Abstract
In the present work turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget and boundary layer characteristics are studied for an Indian tropical station Ranchi (23°25N, 85°26E), situated over Chota Nagpur plateau. The pre-monsoon months (March-May) data for years 2008–2010 has been used in the present study which is the period of severe thunderstorm over the North East India. TKE budget terms, dissipation rates, and normalized standard deviations of wind and temperature along with skewness of temperature have been analyzed to find out characteristic difference between days of thunderstorm and days of clear weather. Present study brought out significant variations in the turbulence transportation between the days of thunderstorm activity to that of fair weather days. Site and season specific relationships normalized standard deviations of wind and temperature with atmospheric stability during pre-monsoon thunderstorm and non thunderstorm days over Ranchi are proposed. One of the important outcomes of the study is proposing site specific relationships between TKE dissipation rates with respect to atmospheric stability. These results are useful in validating the mesoscale simulations of thunderstorm activity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albertson J. D., M. B. Parlange, G. Kiely, and W. E. Eichinger, 1997: The average dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in the neutral and unstable atmospheric surface layer. J. Geophys. Res., 102, 13423–13432, doi:10.1029/96JD03346.
Andreas E. L., and Coauthors, 2006: Evaluation of the von Kármán constant in the atmospheric surface layer. J. Fluid Mech., 559, 117–149.
_____, R. J. Hill, J. R. Gose, D. I. Moore, W. D. Otto, and A. D. Sarma, 1998: Statistics of surface layer turbulence over terrain with metre-scale heterogeneity. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 86, 379–408.
Antonia R. A., S. Rajagopalan, and A. J. Chambers, 1983: Conditional sampling of turbulence in the atmospheric surface layer. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 22, 69–78.
Bian L., X. Xu, L. Lu, Z. Gao, M. Zhou, and H. Liu, 2003: Analysis of turbulence parameters in the Near-Surface Layer at Qamdo of the Southeastern Tibetan Pleateau. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 20(3), 369–378.
Bister M., and K. A. Emanuel, 1998: Dissipative heating and hurricane intensity. Meteor. Atmos. Phys., 65, 233–240.
Bowen B. M., 1995: Example of reduced turbulence during thunderstorm outflow. J. Appl. Meteorol., 35, 1028–1032.
Businger J. A., J. C. Wyngaard, Y. Izumi, and E. F. Bradley, 1971: Flux profile relationships in the atmospheric surface layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 28, 181–189.
Businger S., and J. A. Businger, 2001: Viscous dissipation of turbulence kinetic energy in storms. J. Atmos. Sci., 58, 3793–3796.
Dharamaraj T., G. R. Chintalu, and P. E. Raj, 2009: Turbulence characteristics in the atmospheric surface layer during summer monsoon of 1997 over a semi-arid location in India. Meteor. Atmos. Phys., 104, 113–123.
Droegemeier K. K., and R. B. Wilhelmson, 1987: Numerical simulation of thunderstorm outflow dynamics. Part I: Outflow sensitivity experiments and turbulence dynamics. J. Atmos. Sci., 44, 1180–1210.
Dyer A. J., 1974: A review of flux-profile relationships. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 7, 363–372.
Edson J. B., and C. W. Fairall, 1998: Similarity relationships in the marine atmospheric surface layer for terms in the TKE and scalar variance budgets. J. Atmos. Sci., 55, 2311–2328.
Filho E. P. M., L. D. A. Sa’, H. A. Karam, R. C. S. Alvala’, A. Souza, and M. M. R. Pereira, 2008: Atmospheric surface layer characteristics of turbulence above the Pantanal wetland regarding the similarity theory. Agric. Forest Meteor., 148, 883–892
Foken T., 2006: 50 Years of the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 119, 431–447.
_____, and B. Wichra, 1996: Tools for quality assessment of surface-based flux measurements. Agric. Forest Meteor., 78, 83–105.
Frech M., 2007: Estimating the turbulent energy dissipation rate in an airport environment. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 123, 385–393.
Frenzen P., and C. A. Vogel, 1992: The turbulent kinetic energy budget in the atmospheric surface layer: a review and an experimental reexamination in the field. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 60, 49–76.
_____, and ______, 2001: Further studies of atmospheric turbulence in layers near the surface: scaling the TKE budget above the roughness sublayer. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 99, 173–206.
Gupta S., and V. T. Gajbhiye, 2002: Effect of concentration, moisture, and soil type on the dissipation of flufenacet from soil. Chemosphere, 47, 901–906.
Ha K. J., Y. K. Hyun, H. M. Oh, K. E. Kim, and L. Mahrt, 2012: Evaluation of boundary layer similarity theory for stable conditions in CASES-99. Mon. Wea. Rev., 135, 3474–3483, doi: 10.1175/MWR3488.1.
