A Surface-Layer Study of the Transport and Dissipation of Turbulent Kinetic Energy and the Variances of Temperature, Humidity and CO $$_2$$ 2

Abstract

We discuss scalar similarities and dissimilarities based on analysis of the dissipation terms in the variance budget equations, considering the turbulent kinetic energy and the variances of temperature, specific humidity and specific CO $$_2$$ content. For this purpose, 124 high-frequency sampled segments are selected from the Boundary Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence experiment. The consequences of dissipation similarity in the variance transport are also discussed and quantified. The results show that, for the convective atmospheric surface layer, the non-dimensional dissipation terms can be expressed in the framework of Monin–Obukhov similarity theory and are independent of whether the variable is temperature or moisture. The scalar similarity in the dissipation term implies that the characteristic scales of the atmospheric surface layer can be estimated from the respective rate of variance dissipation, the characteristic scale of temperature, and the dissipation rate of temperature variance.