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The planetary boundary-layer (PBL) parameterization is a key issue for the definition of initial wind flow fields in diagnostic models. However, PBL theories usually treat separately stable, neutral, and convective stability conditions, so that their implementation in diagnostic wind models is not straightforward. In the present paper, an attempt is made to adopt a comprehensive PBL parameterisation, covering stable/neutral and unstable atmospheric conditions, which appears suitable to diagnostic models. This parameterisation is implemented into our diagnostic mass-consistent code. A validation of the consistency between the implemented PBL parameterisations has been checked through an analysis of the sensitivity of the vertical wind profiles to atmospheric stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Katabatic flows over high-latitude long glaciers experience the Coriolis force. A sloped atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) flow is addressed which partly diffuses upwards, and hence, becomes progressively less local. We present the analytical and numerical solutions for (U ,V, θ) depending on (z, t) in the katabatic flow, where U and V are the downslope and cross-slope wind components and θ is the potential temperature perturbation. A Prandtl model that accounts for the Coriolis effect, via f, does not approach a steady state, because V diffuses upwards in time; the rest, i.e., (U, θ), are similar to that in the classic Prandtl model. The V component behaves in a similar manner as the solution to the 1st Stokes (but inhomogeneous) problem. A WKB approach to the problem of the sloped ABL winds is outlined in the light of a modified Ekman-Prandtl model with gradually varying eddy diffusivity K(z). Ideas for parameterizing these high-latitude persistent flows in climate models are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the afternoon of 3 July 2004 in Hyytiälä (Juupajoki, Finland), convective cells produced a strong downburst causing forest damage. The SMEAR II field station, situated near the damage site, enabled a unique micrometeorological analysis of a microburst with differences above and inside the canopy. At the time of the event, a squall line associated with a cold front was crossing Hyytiälä with a reflectivity maximum in the middle of the squall line. A bow echo, rear-inflow notch, and probable mesovortex were observed in radar data. The bow echo moved west-north-west, and its apex travelled just north of Hyytiälä. The turbulence data were analysed at two locations above the forest canopy and at one location at sub-canopy. At 1412 EET (Eastern European Time, UTC+2), the horizontal and vertical wind speed increased and the wind veered, reflecting the arrival of a gust front. At the same time, the carbon dioxide concentration increased due to turbulent mixing, the temperature decreased due to cold air flow from aloft and aerosol particle concentration decreased due to rain scavenging. An increase in the number concentration of ultra-fine particles (< 10 nm) was detected, supporting the new particle formation either from cloud outflow or due to rain. Five minutes after the gust front (1417 EET), strong horizontal and downward vertical wind speed gusts occurred with maxima of 22 and 15 m s−1, respectively, reflecting the microburst. The turbulence spectra before, during and after the event were consistent with traditional turbulence spectral theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present a variety of boundary-layer schemes is in use in numerical models and often a large variation of model results is found. This is clear from model intercomparisons, such as organized within the GEWEX Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study (GABLS). In this paper we analyze how the specification of the land-surface temperature affects the results of a boundary-layer scheme, in particular for stable conditions. As such we use a well established column model of the boundary layer and we vary relevant parameters in the turbulence scheme for stable conditions. By doing so, we can reproduce the outcome for a variety of boundary-layer models. This is illustrated with the original set-up of the second GABLS intercomparison study using prescribed geostrophic winds and land-surface temperatures as inspired by (but not identical to) observations of CASES-99 for a period of more than two diurnal cycles. The model runs are repeated using a surface temperature that is calculated with a simple land-surface scheme. In the latter case, it is found that the range of model results in stable conditions is reduced for the sensible heat fluxes, and the profiles of potential temperature and wind speed. However, in the latter case the modelled surface temperatures are rather different than with the original set-up, which also impacts on near-surface air temperature and wind speed. As such it appears that the model results in stable conditions are strongly influenced by non-linear feedbacks in which the magnitude of the geostrophic wind speed and the related land-surface temperature play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the behaviour of the turbulent Prandtl number, Prt, in the stable atmospheric boundary layer (SBL) based on measurements made