Turbulent transfer coefficient and roughness length in a high-altitude lake, Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

A persistent unstable atmospheric boundary layer was observed over Lake Ngoring, caused by higher temperature on the water surface compared with the overlying air. Against this background, the eddy covariance flux data collected from Lake Ngoring were used to analyse the variation of transfer coefficients and roughness lengths for momentum, heat and moisture. Results are discussed and compared with parameterization schemes in a lake model. The drag coefficient and momentum roughness length rapidly decreased with increasing wind velocity, reached a minimum value in the moderate wind velocity and then increased slowly as wind velocity increased further. Under weak wind conditions, the surface tension or small scale capillary wave becomes more important and increases the surface roughness. The scalar roughness length ratio was much larger than unity under weak wind conditions, and it decreased to values near unity as wind velocity exceeded 4.0 m s−1. The lake model could not reproduce well the variation of drag coefficient, or momentum roughness length, versus wind velocity in Lake Ngoring, but it did simulate well the sensible heat and latent heat fluxes, as a result of complementary opposite errors.