Abstract
Within the framework of a mixed layer (ML) containing a zero-order jump, the concept of ML is generalized for the case of horizontal non-homogeneity on the assumption that not only potential temperature, but also the wind does not change with height. It turns out that the components of the vertical turbulent stresses are quadratic functions of height.
For such a well-mixed layer (WML), bounded below by uneven terrain with an adjacent surface layer, and above — by a stably stratified quasigeostrophic baroclinic atmosphere, a consistent system of equations with all terms independent of height, is obtained. This can be considered as a meteorological generalization of the known shallow-water equations.
As an example of the use of these equations, an analytical solution of the large-scale one-dimensional steady-state problem concerning the development of the WML in a stable stratified barotropic air mass moving over a heated horizontal surface has been found.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berkofsky, L.: 1983, The Behaviour of the Atmosphere in the Desert Planetary Boundary Layer, Final Scientific Report, AFOSR-82–0285 to U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Boiling AFB, DC, 30 pp.
Deardorff, J. W.: 1974, ‘Three-Dimensional Numerical Study of the Height and Mean Structure of a Heated Planetary Boundary Layer’, Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 7, 81–106.
Geisler, J. E. and Kraus, E. B.: 1969, ‘The Well-Mixed Ekman Boundary Layer’, Deep Sea Research (Supplement), 16, 73–84.
Kaimal, J. C., Wyngaard, J. C., Haugen, D. A.,Coté, O. R., and Izumi, Y.: 1976, ‘Turbulent Structure in the Convective Boundary Layer’, J. Atmos. Sci. 33, 2152–2169.
Lilly, D. K.: 1968, ‘Models of Cloud-Topped Mixed Layers under a Strong Inversion’, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 94, 292–309.
Shaposhikova, M. I. and Gutman, G. L.: 1977, ‘Mesometeorological Processes Developing Above Nonuniformly Heated Terrain’, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (Izvestiya, Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.), 13, 8–12.
Tennekes, H.: 1973, ‘A Model for Dynamics of the Inversion above a Convective Boundary Layer’, J. Atmos. Sci. 30, 558–567.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gutman, L.N., Berkofsky, L. On the theory of the well-mixed layer containing a zero-order jump. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 31, 287–301 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120897
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120897