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The dissimilarity between the turbulent transport of momentum and heat under unstable conditions and its physical mechanisms are investigated in this study, based on the multiple‐level turbulence observation from the Tianjin 255‐m meteorological tower. The transport dissimilarity is observed from the surface layer to the lower part of mixed layer as atmospheric instability increases. Although the transport dissimilarity is accompanied by the development of plumes and thermals under unstable conditions, plumes and thermals can produce intense transport both of momentum and heat simultaneously. It is convective circulations induced by vigorous thermals that cause transport dissimilarity. The horizontal divergence generated by convective circulations imposes a dominant large‐scale reduction in the along‐wind velocity component near the surface, which is related to increased counter gradient transport of momentum, while the temporal variations in temperature mainly reflect the role of plumes and thermals and thus the transport of heat is predominantly down‐gradient. This difference in respective physical processes subsequently leads to dissimilar transport between momentum and heat under unstable conditions. Therefore, it is of great interest to represent the influence of convective circulations on the momentum‐flux estimation in future investigations, aiming to improve the boundary‐layer parameterization schemes for mesoscale numerical weather models. Plain Language Summary: The turbulent transport of momentum and scalars (e.g., heat, water vapor, carbon dioxide) between the land surface and the atmosphere is crucial for the prediction of weather and climate. It has been considered that turbulence transports momentum and scalars similarly in atmospheric numerical models. However, an increasing number of studies have shown that there is often the dissimilarity between the turbulent transport of momentum and scalars in the actual atmosphere. Specially, the transport dissimilarity between the momentum and heat is more significant with increasing atmospheric instability, and it coincides with the appearance of plumes and thermals (i.e., a kind of turbulent coherent structures). Until now, how the coherent structures physically cause the transport dissimilarity is still debated. Using the multiple‐level turbulence observation from the Tianjin 255‐m meteorological tower, it is clarified that it is not the presence of plumes and thermals that directly causes the transport dissimilarity, but other physical processes relevant to them, which is proved to be convective circulations in this study. The horizontal divergence generated by convective circulations affects the wind field in the surface layer, and then modifies the transport of momentum, leading to the dissimilar transport between momentum and heat under unstable conditions. Key Points: Transport dissimilarity between momentum and heat exists from the surface layer to the lower part of mixed layer under unstable conditionsPlumes and thermals induce intense transport both of momentum and heatTransport dissimilarity links to the horizontal divergence caused by convective circulations as the atmospheric instability increases [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is covered by thousands of lakes which affect the regional and global heat and mass budget with important implications for the current and future climate change. However, the heat and mass budget of TP lakes and the performance of contemporary lake models over TP have not been quantified to date. We utilise 3-yr observations from Ngoring Lake, the largest lake in the Yellow River source region of TP, to investigate the typical properties of the lake–air boundary layer and to evaluate the performance of a simplified lake scheme from the Community Land Model version 4.5 (SLCLM) as one of the most popular lake parameterization schemes in atmospheric models. The strong boundary layer instability during the entire open-water period is a distinguishing feature of the air–lake exchange, similar to the situation over tropical and subtropical lakes, while contrasting to the generally stable atmospheric conditions commonly observed over ice-free temperate and boreal lakes from spring to summer. The rather simple algorithm of SLCLM demonstrated good performance in these conditions. A series of sensitivity simulations with SLCLM revealed strong shortwave solar radiation and cold air temperatures because of high altitude as the primary factors causing the boundary layer instability. The outcomes of the study (1) demonstrate the role of TP lakes as accumulators of shortwave solar radiation releasing the heat into the atmosphere during the entire open-water period; (2) justify the use of simple lake models for the Tibetan highlands, while revealing remarkable uncertainties in the estimations of the latent heat flux; (3) qualify the strong cool-skin effect on the lake surface which results from permanent negative air–lake temperature difference, and should be taken into account when interpreting remote sensing data from highland areas.

