Simulation of the thermodynamic structure of atmospheric boundary layer over Calcutta with a one-dimensional TKE closure PBL model

The thermodynamic structure of boundary la)l:r over Calcutta on the eastern secto r of the monsoontrough has been exam ined byint~ratina I one-dimensional TKE closure planetary bound ary laye r model fortropics which inJcudes interaction oCclo udiness and radiation with turbulence and counter , radient transports ofheal moistu re and momentum. Data sets cf pilct-esperiment phase ofMONTBLEX in 1988 have been used formispurpo se. two specific situations, o ne 'When liquid water is present and the other ~tlcn very strona: winds are prevailinain the boundary layer 8~ considered. Diurn al varialion oCturbulent kinetic ener'ly.lhe TKE budget and the veelicalprofiles otTKE and eddy exchange coefficient ha ve revealed the importance DC counter gradient transports notonly aCheat and moisture but also oC momentum. Combined role DC presence of liquid water and counter gradientsin buoyant production and role of counter a:radienu of momentum in shear production have beenestablished.

Insights into the mixing efficiency of submesoscale Centrifugal-Symmetric instabilities

Submesoscale processes provide a pathway for energy to transfer from the balanced circulation to turbulent dissipation. One class of submesoscale phenomena that has been shown to be particularly effective at removing energy from the balanced flow are centrifugal-symmetric instabilities (CSIs), which grow via geostrophic shear production. CSIs have been observed to generate significant mixing in both the surface boundary layer and bottom boundary layer flows along bathymetry, where they have been implicated in the mixing and watermass transformation of Antarctic Bottom Water. However, the mixing efficiency (i.e. the fraction of the energy extracted from the flow used to irreversibly mix the fluid) of these instabilities remains uncertain, making estimates of mixing and energy dissipation due to CSI difficult.In this work we use large-eddy simulations to investigate the mixing efficiency of CSIs in the submesoscale range. We find that centrifugally-dominated CSIs (i.e. CSI mostly driven by horizontal shear production) tend to have a higher mixing efficiency than symmetrically-dominated ones (i.e. driven by vertical shear production). The mixing efficiency associated with CSIs can therefore alternately be significantly higher or significantly lower than the canonical value used by most studies. These results can be understood in light of recent work on stratified turbulence, whereby CSIs control the background state of the flow in which smaller-scale secondary overturning instabilities develop, thus actively modifying the characteristics of mixing by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Our results also suggest that it may be possible to predict the mixing efficiency with more readily measurable parameters (namely the Richardson and Rossby numbers), which would allow for parameterization of this effect.

Turbulence Characteristics of the Flexible Circular Cylinder Agitator

A flexible protruding surface was employed as the flow disturbance to promote turbulence at the area of interest. An ultrasonic velocity profiler, UVP technique, was used to study the mean and fluctuating flow properties in the near wake of the rigid and flexible protruding surface in a water tunnel. The polymer based, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) with an aspect ratio of AR = 10, 12, 14, 16 was used as the flexible circular cylinder, and submerged in a flow at Re = 4000, 6000 and 8000. The motion of the cylinder altered the fluid flow significantly. As a means to quantify turbulence, the wakes regions and production terms were analyzed. In general, the flexible cylinders show better capability in augmenting the turbulence than the rigid cylinder. The results show that the turbulence production term generated by the flexible cylinder is higher than that of rigid cylinder. The localized maximum shear production values have increased significantly from 131%, 203% and 94% against their rigid counterparts of AR = 16 at the Re = 4000, 6000 and 8000, respectively. The performance of turbulence enhancement depends heavily on the motion of the cylinder. The findings suggest that the turbulence enhancement was due to the oscillation of the flexible cylinder. The results have concluded that the flexible cylinder is a better turbulence generator than the rigid cylinder, thus improving the mixing of fluid through augmented turbulent flow.

Anisotropy of Unstably Stratified Near-Surface Turbulence

Classic Monin–Obukov similarity scaling states that in a stationary, horizontally homogeneous flow, in the absence of subsidence, turbulence is dictated by the balance between shear production and buoyancy production/destruction, whose ratio is characterized by a single universal scaling parameter. An evident breakdown in scaling is observed though, through large scatter in traditional scaling relations for the horizontal velocity variances under unstable stratification, or more generally in complex flow conditions. This breakdown suggests the existence of processes other than local shear and buoyancy that modulate near-surface turbulence. Recent studies on the role of anisotropy in similarity scaling have shown that anisotropy, even if calculated locally, may encode the information about these missing processes. We therefore examine the possible processes that govern the degree of anisotropy in convective conditions. We first use the reduced turbulence-kinetic-energy budget to show that anisotropy in convective conditions cannot be uniquely described by a balance of buoyancy and shear production and dissipation, but that other terms in the budget play an important role. Subsequently, we identify a ratio of local time scales that acts as a proxy for the anisotropic state of convective turbulence. This ratio can be used to formulate a new non-dimensional group. Results show that building on this approach the role of anisotropy in scaling relations over complex terrain can be placed into a more generalized framework.

