Virtual Potential Temperature Gradient Research Articles

Testing the efficacy of atmospheric boundary layer height detection algorithms using uncrewed aircraft system data from MOSAiC

Abstract. During the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, meteorological conditions over the lowest 1 km of the atmosphere were sampled with the DataHawk2 (DH2) fixed-wing uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). These in situ observations of the central Arctic atmosphere are some of the most extensive to date and provide unique insight into the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) structure. The ABL is an important component of the Arctic climate, as it can be closely coupled to cloud properties, surface fluxes, and the atmospheric radiation budget. The high temporal resolution of the UAS observations allows us to manually identify the ABL height (ZABL) for 65 out of the total 89 flights conducted over the central Arctic Ocean between 23 March and 26 July 2020 by visually analyzing profiles of virtual potential temperature, humidity, and bulk Richardson number. Comparing this subjective ZABL with ZABL identified by various previously published automated objective methods allows us to determine which objective methods are most successful at accurately identifying ZABL in the central Arctic environment and how the success of the methods differs based on stability regime. The objective methods we use are the Liu–Liang, Heffter, virtual potential temperature gradient maximum, and bulk Richardson number methods. In the process of testing these objective methods on the DH2 data, numerical thresholds were adapted to work best for the UAS-based sampling. To determine if conclusions are robust across different measurement platforms, the subjective and objective ZABL determination processes were repeated using the radiosonde profile closest in time to each DH2 flight. For both the DH2 and radiosonde data, it is determined that the bulk Richardson number method is the most successful at identifying ZABL, while the Liu–Liang method is least successful. The results of this study are expected to be beneficial for upcoming observational and modeling efforts regarding the central Arctic ABL.

The Thermodynamic Structure of Arctic Coastal Fog Occurring During the Melt Season over East Greenland

An automated method to classify Arctic fog into distinct thermodynamic profiles using historic in-situ surface and upper-air observations is presented. This classification is applied to low-resolution Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) soundings and high-resolution Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) soundings in low- and high-Arctic coastal and pack-ice environments. Results allow investigation of fog macrophysical properties and processes in coastal East Greenland during melt seasons 1980–2012. Integrated with fog observations from three synoptic weather stations, 422 IGRA soundings are classified into six fog thermodynamic types based on surface saturation ratio, type of temperature inversion, fog-top height relative to inversion-base height and stability using the virtual potential temperature gradient. Between 65–80% of fog observations occur with a low-level inversion, and statically neutral or unstable surface layers occur frequently. Thermodynamic classification is sensitive to the assigned dew-point depression threshold, but categorization is robust. Despite differences in the vertical resolution of radiosonde observations, IGRA and ASCOS soundings yield the same six fog classes, with fog-class distribution varying with latitude and environmental conditions. High-Arctic fog frequently resides within an elevated inversion layer, whereas low-Arctic fog is more often restricted to the mixed layer. Using supplementary time-lapse images, ASCOS microwave radiometer retrievals and airmass back-trajectories, we hypothesize that the thermodynamic classes represent different stages of advection fog formation, development, and dissipation, including stratus-base lowering and fog lifting. This automated extraction of thermodynamic boundary-layer and inversion structure can be applied to radiosonde observations worldwide to better evaluate fog conditions that affect transportation and lead to improvements in numerical models.

Vertical structure of atmospheric boundary layer over Ranchi during the summer monsoon season

Thermodynamic structure and variability in the atmospheric boundary layer have been investigated with the help of balloon-borne GPS radiosonde over a monsoon trough station Ranchi (Lat. 23°45′N, Long. 85°43′E, India) during the summer monsoon season (June–September) for a period of 2011–2013. Virtual potential temperature gradient method is used for the determination of mixed layer height (MLH). The MLH has been found to vary in the range of 1000–1300 m during the onset, 600–900 m during the active and 1400–1750 m during the break phase of monsoon over this region. Inter-annual variations noticed in MLH could be associated with inter-annual variability in convection and rainfall prevailing over the region. Along with the MLH, the cloud layer heights are also derived from the thermodynamic profiles for the onset, active and break phases of monsoon. Cloud layer height varied a lot during different phases of the monsoon. For the determination of boundary-layer convection, thermodynamic parameter difference (δθ = θes− θe) between saturated equivalent potential temperature (θes) and equivalent potential temperature (θe) is used. It is a good indicator of convection and indicates the intense and suppressed convection during different phases of monsoon.

