scholarly journals Turbulent structure and scaling of the inertial subrange in a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer observed by a Doppler lidar

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 5873-5885 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tonttila ◽  
E. J. O'Connor ◽  
A. Hellsten ◽  
A. Hirsikko ◽  
C. O'Dowd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Turbulent Structure ◽  
Inertial Subrange ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Turbulent Dissipation ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Velocity Statistics ◽  
Velocity Skewness

Abstract. The turbulent structure of a stratocumulus-topped marine boundary layer over a 2-day period is observed with a Doppler lidar at Mace Head in Ireland. Using profiles of vertical velocity statistics, the bulk of the mixing is identified as cloud driven. This is supported by the pertinent feature of negative vertical velocity skewness in the sub-cloud layer which extends, on occasion, almost to the surface. Both coupled and decoupled turbulence characteristics are observed. The length and timescales related to the cloud-driven mixing are investigated and shown to provide additional information about the structure and the source of the mixing inside the boundary layer. They are also shown to place constraints on the length of the sampling periods used to derive products, such as the turbulent dissipation rate, from lidar measurements. For this, the maximum wavelengths that belong to the inertial subrange are studied through spectral analysis of the vertical velocity. The maximum wavelength of the inertial subrange in the cloud-driven layer scales relatively well with the corresponding layer depth during pronounced decoupled structure identified from the vertical velocity skewness. However, on many occasions, combining the analysis of the inertial subrange and vertical velocity statistics suggests higher decoupling height than expected from the skewness profiles. Our results show that investigation of the length scales related to the inertial subrange significantly complements the analysis of the vertical velocity statistics and enables a more confident interpretation of complex boundary layer structures using measurements from a Doppler lidar.

scholarly journals Turbulent structure and scaling of the inertial subrange in a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer observed by a Doppler lidar

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 24119-24148
Author(s):  
J. Tonttila ◽  
E. J. O'Connor ◽  
A. Hellsten ◽  
A. Hirsikko ◽  
C. O'Dowd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Turbulent Structure ◽  
Inertial Subrange ◽  
Relative Depth ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Turbulent Dissipation ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Velocity Statistics

Abstract. The turbulent structure of a stratocumulus-topped marine boundary layer over a two-day period is observed with a Doppler lidar at Mace Head in Ireland. Using profiles of vertical velocity statistics, the bulk of the mixing is identified as cloud-driven. This is supported by the pertinent feature of negative vertical velocity skewness in the sub-cloud layer which extends, on occasion, almost to the surface. Both coupled and decoupled turbulence characteristics are observed. The length and time scales related to the cloud driven mixing are investigated, which are shown to provide additional information about the structure and the source of the mixing inside the boundary layer. They are also shown to place constraints on the length of the sampling periods used to derive products, such as the turbulent dissipation rate, from lidar measurements. For this, the upper cut-off wavelength of the inertial subrange is studied through spectral analysis of the vertical velocity. The bulk statistical profiles and the scaling of the inertial subrange show consistent behaviour as the boundary layer undergoes transitions between a coupled and decoupled stratocumulus layer. The cut-off wavelength of the inertial subrange does not appear to scale robustly with the relative depth of the local mixing regime at different altitudes during decoupled periods. Rather, the competition between surface-based and cloud-driven mixed layers suppresses the range of eddy sizes at all heights inside the boundary layer.

Study of Thermal Activity in The Mixing Layer During First Generated Single Cloud by Using Combined Observation From Boundary Layer Radar, Doppler Lidar and Time Lapse Camera 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginaldi Ari Nugroho ◽  
Kosei Yamaguchi ◽  
Eiichi Nakakita ◽  
Masayuki K. Yamamoto ◽  
Seiji Kawamura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Thermal Activity ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Cumulus Cloud ◽  
Scale Perturbation

<p>Detailed observation of small scale perturbation in the atmospheric boundary layer during the first generated cumulus cloud are conducted. Our target is to study this small scale perturbation, especially related to the thermal activity at the first generated cumulus cloud. The observation is performed during the daytime on August 17, 2018, and September 03, 2018. Location is focused in the urban area of Kobe, Japan. High-resolution instruments such as Boundary Layer Radar, Doppler Lidar, and Time Lapse camera are used in this observation. Boundary Layer Radar, and Doppler Lidar are used for clear air observation. Meanwhile Time Lapse Camera are used for cloud existence observation. The atmospheric boundary layer structure is analyzed based on vertical velocity profile, variance, skewness, and estimated atmospheric boundary layer height. Wavelet are used to observe more of the period of the thermal activity. Furthermore, time correlation between vertical velocity time series from height 0.3 to 2 km and image pixel of generated cloud time series are also discussed in this study.</p>

scholarly journals Vertical velocity and turbulence aspects during Mistral events as observed by UHF wind profilers