Han J. G., S. P. Arya, S. Shan, and Y. L. Lin, 2000: An estimation of turbulent kinetic energy and energy dissipation rate based on atmospheric boundary layer similarity theory, a report submitted to national aeronautics and space administration langley research center prepared for langley research center hampton, Virginia 23681-2199 NASA/CR-2000-210298, 25 pp.
Hartogensis O. K., and H. A. R. DeBruin, 2005: Monin-Obukhov similarity functions of the structure parameter of temperature and turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate in the stable boundary layer. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 116, 253–276.
Hegde A. K., R. Venkateshan, C. V. Srinivas, and K. M. Balakrishna, 2010: Estimation of atmospheric surface layer parameters and numerical simulation using MM5 at Mangalore, West Coast of India. Meteor. Atmos. Phys., 107, 161–172
Hicks B. B., 1976: Wind profile relationships from the ‘Wangara’ experiment. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 102, 535–551.
Högström U., 1990: Analysis of turbulence structures in the surface layer with a modified similarity formulation for near neutral conditions. J. Atmos. Sci., 47, 1949–1972.
_____, 1992: Further evidence of ‘inactive’ turbulence in the near neutral atmospheric surface layer. In: 10th symp. on turbul. and diffusion, Portland, OR, Ameran Meteorology Society, Boston, MA, 188-191 pp.
_____, 1996: Review of some basic characteristics of the atmospheric surface layer. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 78, 215–246.
_____, and H. Bergstrom, 1996: Organized turbulence structures in the near-neutral atmospheric surface layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 53, 2452–2464.
Holzäpfel F, and R. E. Robins, 2004: Probabilistic two-phase aircraft wake-vortex model: application and assessment. Journal of Aircraft, 41, 1117–1126.
Howell J. F., and J. Sun, 1999: Surface layer fluxes in stable conditions. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 90, 495–520.
Kader B. A., and A. M. Yaglom, 1990: Mean fields and fluctuation moments in unstably stratified turbulent boundary layers. J. Fluid Mech., 212, 637–662.
Kaimal J. C., J. C. Wyngaard, Y. Izumi, and O. R. Coté, 1972: Spectral characteristics of surface layer turbulence. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 98, 563–589.
_____, and J. J. Finnigan, 1994: Atmospheric boundary layer flows: their structure and measurement. Oxford University Press, New York, 289 pp.
Kolmogorov A. N., 1941: Energy dissipation in locally isotropic turbulence. Doklady AN SSSR, 32, 19–20.
Krishnan P., and P. K. Kunhikrishnan, 2002: Some characteristics of atmospheric surface layer over a tropical inland region during southwest monsoon period. Atmos. Res., 62, 111–124.
Li M., Y. Ma, W. Ma, Z. Hu, H. Ishikawa, Su Zhongbo, and F. Sun, 2006: Analysis of turbulence characteristics over the northern Tibetan plateau area. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 23(4), 579–585.
Li X., N. Zimmerman, and M. Princevac, 2008: Local Imbalance of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in the Surface Layer. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 129, 115–136.
McBean G. A., 1971: The variations of the statistics of wind, temperature and humidity fluctuations with stability. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 1, 438–457.
_____, and J. A. Elliott, 1975: The vertical transports of kinetic energy by turbulence and pressure in the boundary layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 32, 753–766.
_____, and M. Miyake, 1972: Turbulent transfer mechanism in the atmospheric surface layer. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 98, 383–398.
Moncrieff J., R. Clement, J. Finnigan, and T. Meyers, 1998: Averaging, detrending, and filtering of eddy covariance time series. In: Lee X, Massman W, Law B. (eds.) Handbook of Micrometeorology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 7–31.
Ohtaki E., 1985: On the similarity in atmospheric fluctuations of carbon dioxide, water vapour and temperature over vegetated fields. Bound.-Layer Meteor, 32, 25–37.
Pahlow M, M. B. Parlange, and F. Porté-Agel, 2001: On the Monin-Obukhov similarity in the stable atmospheric boundary layer. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 99, 225–248.
Panofsky H. A., D. H. Tennekes, and J. C. Wyngaard, 1977: The characteristics of turbulent velocity components in the surface layer under convective conditions. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 11, 355–361.
Pino D., J. Vilà-guerau de arellano, and P. G. Duynkerke, 2003: The contribution of shear to the evolution of a convective boundary layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 60, 1913–1926.
Rodriguez C. A. M., Rosmeri P. da Rocha, and R. Bombardi, 2010: On the development of summer thunderstorms in the city of Sao Paulo: Mean meteorological characteristics and pollution effect. Atmos. Res., 96, 477–488.
Ramana M. V., P. Krishnan, and P. K. Kunhikrishnan, 2004: Surface boundary layer characteristics over a tropical inland station: seasonal features. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 111, 153–175.
Rannik U., and T. Vesala, 1999: Autoregressive filtering versus linear detrending in estimation of fluxes by the eddy covariance method. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 91, 259–280.
Roth M., 1993: turbulence transfer relationships over an urban surface II: Integral statistics. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 19, 1105–1120.
_____, J. A. Salmond, and A. N. V. Satyanarayana, 2006: Methodological considerations regarding the measurement of turbulent fluxes in the urban roughness sublayer: The role of scintillometery. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 121, 351–375.
Singha A., and R. Sadr, 2012: Characteristics of surface layer turbulence in coastal area of Qatar. Environ. Fluid Mech., doi:10.1007/s10652-012-9242-7.
Sivaramakrishnan S., S. Sangeeta, and K. G. Vernekar, 1992: Characteristics of turbulent fluxes of sensible heat and momentum in the surface boundary layer during the Indian summer monsoon. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 60, 95–108.
Srivastava M. K., and P. Parth Sarthi, 2002: Turbulent kinetic energy in the atmospheric surface layer during the summer monsoon. Meteor. Appl., 9, 239–246.
STORM Science Plan, 2005: Severe Thunderstorms-Observations and Regional Modeling (STORM) Programme, Science Plan, Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, 118 pp.
Stull R. B., 1988: An introduction to boundary layer meteorology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 670 pp.
Thiermann V., and H. Grassl, 1992: The measurement of turbulent surface layer fluxes by use of bichromatic scintillation. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 58, 367–389.
Thomas C., and T. Foken, 2007: Flux contribution of coherent structures and its implications for the exchange of energy and matter in a tall spruce canopy. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 123, 317–337.
Tillman A. S., 1972: The indirect determination of stability, heat and momentum fluxes in the atmospheric boundary layer from simple scalar variables during dry unstable conditions. J. Appl. Meteorol., 11, 783–792.
Trinh K. T., 2012: On the Karman constant. In the Archives of arXiv.org, Cornell University. http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1007/1007.0605.pdf
Tyagi B., A. N. V. Satyanarayana, M. Kumar, and N. C. Mahanti, 2012: Surface energy and radiation budget over a tropical station: An observational study. Asia-Pacific J. Atmos. Sci., 48(4), 411–421, DOI: 10.1007/s13143-012-0037-z.
Vickers D., and L. Mahrt, 1996: Quality control and flux sampling problems for tower and aircraft data. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 14, 512–526.
_____, and ______, 2003: The cospectral gap and turbulent flux calculations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 20, 660–672.
Viswanathan D. V., A. N. V. Satyanarayna, S. Mishra, and P. Partha Sarthi, 1997a: Turbulent kinetic energy budget parameter over Varanasi from MONTBLEX-90. Proc. Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., 63A, 403–412.
_____, ______, M. K. Srivastava, and S. Mishra, 1997b: Surface layer turbulent kinetic energy budget over Kharagpur. J. Scientific Res., 47, 11–20. ISSN: 0447-9483.
Weinbeck S. W., 1997: Surface layer characteristics of thunderstorm outflow, a thesis in atmospheric science. Master of Science Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University, 107 pp.
Wilcjack J. M., 1984: Large-scale eddies in the unstably stratified atmospheric surface layer, Part I: Velocity and temperature structure. J. Atmos. Sci., 41 (24), 3537–3550.
_____, S. P. Oncley, and S. A. Stage, 2001: Sonic anemometers tilt corrections algorithms. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 99, 127–150.
Wyngaard J. C., and O. R. Cote, 1971: The budget of turbulent kinetic energy and temperature variance in the atmospheric surface layer. J. Atmos. Sci., 28, 199–201.
Yadav A. K., S. Raman, and M. Sharan, 1996: Surface turbulence spectra and dissipation rates during low wind in tropics. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 79, 205–223.
Yahaya S., J. P. Frangi, and D. C. Richard, 2003: Turbulent characteristics of a semiarid atmospheric surface layer from cup anemometers — effects of soil tillage treatment (Northern Spain). Ann. Geophys., 21, 2119–2131.
Zhang H, and S. Park, 1999: Dissipation rates of turbulent kinetic energy and temperature and humidity variances over different surfaces. Atmos. Res., 50, 37–51.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tyagi, B., Satyanarayana, A.N.V. Assessment of turbulent kinetic energy budget and boundary layer characteristics during pre-monsoon thunderstorm season over Ranchi. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 49, 587–601 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-013-0052-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-013-0052-8