Aircraft observations of the structure of the lower boundary layer over the sea

✍ Scribed by S. Nicholls; C. J. Readings

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 938 KB
• Volume: 105
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710544604

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Results from an investigation of the turbulence structure of the lower half of the convective boundary layer over the sea around the UK in a wide variety of meteorological conditions are presented. The data were obtained on eight flights made by the Hercules aircraft of the Meteorological Research Flight.

Differences in structure between boundary layers over sea and over land are emphasized, the most notable being the relatively increased importance of mechanically driven mixing over the sea. This means that a more general scaling scheme is required which retains both u~*~ and z~i~ as scaling parameters. Such a scheme orders the results quite effectively. Dimensionless profiles of momentum, sensible heat and latent heat fluxes are presented, together with dimensionless variance profiles. Excellent agreement is found between these and theoretical predictions from numerical models. Surface fluxes are estimated and compared with bulk aerodynamic formulae.

The turbulence statistics are shown to be in good agreement with those published by other workers.