during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean experiment (SHEBA). It is found that Prt increases with increasing stability if Prt is plotted vs. gradient Richardson number, Ri; but at the same time, Prt decreases with increasing stability if Prt is plotted vs. flux Richardson number, Rf, or vs. ζ = z/L. This paradoxical behaviour of the turbulent Prandtl number in the SBL derives from the fact that plots of Prt vs. Ri (as well as vs. Rf and ζ) for individual 1-h observations and conventional bin-averaged values of the individual quantities have built-in correlation (or self-correlation) because of the shared variables. For independent estimates of how Prt behaves in very stable stratification, Prt is plotted against the bulk Richardson number; such plots have no built-in correlation. These plots based on the SHEBA data show that, on the average, Prt decreases with increasing stability and Prt < 1 in the very stable case. For specific heights and stabilities, though, the turbulent Prandtl number has more complicated behaviour in the SBL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A time and height dependent eddy diffusion model is used to investigate possible scenarios for the size distribution of dust in the lower atmosphere of Mars. The dust is assumed to either have been advected from a distant source or to have originated locally. In the former case, the atmosphere is assumed to initially contain dust particles with sizes following a modified gamma distribution. Larger particles are deposited relatively rapidly while small particles are well mixed up to the maximum height of the afternoon boundary layer and are deposited more slowly. In other cases, a parameterization of the dust source at the surface is proposed. Model results show that smaller particles are rapidly mixed within the Martian boundary layer, while larger particles (r > 10 μm) are concentrated near the ground with a stronger diurnal cycle. In all simulations we assume that the initial concentration or surface source depend on a modified gamma function distribution. For small particles (cross-sectional area weighted mean radius, reff = 1.6 μm) distributions retain essentially the same form, though with variations in the mean and variance of the area-weighted radius, and the gamma function can be used to represent the particle size distribution reasonably well at most heights within the boundary layer. In the case of a surface source of larger particles (mean radius 50 μm) the modified gamma function does not fit the resulting particle size distribution. All results are normalised by a scaling factor that can be adjusted to correspond to an optical depth for assumed particle optical scattering properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the surface roughness in the formation of the aerodynamic friction of the water surface at high wind speeds is investigated. The study is based on a wind-over-waves coupling theory. In this theory waves provide the surface friction velocity through the form drag, while the energy input from the wind to waves depends on the friction velocity and the wind speed. The wind-over-waves coupling model is extended to high wind speeds taking into account the effect of sheltering of the short wind waves by the air-flow separation from breaking crests of longer waves. It is suggested that the momentum and energy flux from the wind to short waves locally vanishes if they are trapped into the separation bubble of breaking longer waves. At short fetches, typical for laboratory conditions, and strong winds the steep dominant wind waves break frequently and provide the major part of the total form drag through the air-flow separation from breaking crests, and the effect of short waves on the sea drag is suppressed. In this case the dependence of the drag coefficient on the wind speed is much weaker than would be expected from the standard parameterization of the roughness parameter through the Charnock relation. At long fetches, typical for the field, waves in the spectral peak break rarely and their contribution to the air-flow separation is weak. In this case the surface form drag is determined predominantly by the air-flow separation from breaking of the equilibrium range waves. As found at high wind speeds up to 60 m s−1 the modelled aerodynamic roughness is consistent with the Charnock relation, i.e. there is no saturation of the sea drag. Unlike the aerodynamic roughness, the geometrical surface roughness (height of short waves) could be saturated or even suppressed when the wind speed exceeds 30 m s−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of turbulence on the meandering phenomenon is investigated. The study, based on the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, shows that when the turbulent fluxes can be neglected an asymptotic solution results. This solution reproduces a horizontal wind oscillation with an infinite relaxation time. When there is turbulent forcing, on the other hand, a transition occurs to a new order, characterized by a spatial reorganization, leading to a wind field with a well-defined direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of perturbations of reactive trace gas concentration distributions in turbulent flows in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is