Turbulence in Atmospheric Boundary Layers

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2019) | Viewed by 9584

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
Interests: unmanned aerial vehicles; measurement technologies; fluid mechanics; turbulence; boundary layers; micrometeorology.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Atmospheric boundary layer turbulence is a crucial component of the transport of mass, momentum and energy between the planetary surface and its atmosphere. Advancements in our understanding of these turbulent processes contribute to a diverse collection of interdisciplinary fields including, but not limited to, meteorology, aviation, agriculture, wind engineering and energy harvesting.

This Special Issue focuses on recent developments in the study of atmospheric turbulence and its impact on various applications. We encourage contributions on the current state-of-the-art in the study of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence, including its theoretical and numerical modeling, as well as experimental measurement and observation.

We invite manuscripts on the following topics:

Development of mathematical and conceptual approaches to ABL turbulence and turbulent transport

Atmospheric boundary layer turbulence theory, including new developments in similarity, parameterization, and scaling laws

Response of ABL turbulence to boundary conditions and external forcing, including stability conditions

The development of novel experimental and numerical tools for the quantification and prediction of turbulence and turbulent transport

Unsteady boundary layer behavior

Atmospheric boundary layer turbulence closure and modeling

Geographic, topographic and roughness effects on atmospheric boundary layer turbulence behavior

Impact of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence on cross-disciplinary applications (e.g. wind energy, agriculture)

Dr. Sean C. Bailey
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Quantitative turbulence prediction
  • Experimental measurement of turbulence
  • Turbulence model development and validation
  • Turbulence scaling and parameterization
  • Applications of turbulence modeling and prediction
  • Unsteady boundary layer behavior
  • Heterogeneous, complex, and urban terrain impact on boundary layer turbulence

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 2916 KiB  
Article
Bulk Scaling Model of Entrainment Zone Thickness in a Convective Boundary Layer, with a Shear Effect Promoted by Velocity Difference
by Anran Li, Wenfeng Gao and Tao Liu
Atmosphere 2020, 11(1), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11010063 - 03 Jan 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2361
Abstract
Studying the thickness of the convective boundary layer (CBL) is helpful for understanding atmospheric structure and the diffusion of air pollutants. When there is velocity shear in CBL, the flow field structure is very different from that of shear-free CBL, which makes the [...] Read more.
Studying the thickness of the convective boundary layer (CBL) is helpful for understanding atmospheric structure and the diffusion of air pollutants. When there is velocity shear in CBL, the flow field structure is very different from that of shear-free CBL, which makes the thickness model of the entrainment zone deviate. A large-eddy simulation (LES) approach is carried out for a horizontally homogeneous, atmospheric CBL, with a shear effect promoted by velocity difference to explore the bulk scaling model of the entrainment zone thickness. The post-processed data indicate that the existing bulk scaling models cannot synthetically represent the effects of shear and buoyancy on entrainment, resulting in reduced accuracy or limited applicability. Based on the fraction of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) used for entrainment, a different form of the characteristic velocity scale, which includes the shear effect, is proposed, and a modified bulk scaling model that uses a potential temperature gradient to replace the potential temperature jump across the entrainment zone is constructed with the numerical results. The new model is found to provide an improved prediction of the entrainment zone thickness in a sheared CBL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Turbulence in Atmospheric Boundary Layers)
Show Figures

Figure 1

35 pages, 21555 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Effects of Explicit Urban Canopy Representation on the Development of Thunderstorms above a Tropical Mega City
by José Luis Flores-Rojas, Augusto José Pereira-Filho, Hugo Abi Karam, Felipe Vemado, Valéry Masson and Fey Yamina Silva-Vidal
Atmosphere 2019, 10(7), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10070356 - 27 Jun 2019
Viewed by 3088
Abstract
The effects of an explicit three dimensional (3D) urban canopy representation on the development of convective thunderstorms were analyzed with the tropical town energy budget (tTEB) scheme integrated into the advanced regional prediction system (ARPS). The study provides a detailed description of the [...] Read more.
The effects of an explicit three dimensional (3D) urban canopy representation on the development of convective thunderstorms were analyzed with the tropical town energy budget (tTEB) scheme integrated into the advanced regional prediction system (ARPS). The study provides a detailed description of the procedure to couple the system ARPS-tTEB and analyzed the simulation results of the 12 January 2015 sea-breeze event that developed a severe thunderstorm above the metropolitan area of São Paulo (MASP), Brazil. The simulation used realistic boundary and initial conditions from the Global Forecast System (GFS) and sea surface temperature (SST) from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). The system ARPS-tTEB runs of up to 3 km horizontal resolution were carried out with high resolution topography features and land-use types currently available for Southeastern Brazil. The simulated spatial distribution of precipitation was verified against the Climate Prediction Center Morphing Technique (CMORPH), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and the São Paulo weather radar (SPWR) precipitation estimates by indexes scores. Time series of grid precipitation estimates (ARPS-tTEB and SPWR) and point measurements (rain gauges) were evaluated with a Bayesian statistical method. Results indicate that the urban area of the MASP modulates the precipitation spatial distribution over it. Furthermore, phase and amplitude precipitation accuracy increased with the 3D urban canyon and the urban energy budget scheme in relationship to control runs without urban environment effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Turbulence in Atmospheric Boundary Layers)
Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 6177 KiB  
Article
An Assessment of Coordinate Rotation Methods in Sonic Anemometer Measurements of Turbulent Fluxes over Complex Mountainous Terrain
by Alessio Golzio, Irene Maria Bollati and Silvia Ferrarese
Atmosphere 2019, 10(6), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10060324 - 13 Jun 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3376
Abstract
The measurement of turbulent fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer is usually performed using fast anemometers and the Eddy Covariance technique. This method has been applied here and investigated in a complex mountainous terrain. A field campaign has recently been conducted at Alpe [...] Read more.
The measurement of turbulent fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer is usually performed using fast anemometers and the Eddy Covariance technique. This method has been applied here and investigated in a complex mountainous terrain. A field campaign has recently been conducted at Alpe Veglia (the Central-Western Italian Alps, 1746 m a.s.l.) where both standard and micrometeorological data were collected. The measured values obtained from an ultrasonic anemometer were analysed using a filtering procedure and three different coordinate rotation procedures: Double (DR), Triple Rotation (TR) and Planar Fit (PF) on moving temporal windows of 30 and 60 min. A quality assessment was performed on the sensible heat and momentum fluxes and the results show that the measured turbulent fluxes at Alpe Veglia were of a medium-high quality level and rarely passed the stationary flow test. A comparison of the three coordinate procedures, using quality assessment and sensible heat flux standard deviations, revealed that DR and TR were comparable, with significant differences, mainly under low-wind conditions. The PF method failed to satisfy the physical requirement for the multiple planarity of the flow, due to the complexity of the mountainous terrain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Turbulence in Atmospheric Boundary Layers)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop