Publication Date:
2013-08-31
Description:
There are at least four physical phenomena which contribute to the FIRE boundary layer turbulence spectra: boundary layer spanning eddies resulting from buoyant and mechanical production of turbulent kinetic energy (the microscale subrange); inertial subrange turbulence which cascades this energy to smaller scales; quasi-two dimensional mesoscale variations; and gravity waves. The relative contributions of these four phenomena to the spectra depend on the altitude of observation and variable involved (vertical velocity, temperature and moisture spectra are discussed). The physical origins of these variations in relative contribution are discussed. As expected from the theory (Kaimal et al., 1976), mixed layer scaling of the spectra (i.e., nondimensionalizing wavelength by Z(sub i) and spectral density by Z(sub i) and the dissipation rates) is successful for the microscale subrange and inertial subrange but not for the mesoscale subrange. The most striking feature of the normalized vertical velocity spectra is the lack of any significant mesoscale contribution. The spectral peak results from buoyant and mechanical production on scales similar to the boundary layer depth. The decrease in spectral density at larger scales results from the suppression of vertical velocity perturbations with large horizontal scales by the shallowness of the atmosphere. The spectral density also decreases towards smaller scales following the well known inertial subrange slope. There is a significant variation in the shape of the normalized spectra with height.
Keywords:
METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY
Type:
FIRE Science Results 1989; p 125-129
Format:
application/pdf
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