Effects of Boundary Layer Vertical Mixing on the Evolution of Hurricanes over Land

Abstract After a hurricane makes landfall, its evolution is strongly influenced by its interaction with the planetary boundary layer (PBL) over land. In this study, a series of numerical experiments are performed to examine the effects of boundary layer vertical mixing on hurricane simulations over land using a research version of the NCEP Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) Model with three landfalling hurricane cases. It is found that vertical mixing in the PBL has a strong influence on the simulated hurricane evolution. Specifically, strong vertical mixing has a positive impact on numerical simulations of hurricanes over land, with better track, intensity, synoptic flow, and precipitation simulations. In contrast, weak vertical mixing leads to the strong hurricanes over land. Diagnoses of the thermodynamic and dynamic structures of hurricane vortices further suggest that the strong vertical mixing in the PBL could cause a decrease in the vertical wind shear and an increase in the vertical gradient of virtual potential temperature. As a consequence, these changes destroy the turbulence kinetic energy in the hurricane boundary layer and thus stabilize the hurricane boundary layer and limit its maintenance over land.

Countergradient heat flux observations during the evening transition period

Abstract. Gradient-based turbulence models generally assume that the buoyancy flux ceases to introduce heat into the surface layer of the atmospheric boundary layer in temporal consonance with the gradient of the local virtual potential temperature. Here, we hypothesize that during the evening transition a delay exists between the instant when the buoyancy flux goes to zero and the time when the local gradient of the virtual potential temperature indicates a sign change. This phenomenon is studied using a range of data collected over several intensive observational periods (IOPs) during the Boundary Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence field campaign conducted in Lannemezan, France. The focus is mainly on the lower part of the surface layer using a tower instrumented with high-speed temperature and velocity sensors. The results from this work confirm and quantify a flux-gradient delay. Specifically, the observed values of the delay are ~ 30–80 min. The existence of the delay and its duration can be explained by considering the convective timescale and the competition of forces associated with the classical Rayleigh–Bénard problem. This combined theory predicts that the last eddy formed while the sensible heat flux changes sign during the evening transition should produce a delay. It appears that this last eddy is decelerated through the action of turbulent momentum and thermal diffusivities, and that the delay is related to the convective turnover timescale. Observations indicate that as horizontal shear becomes more important, the delay time apparently increases to values greater than the convective turnover timescale.

Characterization of the atmospheric boundary layer from radiosonde observations along eastern end of monsoon trough of India

In this paper, a comparison of two methods for the calculation of the height of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), using balloon-borne GPS radiosonde data is presented. ABL has been characterized using vertical profiles of meteorological parameter. The gradient of virtual potential temperature (𝜃 v ) profile for the determination of mixed layer heights (MLH) and the mean value of turbulent flow depth (TFD) obtained from the vertical profile of Bulk Richardson Number (R i B ) have been used in this study. One-year data have been used for the study. There is large seasonal variability in MLH with a peak in the summer and winter whereas the TFD remained steady throughout the year. Results from the present study indicate that the magnitudes of TFD are often larger than the MLH.

Comments on “Unusually Long Duration, Multiple-Doppler Radar Observations of a Front in a Convective Boundary Layer”

Abstract Stonitsch and Markowski perform multiple-Doppler radar analyses of a cold front over Oklahoma and Kansas. Despite their interesting results, their explanations include a number of misconceptions about cold fronts. These misconceptions include the proper interpretation of the frontogenesis function, the role of entrainment versus differential surface sensible heat flux toward weakening the virtual potential temperature gradient across a cold front, a separation of the wind shift from the virtual potential temperature gradient, and the factors that affect the motion of the cold front.

