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The stably stratified boundary layer over the great plains

I. Mean and turbulence structure

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Abstract

We present airplane measurements of the stably stratified nocturnal boundary layer obtained during the Severe Environmental Storms and Mesoscale Experiment (SESAME) in 1979. The cases presented here were obtained over rolling terrain in central Oklahama, with a mean slope of about 0.003. The results are in general agreement with previous modeling and observational studies for the mean and turbulence structure of the nocturnal boundary layer, with the exception that the eddy diffusivity of heat, and consequently the flux Richardson number are less than expected.

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

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Lenschow, D.H., Li, X.S., Zhu, C.J. et al. The stably stratified boundary layer over the great plains. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 42, 95–121 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00119877

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