Classification of Turbulent Mixing Driven Sources in Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer With Use of Shipborne Coherent Doppler Lidar Observations.

A method to identify the turbulent mixing sources within the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) based on the shipborne coherent Doppler lidar measurements is introduced in this paper. Combining with the coherent Doppler lidar signal‐to‐noise ratio, vertical velocity skewness, turbulence kinetic energy dissipation rate, and wind shear intensity, the categories of turbulent mixing sources and the specific turbulent mixing sources could be determined. The method is applied into two voyages of MABL observation during May 2021 in the South China Sea and during April 2022 in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. The turbulent mixing processes are captured and the classification of the turbulence driven sources within the MABL are realized. The temporal‐spatial evolution characteristics of the turbulence mixing process in the MABL are investigated under different weather conditions containing clear‐sky day, cloudy‐sky day, and sea‐fog day. The convective mixing process is recognized in the daytime of the clear‐sky day and the intermittent cloud‐driven turbulence exists below the cloud layer. Additionally, the turbulent mixing is weak which could not act as the main driven source during the sea‐fog day. Furthermore, the dominant turbulence scale analyses of different turbulence sources are conducted based on the cospectra of the vertical velocity and the horizontal speed measurements. The turbulence parameters of different turbulence sources are statistical analyzed and compared in different sea areas. The classification method has the broad application prospects on the study of the air‐sea interaction. Plain Language Summary: The redistribution of substance and energy within the atmospheric boundary layer is achieved through the turbulent mixing in most cases. When the underlying surface is ocean, the complex turbulent mixing process within the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) is the key topic in the air‐sea interaction research because it would affect the atmosphere circulation through changing the momentum, heat and water vapor distributions. Hence the quantitative measurements of the vertically resolved turbulence parameters and understanding of the main sources of the turbulent mixing are crucial. In this paper, the turbulent mixing driven sources are identified based on the high‐accuracy turbulence parameters measured by coherent Doppler lidar. Through the two voyages of MABL observation in the South China Sea, Bohai Sea, and Yellow Sea, the temporal‐spatial evolution characteristics of the turbulence mixing process are investigated under different weather conditions including clear‐sky day, cloudy‐sky day, and sea‐fog day. Additionally, the scale analysis focuses on the dominant turbulence and the statistical analysis of turbulence parameters of different turbulent driven sources are conducted in different sea areas. This classification method has the great potential and broad application prospects on the study of the turbulent mixing characteristics and air‐sea interaction. Key Points: A method to identify the turbulent mixing sources in marine atmospheric boundary layer based on coherent Doppler lidar is introducedThe classification method is first demonstrated with the lidar measurements over the South China Sea, Bohai Sea, and Yellow SeaThe temporal‐spatial evolution characteristics of the turbulence mixing process are investigated under different weather conditions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]