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 3927-3936 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-L. Caccia ◽  
V. Guénard ◽  
B. Benech ◽  
B. Campistron ◽  
P. Drobinski
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Planetary Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Convective Boundary Layer ◽  
Dissipation Rate ◽  
Convective Boundary ◽  
Turbulent Dissipation ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Rhone Valley ◽  
Wind Profilers

Abstract. The general purpose of this paper is to experimentally study mesoscale dynamical aspects of the Mistral in the coastal area located at the exit of the Rhône-valley. The Mistral is a northerly low-level flow blowing in southern France along the Rhône-valley axis, located between the French Alps and the Massif Central, towards the Mediterranean Sea. The experimental data are obtained by UHF wind profilers deployed during two major field campaigns, MAP (Mesoscale Alpine Program) in autumn 1999, and ESCOMPTE (Expérience sur Site pour COntraindre les Modèles de Pollution atmosphériques et de Transports d'Emission) in summer 2001. Thanks to the use of the time evolution of the vertical profile of the horizontal wind vector, recent works have shown that the dynamics of the Mistral is highly dependent on the season because of the occurrence of specific synoptic patterns. In addition, during summer, thermal forcing leads to a combination of sea breeze with Mistral and weaker Mistral due to the enhanced friction while, during autumn, absence of convective turbulence leads to substantial acceleration as low-level jets are generated in the stably stratified planetary boundary layer. At the exit of the Rhône valley, the gap flow dynamics dominates, whereas at the lee of the Alps, the dynamics is driven by the relative contribution of "flow around" and "flow over" mechanisms, upstream of the Alps. This paper analyses vertical velocity and turbulence, i.e. turbulent dissipation rate, with data obtained by the same UHF wind profilers during the same Mistral events. In autumn, the motions are found to be globally and significantly subsident, which is coherent for a dry, cold and stable flow approaching the sea, and the turbulence is found to be of pure dynamical origin (wind shears and mountain/lee wave breaking), which is coherent with non-convective situations. In summer, due to the ground heating and to the interactions with thermal circulation, the vertical motions are less pronounced and no longer have systematic subsident charateristics. In addition, those vertical motions are found to be much less developed during the nighttimes because of the stabilization of the nocturnal planetary boundary layer due to a ground cooling. The enhanced turbulent dissipation-rate values found at lower levels during the afternoons of weak Mistral cases are consistent with the installation of the summer convective boundary layer and show that, as expected in weaker Mistral events, the convection is the preponderant factor for the turbulence generation. On the other hand, for stronger cases, such a convective boundary layer installation is perturbed by the Mistral.

scholarly journals A Method for Estimating the Turbulent Kinetic Energy Dissipation Rate from a Vertically Pointing Doppler Lidar, and Independent Evaluation from Balloon-Borne In Situ Measurements

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 1652-1664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan J. O’Connor ◽  
Anthony J. Illingworth ◽  
Ian M. Brooks ◽  
Christopher D. Westbrook ◽  
Robin J. Hogan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Convective Boundary Layer ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Inertial Subrange ◽  
Doppler Velocity ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Convective Boundary ◽  
Dissipation Rates

Abstract A method of estimating dissipation rates from a vertically pointing Doppler lidar with high temporal and spatial resolution has been evaluated by comparison with independent measurements derived from a balloon-borne sonic anemometer. This method utilizes the variance of the mean Doppler velocity from a number of sequential samples and requires an estimate of the horizontal wind speed. The noise contribution to the variance can be estimated from the observed signal-to-noise ratio and removed where appropriate. The relative size of the noise variance to the observed variance provides a measure of the confidence in the retrieval. Comparison with in situ dissipation rates derived from the balloon-borne sonic anemometer reveal that this particular Doppler lidar is capable of retrieving dissipation rates over a range of at least three orders of magnitude. This method is most suitable for retrieval of dissipation rates within the convective well-mixed boundary layer where the scales of motion that the Doppler lidar probes remain well within the inertial subrange. Caution must be applied when estimating dissipation rates in more quiescent conditions. For the particular Doppler lidar described here, the selection of suitably short integration times will permit this method to be applicable in such situations but at the expense of accuracy in the Doppler velocity estimates. The two case studies presented here suggest that, with profiles every 4 s, reliable estimates of ε can be derived to within at least an order of magnitude throughout almost all of the lowest 2 km and, in the convective boundary layer, to within 50%. Increasing the integration time for individual profiles to 30 s can improve the accuracy substantially but potentially confines retrievals to within the convective boundary layer. Therefore, optimization of certain instrument parameters may be required for specific implementations.