The Dryline on 22 May 2002 during IHOP: Ground-Radar and In Situ Data Analyses of the Dryline and Boundary Layer Evolution

Abstract On the afternoon and evening of 22 May 2002, high-resolution observations of the boundary layer (BL) and a dryline were obtained in the eastern Oklahoma and Texas panhandles during the International H2O Project. Using overdetermined multiple-Doppler radar syntheses in concert with a Lagrangian analysis of water vapor and temperature fields, the 3D kinematic and thermodynamic structure of the dryline and surrounding BL have been analyzed over a nearly 2-h period. The dryline is resolved as a strong (2–4 g kg−1 km−1) gradient of water vapor mixing ratio that resides in a nearly north–south-oriented zone of convergence. Maintained through frontogenesis, the dryline is also located within a gradient of virtual potential temperature, which induces a persistent, solenoidally forced secondary circulation. Initially quasi-stationary, the dryline retrogrades to the west during early evening and displays complicated substructures including small wavelike perturbations that travel from south to north at nearly the speed of the mean BL flow. A second, minor dryline has similar characteristics to the first, but has weaker gradients and circulations. The BL adjacent to the dryline exhibits complicated structures, consisting of combinations of open cells, horizontal convective rolls, and transverse rolls. Strong convergence and vertical motion at the dryline act to lift moisture, and high-based cumulus clouds are observed in the analysis domain. Although the top of the analysis domain is below the lifted condensation level height, vertical extrapolation of the moisture fields generally agrees with cloud locations. Mesoscale vortices that move along the dryline induce a transient eastward dryline motion due to the eastward advection of dry air following misocyclone passage. Refractivity-based moisture and differential reflectivity analyses are used to help interpret the Lagrangian analyses.

Remote sensing of the dynamic stability of the atmospheric boundary layer

The relative strength of the stabilizing effect of buoyancy and the destabilizing effect of velocity shear in a stratified shear flow, such as a stable atmospheric boundary layer, is measured by the gradient Richardson number, Rig. The boundary layer static stability, as described by the buoyancy frequency, N, can be calculated from the virtual potential temperature gradient derived from RASS temperature profiles. The mean wind profiles from a sodar can be used to calculate the mean vertical velocity shear. In combination these profilers are potentially a powerful tool for the remotely sensing the dynamic stability of the boundary layer. However, experience shows that the combinations of two experimentally derived quantities, like N and shear, may give highly variable results. On the other hand, a simple sensitivity analysis shows that reasonable estimates of Rig are achievable over a range of conditions in the stable nocturnal boundary layer. To test this conclusion, high spatial and temporal resolution temperature and velocity soundings were obtained above 50 m in the stable nocturnal boundary layer using a 920 MHz continuous wave Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) and 1.875 kHz and 5.00 kHz Doppler sodars. Examples of the evolution of Rig are presented from 24 hours of observations of the boundary layer in Canberra, on the tablelands in south- eastern Australia. Most of the boundary layer had Rig between 0.1 and 1. Thus, it was marginally dynamically stable, even with the gradient Richardson number calculated from finite differences over a vertical interval of 68 m. A comparison of the results from the two sodars showed that the velocity shear increased significantly when the vertical differencing interval was decreased from 68 m to 20 m.

An Observational Study of the Dryline

Abstract This study presents analyses of data collected in the vicinity of a cloud-free dryline that occurred in western Oklahoma on 24 May 1989. Observations reveal sharp contrasts across the quasi-stationary, north-south dryline during midafternoon. Of greatest significance is a pronounced gradient of virtual potential temperature, although horizontal convergence and vorticity also maximize at the dryline. The environment of the 24 May dryline is dominated by vertical mixing that maintains a convective boundary layer (CBL) on both sides of the dryline. The dryline resembles a “mixing zone” containing varying proportions of hot, dry air to the west side and warm, moist air from the lowest 200 m within 10 km to the east of the dryline. The mixing zone slopes eastward from the surface dryline location, then becomes a quasi-horizontal elevated moist layer above the CBL east of the dryline. Saturation-point analysis indicates that the mixing zone is characterized by a single mixing-line structure defined by ...

Mesoscale Convection along the Dryline

Abstract A linearized two-dimensional model was used to study the formation of convective rolls in the prestorm stage and organized squall lines near the dryline in the Great Plains. With a strong virtual potential temperature gradient across the dryline zone, the results show the without condensation symmetric instability can produce convective rolls with a horizontal wavelength of a few tens of kilometers. With condensation, a large cloud develops near the center of the dryline zone. This cloud subsequently splits into two clouds; one moves to the west and disappears, and the other moves to the east, where the PBL is relatively moist, and grows. The numerical results are qualitatively comparable with observations. This study provides a possible explanation that symmetric instability with condensation can generate storms near the center or on the east side of the dryline zone, whereas low-level convergence develops at the western edge according to the inland sea-breeze circulation.