Measurements have been made in the wake of a model wind turbine in both a weakly unstable and a baseline neutral atmospheric boundary layer, in the EnFlo stratified-flow wind tunnel, between 0.5 and 10 rotor diameters from the turbine, as part of an investigation of wakes in offshore winds. In the unstable case the velocity deficit decreases more rapidly than in the neutral case, largely because the boundary-layer turbulence levels are higher with consequent increased mixing. The height and width increase more rapidly in the unstable case, though still in a linear manner. The vertical heat flux decreases rapidly through the turbine, recovering to the undisturbed level first in the lower part of the wake, and later in the upper part, through the growth of an internal layer. At 10 rotor diameters from the turbine, the wake has strong features associated with the surrounding atmospheric boundary layer. A distinction is drawn between direct effects of stratification, as necessarily arising from buoyant production, and indirect effects, which arise only because the mean shear and turbulence levels are altered. Some aspects of the wake follow a similarity-like behaviour. Sufficiently far downstream, the decay of the velocity deficit follows a power law in the unstable case as well as the neutral case, but does so after a shorter distance from the turbine. Tentatively, this distance is also shorter for a higher loading on the turbine, while the power law itself is unaffected by turbine loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends a study [Princevac, M., Venkatram, A., 2007. Estimating micrometeorological inputs for modeling dispersion in urban areas during stable conditions. Atmospheric Environment, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2007.02.029.] in which mean winds and temperatures measured at one or two levels on towers located in urban areas were fitted to Monin–Obukhov similarity equations to obtain estimates of micrometeorological variables required in modeling dispersion in the stable boundary layer. This study shows that such methods are also useful in unstable conditions: measurements of the mean wind speed and the standard deviation of temperature fluctuations, σ T, at one level on a tower yield estimates of surface heat flux, surface friction velocity, and standard deviations of turbulent velocities that are within a factor of two of values observed at two urban sites over 80% of the time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Turbulent flow data of wind velocity and temperature in the unstably stratified atmospheric boundary layer, derived from steel tower observations in the field and wind-tunnel experiments were used to study the relationship between the plumes and the small-scale eddies in the inertial subrange. Flow visualisation experiments in the wind tunnel were also conducted to observe the structure of the flow in the plumes, and time series data were analysed by using wavelet transforms. The results show that variances of velocity and temperature due to the small-scale eddies are large in the plumes and small outside of the plumes, and that the momentum and heat fluxes due to the small-scale eddies follow the same tendency as found in the variances. The ratios of the variances caused by the small-scale eddies in the plumes to the whole of the variances caused by the small-scale eddies in and out the plumes increase with non-dimensional height -z/L in which L is the local Obukhov length. Similar ratios of the fluxes caused by the small-scale eddies also show the same tendency. These ratios can be expressed as functions of -z/L for results based on field observation and the wind tunnel experiments. This relation hardly changes even if the wavelet function is changed. The flow visualisation experiments show that the plumes have a complicated structure in which mushroom type flows are stacked on top of each other. This characteristic structure seems to increase the energy of the small-scale eddies in the plumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiosondes releases during the NOPEX-WINTEX experiment carried out in late winter in Northern Finland were analysed for the determination of the height h of the atmospheric boundary layer. We investigate various possible scaling approaches, based on length scales using micrometeorological turbulence surface measurements and the background atmospheric stratification above h. Under stable conditions, the three previously observed turbulence regimes delineated by values of z/L (L is the Obukhov length) appears as a blueprint for understanding the departures found for the suitability of the Ekman scaling based on LE = u★/f (u★ is the friction velocity and f the Coriolis parameter). The length scale LN = u★/N (where N is the Brunt–Väisälä frequency) appears to be a useful scale under most stable conditions, especially in association with L. Under unstable conditions, shear production of turbulence is still significant, so that the three scales L, LN and LE are again relevant and the dimensionless ratios μN = LN/L and LN/LE = N/f describe well the WINTEX data. Furthermore, in the classical scaling framework, the unstable domain may also be divided into three regimes as reflected by the dependence of u★/f on instability (z/L). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]