Detection of Entrainment Influences on Surface-Layer Measurements and Extension of Monin–Obukhov Similarity Theory

We present a method to detect influences of boundary-layer processes on surface-layer measurements, using statistics and spectra of surface-layer variables only. We validated our detection method with boundary-layer measurements. Furthermore, we confirm that Monin–Obukhov similarity functions fit we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Boundary-layer meteorology 2014-07, Vol.152 (1), p.19-44
Main Authors: van de Boer, A., Moene, A. F., Graf, A., Schüttemeyer, D., Simmer, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analytical-model
Approximation
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Boundaries
Boundary layer
Climate science
Convection, turbulence, diffusion. Boundary layer structure and dynamics
convective boundary-layer
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Entrainment
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
fluxes
Geophysics. Techniques, methods, instrumentation and models
heat
Humidity
Meteorology
mixed-layer
Similarity
Similarity theory
sonic anemometer
Spectra
Statistics
temperature-humidity correlation
transport
Turbulence
water
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Summary:We present a method to detect influences of boundary-layer processes on surface-layer measurements, using statistics and spectra of surface-layer variables only. We validated our detection method with boundary-layer measurements. Furthermore, we confirm that Monin–Obukhov similarity functions fit well to temperature-variance data obtained at two different homogeneous surfaces. However, we found that humidity variance measurements deviate from the universal functions above one of the two studied surfaces for days on which entrained air reached the surface layer. These results confirm that Monin–Obukhov similarity theory should be used with care in the analysis of surface-layer data. Finally, we propose the use of an extra term in flux-variance relations that depends on the entrainment ratio for humidity and on the boundary-layer height. If boundary-layer measurements are not available, we show how the entrainment ratio for humidity can be approximated from the skewness of the humidity distribution.
ISSN:0006-8314
1573-1472
DOI:10.1007/s10546-014-9920-8