discussed. The paper focuses on disturbances with larger spatial scales. Sequential nesting of a chemical transport model is applied to assess the effect of neglecting subgrid chemical perturbations on the formation and loss of ozone, NOx, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and HNO3 calculated with a highly complex chemical mechanism. The results point to characteristic differences regarding the process of mixing of chemically reactive species in the PBL and lower troposphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive eddy-correlation datasets are analyzed to examine the influence of nonstationarity of the mean flow on the flux-gradient relationship near the surface. This nonstationarity is due to wavelike motions, meandering of the wind vector, and numerous unidentified small-scale mesoscale motions. While the data do not reveal an obvious critical gradient Richardson number, the maximum downward heat flux increases approximately linearly with increasing friction velocity for significant stability. The largest of our datasets is chosen to more closely examine the influence of stability, nonstationarity, distortion of the mean wind profile and self-correlation on the flux-gradient relationship. Stability is expressed in terms of z/L, the gradient Richardson number or the bulk Richardson number over the tower layer. The efficiency of the momentum transport systematically increases with increasing nonstationarity and attendant distortion of the mean wind profile. Enhancement of the turbulent momentum flux associated with nonstationarity is examined in terms of the nondimensional shear, Prandtl number and the eddy diffusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical numerical weather and climate prediction models apply parameterizations to describe the subgrid-scale exchange of moisture, heat and momentum between the surface and the free atmosphere. To a large degree, the underlying assumptions are based on empirical knowledge obtained from measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer over flat and homogeneous topography. It is, however, still unclear what happens if the topography is complex and steep. Not only is the applicability of classical turbulence schemes questionable in principle over such terrain, but mountains additionally induce vertical fluxes on the meso-γ scale. Examples are thermally or mechanically driven valley winds, which are neither resolved nor parameterized by climate models but nevertheless contribute to vertical exchange. Attempts to quantify these processes and to evaluate their impact on climate simulations have so far been scarce. Here, results from a case study in the Riviera Valley in southern Switzerland are presented. In previous work, measurements from the MAP-Riviera field campaign have been used to evaluate and configure a high-resolution large-eddy simulation code (ARPS). This model is here applied with a horizontal grid spacing of 350 m to detect and quantify the relevant exchange processes between the valley atmosphere (i.e. the ground "surface" in a coarse model) and the free atmosphere aloft. As an example, vertical export of moisture is evaluated for three fair-weather summer days. The simulations show that moisture exchange with the free atmosphere is indeed no longer governed by turbulent motions alone. Other mechanisms become important, such as mass export due to topographic narrowing or the interaction of thermally driven cross-valley circulations. Under certain atmospheric conditions, these topographical-related mechanisms exceed the "classical" turbulent contributions a coarse model would see by several times. The study shows that conventional subgrid-scale parameterizations can indeed be far off from reality if applied over complex topography, and that large-eddy simulations could provide a helpful tool for their improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is a well-established numerical technique, resolving the most energetic turbulent fluctuations in the planetary boundary layer. By averaging these fluctuations, high-quality profiles of mean quantities and turbulence statistics can be obtained in experiments with well-defined initial and boundary conditions. Hence, LES data can be beneficial for assessment and optimisation of turbulence closure schemes. A database of 80 LES runs (DATABASE64) for neutral and stably stratified planetary boundary layers (PBLs) is applied in this study to optimize first-order turbulence closure (FOC). Approximations for the mixing length scale and stability correction functions have been made to minimise a relative root-mean-square error over the entire database. New stability functions have correct asymptotes describing regimes of strong and weak mixing found in theoretical approaches, atmospheric observations and LES. The correct asymptotes exclude the need for a critical Richardson number in the FOC formulation. Further, we analysed the FOC quality as functions of the integral PBL stability and the vertical model resolution. We show that the FOC is never perfect because the turbulence in the upper half of the PBL is not generated by the local vertical gradients. Accordingly, the parameterised and LES-based fluxes decorrelate in the upper PBL. With this imperfection in mind, we show that there is no systematic quality