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Surface-layer intermittency investigated with conditional sampling

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Abstract

A conditional sampling technique is used to provide statistics of surface-layer plume properties. A selection criterion based on the high-frequency variance of the horizontal wind component enables an accurate division of plume and nonplume states. The intermittency factor derived with this technique closely matches values obtained using other techniques at various heights in the atmospheric boundary layer. The intermittency factor in addition to other plume statistics are found to be stability dependent. Conditional averages are used to produce scatter diagrams from which the interrelationships between properties of both the plume and nonplume states can be examined. Several provocative relationships discovered in this way are discussed.

An extensive investigation into the bimodal nature of the fine structure of turbulence is described. These results provide the most compelling support for the division of surface-layer turbulence into separate states. Length scales derived from the second moments of distributions fitted to conditionally sampled data are found to correlate with external parameters of the flow.

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Department of Atmospheric Sciences contribution number 514.

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Singh Khalsa, J. Surface-layer intermittency investigated with conditional sampling. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 19, 135–153 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117216

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