Abstract
This study examines the statistical properties of the concentration derivative, χ′, for a dispersing plume in a near-neutrally stratified atmospheric surface layer. Towards this goal, the probability density function (pdf) of χ′, and the conditional pdf of χ′ given a fixed concentration level, χ, have been measured. These pdfs are found to be modeled well by a generalizedq-Gaussian (gqG) distribution with intermittency exponent,q, equal to 0.3 and 3/4, respectively. These results highlight the strong intermittency effect (patchiness) of the small-scale concentration eddy structures in the plume. The distribution of time intervals between successive high peaks in the squared derivative process, x′2, is found to be well approximated by a power-law distribution, implying that occurrences of these high peaks are much more clustered than would be predicted by a Poisson or shot-noise process. The results are used to improve models for the joint pdf of χ and χ′, and for the expected number of upcrossings per unit time interval of a fixed concentration level that have been proposed by Kristensenet al. (1989). The predictions of the improved models are in accord with observations, and suggest that the intercorrelation between χ and χ′ must be explicitly incorporated if good estimates of the upcrossing intensity are to be obtained.
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Yee, E., Kosteniuk, P.R., Chandler, G.M. et al. Recurrence statistics of concentration fluctuations in plumes within a near-neutral atmospheric surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 66, 127–153 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705463
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705463