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Eddy dissipation rates in the dryline boundary layer

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Abstract

The quantification of turbulence across the entire atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is relatively rare compared to the surface layer. In this study we investigate the variation in profiles of vertical velocity variance, wind shear and eddy dissipation rate (ε) across the ABL in context with the dryline event over rain shadow region of the Western Ghats in India. The study primarily utilizes the wind profiler radar measurements along with the micrometeorological tower measurements. The spectral width measurements from the wind profiler radar are utilized for estimating turbulence spectral width after applying necessary corrections. Further, the vertical velocity variance is estimated through a combination of velocity and spectral width measurements from wind profiler radar. The vertical velocity variance is found to vary from 0.5 to 5.0 m2s−2; while the magnitude of ε varies between 10−2.0 and 10−4.5 m2s−3 within the ABL. An increase of up to 1.0 m2s−2 is observed in the vertical velocity variance across the ABL, while simultaneously higher ε magnitudes are observed near the entrainment zone of the ABL during the dryline event. The highly turbulent state of the ABL is found to be associated with significantly higher wind shear over the site from 2 to 4 km altitude. The study provides detailed insights into the role of free-tropospheric entrainment and wind shear on intense ABL deepening during the dryline event from 28 to 30 May 2019.

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Acknowledgements

CAIPEEX is fully funded and supported by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. Of India. Authors express their sincere thanks to the Director, IITM for the continuous support and encouragement. IITM established the laboratories, as part of CAIPEEX, at Savitribai Phule Shikshan Prasarak Mandal’s N. B. Navale Sinhgad College of Engineering, Solapur, Maharashtra, India and also at Sri Tulja Bhavani College of Engineering, Tuljapur, Maharashtra, India under Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs). Authors acknowledge the continuous efforts by Project Staff at these two laboratories for smooth functioning of multiple instruments and archival of quality data sets.

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  1. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India

    Raman Solanki, Y Jaya Rao, Neelam Malap, P Prasad & Thara Prabhakaran

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  1. Raman Solanki
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  2. Y Jaya Rao
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  3. Neelam Malap
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Contributions

RS and TP conceptualized the article. RS contributed to the background research and analysis of the measurements. RS wrote majority of the manuscript. NM and JR contributed towards the data curation, data analysis and validation. TP and PP contributed to the interpretation of the results.

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Correspondence to Raman Solanki.

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Solanki, R., Rao, Y.J., Malap, N. et al. Eddy dissipation rates in the dryline boundary layer. Environ Fluid Mech (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-023-09954-w

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