Spectral Structure of Small-Scale Turbulent and Mesoscale Fluxes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer over a Thermally Inhomogeneous Land Surface

Abstract

Spectral analysis was performed on aircraft observations of a convective boundary layer (CBL) that developed over a thermally inhomogeneous, well-marked mesoscale land surface. The observations, part of the GAME-Siberia experiment, were recorded between April and June 2000 over the Lena River near Yakutsk City. A special integral parameter termed the ‘reduced depth of the CBL’ was used to scale the height of the mixed layer with variable depth. Analysis of wavelet cospectra and spectra facilitated the separation of fluxes and other variables into small-scale turbulent fluctuations (with scales less than the reduced depth of the CBL, approximately 2 km) and mesoscale fluctuations (up to 20 km). This separation approach allows for independent exploration of the scales. Analyses showed that vertical distributions obeyed different laws for small-scale fluxes and mesoscale fluxes (of sensible heat, water vapour, momentum and carbon dioxide) and for other variables (wind speed and air temperature fluctuations, coherence and degree of anisotropy). Vertical profiles of small-scale turbulent fluxes showed a strong decay that differed from generally accepted similarity models for the CBL. Vertical profiles of mesoscale fluxes and other variables clearly showed sharp inflections at the same relative (with respect to the reduced depth of the CBL) height of approximately 0.55 in the CBL. Conventional similarity models for sensible heat fluxes describe both small-scale turbulent and mesoscale flows. The present results suggest that mesoscale motions that reach up to the relative level of 0.55 could be initiated by thermal surface heterogeneity. Entrainment between the upper part of the CBL and the free atmosphere may cause mesoscale motions in that region of the CBL.