiles

Abstract Profiles of mean winds and turbulence were measured by the High Resolution Doppler lidar in the strong-wind stable boundary layer (SBL) with continuous turbulence. The turbulence quantity measured was the variance of the streamwise wind velocity component σ2u. This variance is a component of the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), and it is shown to be numerically approximately equal to TKE for stable conditions—profiles of σ2u are therefore equivalent to profiles of TKE. Mean-wind profiles showed low-level jet (LLJ) structure for most of the profiles, which represented 10-min averages of mean and fluctuating quantities throughout each of the six nights studied. Heights were normalized by the height of the first LLJ maximum above the surface ZX, and the velocity scale used was the speed of the jet UX, which is shown to be superior to the friction velocity u* as a velocity scale. The major results were 1) the ratio of the maximum value of the streamwise standard deviation to the LLJ speed σu/UX was found to be 0.05, and 2) the three most common σ2u profile shapes were determined by stability (or Richardson number Ri). The least stable profile shapes had the maximum σ2u at the surface decreasing to a minimum at the height of the LLJ; profiles that were somewhat more stable had constant σ2u through a portion of the subjet layer; and the most stable of the profiles had a maximum of σ2u aloft, although it is important to note that the Ri for even the most stable of the three profile categories averaged less than 0.20. The datasets used in this study were two nights from the Cooperative Atmosphere–Surface Exchange Study 1999 campaign (CASES-99) and four nights from the Lamar Low-Level Jet Project, a wind-energy experiment in southeast Colorado, during September 2003.

scholarly journals The Characteristics of Numerically Simulated Supercell Storms Situated over Statically Stable Boundary Layers

2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (10) ◽  
pp. 3139-3162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Nowotarski ◽  
Paul M. Markowski ◽  
Yvette P. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Boundary Layers ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Stable Layer ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Stable Boundary Layers ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Supercell Thunderstorms

Abstract This paper uses idealized numerical simulations to investigate the dynamical influences of stable boundary layers on the morphology of supercell thunderstorms, especially the development of low-level rotation. Simulations are initialized in a horizontally homogeneous environment with a surface-based stable layer similar to that found within a nocturnal boundary layer or a mesoscale cold pool. The depth and lapse rate of the imposed stable boundary layer, which together control the convective inhibition (CIN), are varied in a suite of experiments. When compared with a control simulation having little surface-based CIN, each supercell simulated in an environment having a stable boundary layer develops weaker rotation, updrafts, and downdrafts at low levels; in general, low-level vertical vorticity and vertical velocity magnitude decrease as initial CIN increases (changes in CIN are due only to variations in the imposed stable boundary layer). Though the presence of a stable boundary layer decreases low-level updraft strength, all supercells except those initiated over the most stable boundary layers had at least some updraft parcels with near-surface origins. Furthermore, the existence of a stable boundary layer only prohibits downdraft parcels from reaching the lowest grid level in the most stable cases. Trajectory and circulation analyses indicate that weaker near-surface rotation in the stable-layer scenarios is a result of the decreased generation of circulation coupled with decreased convergence of the near-surface circulation by weaker low-level updrafts. These results may also suggest a reason why tornadogenesis is less likely to occur in so-called elevated supercell thunderstorms than in surface-based supercells.

scholarly journals Lidar study of wind turbulence, low level jet streams, and atmospheric internal waves in the boundary layer of atmosphere

2018 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 06005
Author(s):  
Viktor Banakh ◽  
Igor Smalikho
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Internal Waves ◽  
Stable Boundary Layer ◽  
Dissipation Rate ◽  
Jet Streams ◽  
Stable Boundary ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Experimental Campaign ◽  
Wind Turbulence ◽  
Low Level Jet

The results of lidar study of wind turbulence, low level jet streams, and internal atmospheric waves in the stable boundary layer of atmosphere on the coast of Lake Baikal are presented. Few events of the atmospheric internal waves (AIWs) were registered during the experimental campaign. All the registered AIWs were observed in the presence of low level jet streams. Two dimensional time–height patterns of the wind turbulence dissipation rate during AIW events were obtained as well.

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