deterioration of the FOC in the strongly stable PBL provided that the vertical model resolution is better than 10 levels within the PBL. In agreement with previous studies, we found that the quality improves slowly with the vertical resolution refinement, though it is generally wise not to overstretch the mesh in the lowest 500 m of the atmosphere where the observed, simulated and theoretically predicted stably stratified PBL is mostly located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new turbulence closure model based on the budget equations for the key second moments: turbulent kinetic and potential energies: TKE and TPE (comprising the turbulent total energy: TTE = TKE + TPE) and vertical turbulent fluxes of momentum and buoyancy (proportional to potential temperature). Besides the concept of TTE, we take into account the non-gradient correction to the traditional buoyancy flux formulation. The proposed model permits the existence of turbulence at any gradient Richardson number, Ri. Instead of the critical value of Richardson number separating—as is usually assumed—the turbulent and the laminar regimes, the suggested model reveals a transitional interval, $$0.1 < {\rm Ri} < 1$$, which separates two regimes of essentially different nature but both turbulent: strong turbulence at $${\rm Ri} \ll 1$$; and weak turbulence, capable of transporting momentum but much less efficient in transporting heat, at $${\rm Ri} > 1$$. Predictions from this model are consistent with available data from atmospheric and laboratory experiments, direct numerical simulation and large-eddy simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we revise the similarity theory for the stably stratified atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), formulate analytical approximations for the wind velocity and potential temperature profiles over the entire ABL, validate them against large-eddy simulation and observational data, and develop an improved surface flux calculation technique for use in operational models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper summarises the major scientific achievements of Sergej Zilitinkevich on the occasion of his 70th birthday. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the existing approaches, needs and priority issues related to the control theory and models and their applications to environmental risk assessments, as discussed in Working Group 1 during the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) onAir, Water and Soil Quality Modelling for Risk and Impact Assessment. These include themethods of forward and inverse modelling, methods using adjoint equations, perturbationtheory, and variational methods. Their applicability, advantages and shortcomings are underlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this pilot study was an evaluation, from a probabilistic point of view, of possible temporal and spatial distribution of deposition patterns due to atmospheric transport from three smelters of the Kola Peninsula (Russia). These patterns with GIS integration can be used further for the estimation of possible short- and long-term consequences resulting from sources of continuous emissions for the environment and population on regional and Northern Hemispheric scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental risk and impact assessment and prediction modelling is one of the most important instruments in the environmental security management and preparedness, and it needs further development in the quickly changing world and society. Most of the previous studies in this field considered, as a rule, only separate aspects of the risk and impact assessments. New realities and problems in the environmental security, supercomputer facilities, request a new generation of the assessments and prediction tools for the risk and impact assessments. Some new trends, advantages and perspectives in the risk and impact assessment and forecasting methodology (including the integrated and multidisciplinary approaches, health and combined effects of different risk and impact factors, source-receptor, sensitivity and vulnerability problems, and meteorological advances for urban air quality forecasting and assessments) are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main sources of aerosols in the remote Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) are sea salt sources, non sea salt sources, and entrainment of free tropospheric aerosols. Non sea salt aerosols are mainly sulphate derived from the oxidation of gaseous DiMethyl Sulphide (DMS) produced in surface water.1 DMS is produced by phytoplankton and is estimated to account for approximately 25% of the total global gaseous sulphur released into the atmosphere.2 DMS can either be dissolved into aqueous-phase aerosols or oxidised to other gas-phase species which can contribute to aerosol formation, e.g. SO2, H2SO4, DiMethyl SulphOxide (DMSO), DiMethyl SulphOne (DMSO2), MethaneSulfInic Acid (MSIA) and Methane Sulphonic Acid (MSA). It has therefore been postulated3 that DMS emission from the oceans can produce new condensation nuclei and eventually Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN). Thus, DMS may have significant influence on the Earth's radiation budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]