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Local Imbalance of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in the Surface Layer

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Abstract

We utilize experimental data collected in 2002 over an open field in Hanford, Washington, USA, to investigate the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget in the atmospheric surface layer. The von Kármán constant was determined from the near-neutral wind profiles to be 0.36 ± 0.02 rather than the classical value of 0.4. The TKE budget was normalized and all terms were parameterized as functions of a stability parameter z/L, where z is the distance from the ground and L is the Obukhov length. The shear production followed the Businger–Dyer relation for −2 < z/L < 1. Contrary to the traditional Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), the shear, buoyancy and dissipation terms were found to be imbalanced due to a non-zero vertical transport over all stabilities. Motivated by this local imbalance, modified parameterizations of the dissipation and the turbulent transport were attempted and generated good agreement with the experimental data. Assuming stationarity and horizontal homogeneity, the pressure transport was estimated from the residual of the TKE budget.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Xiangyi Li, Neil Zimmerman & Marko Princevac

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  1. Xiangyi Li
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  2. Neil Zimmerman
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Correspondence to Xiangyi Li.

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Li, X., Zimmerman, N. & Princevac, M. Local Imbalance of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in the Surface Layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 129, 115–136 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-008-9304-z

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