Ice scallops: a laboratory investigation of the ice–water interface

Ice scallops are a small-scale (5–20 cm) quasi-periodic ripple pattern that occurs at the ice–water interface. Previous work has suggested that scallops form due to a self-reinforcing interaction between an evolving ice-surface geometry, an adjacent turbulent flow field and the resulting differential melt rates that occur along the interface. In this study, we perform a series of laboratory experiments in a refrigerated flume to quantitatively investigate the mechanisms of scallop formation and evolution in high resolution. Using particle image velocimetry, we probe an evolving ice–water boundary layer at sub-millimetre scales and 15 Hz frequency. Our data reveal three distinct regimes of ice–water interface evolution: a transition from flat to scalloped ice; an equilibrium scallop geometry; and an adjusting scallop interface. We find that scalloped-ice geometry produces a clear modification to the ice–water boundary layer, characterized by a time-mean recirculating eddy feature that forms in the scallop trough. Our primary finding is that scallops form due to a self-reinforcing feedback between the ice-interface geometry and shear production of turbulent kinetic energy in the flow interior. The length of this shear production zone is therefore hypothesized to set the scallop wavelength.

Ablation of sloping ice faces into polar seawater

The effects of the slope of an ice–seawater interface on the mechanisms and rate of ablation of the ice by natural convection are examined using turbulence-resolving simulations. Solutions are obtained for ice slopes $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}=2^{\circ }{-}90^{\circ }$, at a fixed ambient salinity and temperature, chosen to represent common Antarctic ocean conditions. For laminar boundary layers the ablation rate decreases with height, whereas in the turbulent regime the ablation rate is found to be height independent. The simulated laminar ablation rates scale with $(\sin \unicode[STIX]{x1D703})^{1/4}$, whereas in the turbulent regime it follows a $(\sin \unicode[STIX]{x1D703})^{2/3}$ scaling, both consistent with the theoretical predictions developed here. The reduction in the ablation rate with shallower slopes arises as a result of the development of stable density stratification beneath the ice face, which reduces turbulent buoyancy fluxes to the ice. The turbulent kinetic energy budget of the flow shows that, for very steep slopes, both buoyancy and shear production are drivers of turbulence, whereas for shallower slopes shear production becomes the dominant mechanism for sustaining turbulence in the convective boundary layer.

Evolution of Turbulence in the Diurnal Warm Layer

The daily evolution of temperature, stratification, and turbulence in the diurnal warm layer is described from time series measurements at low to moderate winds and strong insolation in the equatorial Indian Ocean. At 2.0-m depth, turbulence dissipation rates (ε) decreased by two orders of magnitude over 1–2 h immediately after sunrise, initiated by stratification caused by penetrating solar radiation prior to the change in sign of net surface heat flux from cooling to warming. Decaying turbulence preceded a period of rapid growth, in which ε increased by two orders of magnitude over a few hours, and following which ε approached a daytime period of near-steady state. Decay and growth rates predicted by a simplified turbulence model are consistent with those observed. During the daytime period of near-steady state, asymmetric temperature ramps were associated with enhanced ε, supporting the interpretation that this period represents a balance between buoyancy and shear production associated with a shear-driven response to trapping of momentum within the diurnal warm layer.

Spatiotemporal Variability of Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budgets in the Convective Boundary Layer over Both Simple and Complex Terrain

The assumption of subgrid-scale (SGS) horizontal homogeneity within a model grid cell, which forms the basis of SGS turbulence closures used by mesoscale models, becomes increasingly tenuous as grid spacing is reduced to a few kilometers or less, such as in many emerging high-resolution applications. Herein, the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget equation is used to study the spatiotemporal variability in two types of terrain—complex [Columbia Basin Wind Energy Study (CBWES) site, northeastern Oregon] and flat [Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) site, west Texas]—using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. In each case, six nested domains [three domains each for mesoscale and large-eddy simulation (LES)] are used to downscale the horizontal grid spacing from ~10 km to ~10 m using the WRF Model framework. The model output was used to calculate the values of the TKE budget terms in vertical and horizontal planes as well as the averages of grid cells contained in the four quadrants of the LES domain. The budget terms calculated along the planes and the mean profile of budget terms show larger spatial variability at the CBWES site than at the SWiFT site. The contribution of the horizontal derivative of the shear production term to the total shear production was found to be ≈45% and ≈15% at the CBWES and SWiFT sites, respectively, indicating that the horizontal derivatives applied in the budget equation should not be ignored in mesoscale model parameterizations, especially for cases with complex terrain with <10-km scale.

Submesoscale Instabilities in Mesoscale Eddies

Submesoscale processes have been extensively studied in observations and simulations of fronts. Recent idealized simulations show that submesoscale instabilities also occur in baroclinic mesoscale cyclones and anticyclones. The instabilities in the anticyclone grow faster and at coarser grid resolution than in the cyclone. The instabilities lead to larger restratification in the anticyclone than in the cyclone. The instabilities also lead to changes in the mean azimuthal jet around the anticyclone from 2-km resolution, but a similar effect only occurs in the cyclone at 0.25-km resolution. A numerical passive tracer experiment shows that submesoscale instabilities lead to deeper subduction in the interior of anticyclonic than cyclonic eddies because of outcropping isopycnals extending deeper into the thermocline in anticyclones. An energetic analysis suggests that both vertical shear production and vertical buoyancy fluxes are important in anticyclones but primarily vertical buoyancy fluxes occur in cyclones at these resolutions. The energy sources and sinks vary azimuthally around the eddies caused by the asymmetric effects of the Ekman buoyancy flux. Glider transects of a mesoscale anticyclone in the Tasman Sea show that water with low stratification and high oxygen concentrations is found in an anticyclone, in a manner that may be consistent with the model predictions for submesoscale subduction in mesoscale eddies.