Power-Law Scaling of Turbulence Cospectra for the Stably Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Surface turbulent fluxes provide a key boundary condition for the prediction of weather, hydrology, and atmospheric carbon dioxide. The turbulence cospectrum is assumed to typically follow a −7/3 power-law scaling, which is used for the high-frequency spectral correction of eddy-covariance data. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Boundary-layer meteorology 2020-10, Vol.177 (1), p.1-18
Main Authors: Cheng, Yu, Li, Qi, Grachev, Andrey, Argentini, Stefania, Fernando, Harindra J. S., Gentine, Pierre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Atmospheric boundary layer
Atmospheric carbon dioxide
Atmospheric conditions
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Boundary conditions
Boundary layers
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide atmospheric concentrations
Corrections
Covariance
Dimensional analysis
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Eddy covariance
Fluid flow
Fluxes
High Reynolds number
Hydrology
Mathematical analysis
Meteorology
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Planetary boundary layer
Power law
Research Article
Reynolds number
Scaling
Stable boundary layer
Turbulence
Turbulent boundary layer
Turbulent fluxes
Vortices
Weather
Weather forecasting
Wind measurement
Wind speed
Wind velocities
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Summary:Surface turbulent fluxes provide a key boundary condition for the prediction of weather, hydrology, and atmospheric carbon dioxide. The turbulence cospectrum is assumed to typically follow a −7/3 power-law scaling, which is used for the high-frequency spectral correction of eddy-covariance data. The derivation of this scaling is mostly grounded on dimensional analysis. The dimensional analysis or cospectral budget analyses, however, can lead to alternative cospectral scaling. Here we examine the shape of turbulence cospectra at high Reynolds number and high wavenumbers based on extensive field measurements of wind velocity and temperature in various stably stratified atmospheric conditions. We show that the cospectral scaling deviates from the −7/3 scaling at high wavenumbers in the inertial subrange of the stable atmospheric boundary layer, and appears to follow a −2 power-law scaling. We suggest that −2 power-law scaling is a better alternative for cospectral corrections for eddy-covariance measurements of the stable boundary layer.
ISSN:0006-8314
1573-1472
DOI:10.1007/s10546-020-00545-6