Turbulence Dissipation Rate in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: Observations and WRF Mesoscale Modeling during the XPIA Field Campaign

Abstract

Abstract A better understanding and prediction of turbulence dissipation rate ε in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is important for many applications. Herein, sonic anemometer data from the Experimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment (XPIA) field campaign (March–May 2015) are used to derive energy dissipation rate (EDR; =) within the first 300 m above the ground employing second-order structure functions. Turbulence dissipation rate is found to be strongly driven by the diurnal evolution of the ABL, presenting a distinct statistical behavior between daytime and nighttime conditions that follows log–Weibull and lognormal distributions, respectively. In addition, the vertical structure of EDR is characterized by a decrease with height above the surface, with the largest gradients occurring within the surface layer (z < 50 m). Convection-permitting mesoscale simulations were carried out with all of the 1.5-order turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) closure planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes available in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Overall, the three PBL schemes capture the observed diurnal evolution of EDR as well as the statistical behavior and vertical structure. However, the Mellor–Yamada-type schemes underestimate the large EDR levels during the bulk of daytime conditions, with the quasi-normal scale elimination (QNSE) scheme providing the best agreement with observations. During stably stratified nighttime conditions, Mellor–Yamada–Janjić (MYJ) and QNSE tend to exhibit an artificial “clipping” to their background TKE levels. A reduction in the model constant in the dissipation term for the Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino (MYNN) scheme did not have a noticeable impact on EDR estimates. In contrast, application of a postprocessing statistical remapping technique reduced the systematic negative bias in the MYNN results by 75%.