scholarly journals Turbulence in The Marine Boundary Layer and Air Motions Below Stratocumulus Clouds at the ARM Eastern North Atlantic Site

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virendra P. Ghate ◽  
Maria P. Cadeddu ◽  
Xue Zheng ◽  
Ewan O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Cloud Layer ◽  
Similar Amount ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Eastern North Atlantic ◽  
Rain Rates

AbstractMarine stratocumulus clouds are intimately coupled to the turbulence in the boundary layer and drizzle is known to be ubiquitous within them. Six years of data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)’s Eastern North Atlantic site are utilized to characterize turbulence in the marine boundary layer and air motions below stratocumulus clouds. Profiles of variance of vertical velocity binned by wind direction (wdir) yielded that the boundary layer measurements are affected by the island when the wdir is between 90° and 310° (measured clockwise from North where air is coming from). Data collected during the marine conditions (wdir<90 or wdir>310) showed that the variance of vertical velocity was higher during the winter months than during the summer months due to higher cloudiness, wind speeds, and surface fluxes. During marine conditions the variance of vertical velocity and cloud fraction exhibited a distinct diurnal cycle with higher values during the nighttime than during the daytime. Detailed analysis of 32 cases of drizzling marine stratocumulus clouds showed that for a similar amount of radiative cooling at the cloud top, within the sub-cloud layer 1) drizzle increasingly falls within downdrafts with increasing rain rates, 2) the strength of the downdrafts increases with increasing rain rates, and 3) the correlation between vertical air motion and rain rate is highest in the middle of the sub-cloud layer. The results presented herein have implications for climatological and model evaluation studies conducted at the ENA site, along with efforts of accurately representing drizzle-turbulence interactions in a range of atmospheric models.

scholarly journals Twenty-Four-Hour Observations of the Marine Boundary Layer Using Shipborne NOAA High-Resolution Doppler Lidar

2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1723-1744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Wulfmeyer ◽  
Tijana Janjić
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Wind Profiles

Abstract Shipborne observations obtained with the NOAA high-resolution Doppler lidar (HRDL) during the 1999 Nauru (Nauru99) campaign were used to study the structure of the marine boundary layer (MBL) in the tropical Pacific Ocean. During a day with weak mesoscale activity, diurnal variability of the height of the convective MBL was observed using HRDL backscatter data. The observed diurnal variation in the MBL height had an amplitude of about 250 m. Relations between the MBL height and in situ measurements of sea surface temperature as well as latent and sensible heat fluxes were examined. Good correlation was found with the sea surface temperature. The correlation with the latent heat flux was lower, and practically no correlation between the MBL height and the sensible heat and buoyancy fluxes could be detected. Horizontal wind profiles were measured using a velocity–azimuth display scan of HRDL velocity data. Strong wind shear at the top of the MBL was observed in most cases. Comparison of these results with GPS radiosonde data shows discrepancies in the wind intensity and direction, which may be due to different observation times and locations as well as due to multipath effects at the ship’s platform. Vertical wind profiles corrected for ship’s motion were used to derive vertical velocity variance and skewness profiles. Motion compensation had a significant effect on their shape. Normalized by the convective velocity scale and by the top of the mixed layer zi, the variance varied between 0.45 and 0.65 at 0.4z/zi and decreased to 0.2 at 1.0z/zi. The skewness ranged between 0.3 and 0.8 in the MBL and showed in almost all cases a maximum between 1.0z/zi and 1.1z/zi. These profiles revealed the existence of another turbulent layer above the MBL, which was probably driven by wind shear and cloud condensation processes.

scholarly journals Year-Long Vertical Velocity Statistics Derived from Doppler Lidar Data for the Continental Convective Boundary Layer

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 2441-2454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry K. Berg ◽  
Rob K. Newsom ◽  
David D. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Shear Stress ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Lidar Data ◽  
Surface Shear Stress ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Convective Boundary ◽  
Degree Of Instability

AbstractOne year of coherent Doppler lidar data collected at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site in Oklahoma was analyzed to provide profiles of vertical velocity variance, skewness, and kurtosis for cases of cloud-free convective boundary layers. The variance was normalized by the Deardorff convective velocity scale, which was successful when the boundary layer depth was stationary but failed in situations in which the layer was changing rapidly. In this study, the data are sorted according to time of day, season, wind direction, surface shear stress, degree of instability, and wind shear across the boundary layer top. The normalized variance was found to have its peak value near a normalized height of 0.25. The magnitude of the variance changes with season, shear stress, degree of instability, and wind shear across the boundary layer top. The skewness was largest in the top half of the boundary layer (with the exception of wintertime conditions). The skewness was also found to be a function of the season, shear stress, and wind shear across the boundary layer top. Like skewness, the vertical profile of kurtosis followed a consistent pattern, with peak values near the boundary layer top. The normalized altitude of the peak values of kurtosis was found to be higher when there was a large amount of wind shear at the boundary layer top.

scholarly journals Marine boundary layer over the subtropical southeast Pacific during VOCALS-REx – Part 2: Synoptic variability

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 26063-26094 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Rahn ◽  
R. D. Garreaud
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Subtropical Anticyclone ◽  
Easterly Wind ◽  
Entrainment Velocity ◽  
Synoptic Variability ◽  
Synoptic Forcing ◽  
Southeast Pacific

Abstract. In the second part of this work we study the day-to-day variability of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MBL) over the subtropical southeast Pacific using primarily results from a numerical simulation that covered the whole VOCALS-REx period (October–November 2008). In situ and satellite-derived observations of the MBL height in the offshore region indicate rapid, significant variations (from 500 m to 1700 m a.s.l. over a few days) during October. These MBL changes are connected with the passage of midlatitude troughs that altered the large-scale environment over the VOCALS-REx region. In contrast, the synoptic forcing and MBL changes were less prominent during November. Modelled and observed MBL depth at Point Omega (20° S, 85° W) compare quite well during October (but the simulation is on average 200 m lower) while in November the simulation does not perform as well. Each term in the prognostic local MBL height equation (horizontal MBL height advection, large scale vertical velocity at MBL top, and entrainment velocity) is calculated explicitly from the simulation except the entrainment velocity which is calculated as the residual of the other terms in the equation. While the vertical velocity and residual terms are opposing and generally have the largest magnitude on average, it is the variability in the advection that explains most of the large changes in the MBL depth. Examination of several cases during VOCALS-REx suggests that the advective term is in turn largely controlled by changes in wind direction, driven by midlatitude activity, acting on a MBL that generally slopes down toward the coast. In one phase, the subtropical anticyclone is reinforced and extends toward the Chilean coast, leading to easterly wind that advects low MBL heights from the coast as far as Point Omega. The opposite phase occurs after the passage of an extratropical cyclone over southern Chile, leading to southwesterly wind that advects a deeper MBL towards subtropical latitudes.

scholarly journals Updraft and downdraft characterization with Doppler lidar: cloud-free versus cumuli-topped mixed-layer

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 9219-9252 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ansmann ◽  
J. Fruntke ◽  
R. Engelmann
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Unit Length ◽  
Mixing Layer ◽  
Average Frequency ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Doppler Lidar ◽  
Fair Weather ◽  
Pronounced Increase ◽  
Horizontal Extent

Abstract. For the first time, a comprehensive, height-resolved Doppler lidar study of updrafts and downdrafts in the mixing layer is presented. The Doppler lidar measurements were performed at Leipzig, Germany, in the summer half year of 2006. The conditional sampling method is applied to the measured vertical velocities to identify, count, and analyze significant updraft and downdraft events. Three cases of boundary layer evolution with and without fair weather cumuli formation are discussed. Updrafts occur with an average frequency of 1–2 per unit length zi (boundary layer depth zi), downdrafts 20%–30% more frequently. In the case with cumuli formation, the draft occurrence frequency is enhanced by about 50% at cloud level or near cloud base. The counted updraft events cover 30%–34%, downdrafts 53%–57% of the velocity time series during the main period of convective activity. By considering all drafts with horizontal extent >36 m in the analysis, the updraft mean horizontal extent ranges from 200–350 m and is about 0.15zi in all three cases. Downdrafts are a factor of 1.3–1.5 larger. The average value of the updraft mean vertical velocities is 0.5–0.7 m/s or 0.4w∗ (convective velocity scale w∗), and the negative downdraft mean vertical velocities are weaker by roughly 10%–20%. The analysis of the relationship between the size (horizontal extent) of the updrafts and downdrafts and their mean vertical velocity reveals a pronounced increase of the average vertical velocity in updrafts from 0.4–0.5 m/s for small thermals (100–200 m) to about 1.5 m/s for large updrafts (>600 m) in the case with fair weather cumuli. At cloudless conditions, the updraft velocities were found to be 20% smaller for the large thermals.

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