Wind Speed Dependence Research Articles

Role of Surface Enthalpy Fluxes in Idealized Simulations of Tropical Depression Spinup

AbstractAn idealized, three-dimensional, cloud-system-resolving model is used to investigate the influence of surface enthalpy flux variations on tropical depression (TD) spinup, an early stage of tropical cyclogenesis in which the role of surface fluxes remains incompletely understood. A range of simulations supports the hypothesis that a negative radial gradient of surface enthalpy flux outside the storm center is necessary for TD spinup but can arise from multiple mechanisms. The negative radial gradient is typically created by the wind speed dependence of surface enthalpy fluxes, consistent with some previous theories for tropical cyclone intensification. However, when surface enthalpy fluxes are prescribed to be independent of wind speed, spinup still occurs, albeit more slowly, with the negative radial gradient of surface enthalpy flux maintained by an enhanced air–sea thermodynamic disequilibrium beneath the cold core of the incipient vortex. Surface enthalpy flux variations seem more important for intensification than initial conditions. For example, a vortex forms and intensifies even from a state of rest when the center of the domain is initialized to be nearly saturated with water vapor, but this intensification is modest in amplitude and transient, lasting less than 12 h, without interactive surface enthalpy flux. Sustained spinup on time scales longer than a day does not occur when surface enthalpy fluxes are horizontally homogeneous or constant, even when fixed at the high value of 200 W m−2. In the ensemble of simulations presented here, the vortex intensification rate scales linearly with the storm-scale surface enthalpy flux anomaly relative to the undisturbed environment.

Summertime Aerosol Radiative Effects and Their Dependence on Temperature over the Southeastern USA

Satellite data suggest that summertime aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the southeastern USA depends on the air/land surface temperature, but the magnitude of the radiative effects caused by this dependence remains unclear. To quantify these radiative effects, we utilized several remote sensing datasets and ECMWF reanalysis data for the years 2005–2011. In addition, the global aerosol–climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ was used to identify the possible processes affecting aerosol loads and their dependence on temperature over the studied region. The satellite-based observations suggest that changes in the total summertime AOD in the southeastern USA are mainly governed by changes in anthropogenic emissions. In addition, summertime AOD exhibits a dependence on southerly wind speed and land surface temperature (LST). Transport of sea salt and Saharan dust is the likely reason for the wind speed dependence, whereas the temperature-dependent component is linked to temperature-induced changes in the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) over forested regions. The remote sensing datasets indicate that the biogenic contribution increases AOD with increasing temperature by approximately (7 ± 6) × 10−3 K−1 over the southeastern USA. In the model simulations, the increase in summertime AOD due to temperature-enhanced BVOC emissions is of a similar magnitude, i.e., (4 ± 1) × 10−3 K−1. The largest source of BVOC emissions in this region is broadleaf trees, thus if the observed temperature dependence of AOD is caused by biogenic emissions the dependence should be the largest in the vicinity of forests. Consequently, the analysis of the remote sensing data shows that over mixed forests the biogenic contribution increases AOD by approximately (27 ± 13) × 10−3 K−1, which is over four times higher than the value for over the whole domain, while over other land cover types in the study region (woody savannas and cropland/natural mosaic) there is no clear temperature dependence. The corresponding clear-sky direct radiative effect (DRE) of the observation-based biogenic AOD is −0.33 ± 0.29 W/m2/K for the whole domain and −1.3 ± 0.7 W/m2/K over mixed forests only. The model estimate of the regional clear-sky DRE for biogenic aerosols is similar to the observational estimate for the whole domain: −0.29 ± 0.09 W/m2/K. Furthermore, the model simulations showed that biogenic emissions have a significant effective radiative forcing (ERF) in this region: −1.0 ± 0.5 W/m2/K.

Importance of Shear in Site Assessment of Wind Turbine Fatigue Loads

Wind turbines are subjected to fatigue loading during their entire lifetime due to the fluctuating excitation from the wind. To predict the fatigue damage, the design standard IEC 61400-1 describes how to parametrize an on-site specific wind climate using the wind speed, turbulence, wind shear, air density, and flow inclination. In this framework, shear is currently modeled by its mean value, accounting for neither its natural variance nor its wind speed dependence. This very simple model may lead to inaccurate fatigue assessment of wind turbine components, whose structural response is nonlinear with shear. Here we show how this is the case for flapwise bending of blades, where the current shear model leads to inaccurate and in worst case nonconservative fatigue assessments. Based on an optimization study, we suggest modeling shear as a wind speed dependent 60% quantile. Using measurements from almost one hundred sites, we document that the suggested model leads to accurate and consistent fatigue assessments of wind turbine blades, without compromising other main components such as the tower and the shaft. The proposed shear model is intended as a replacement to the mean shear, and should be used alongside the current IEC models for the remaining climate parameters. Given the large number of investigated sites, a basis for evaluating the uncertainty related to using a simplified statistical wind climate is provided. This can be used in further research when assessing the structural reliability of wind turbines by a probabilistic or semiprobabilistic approach.

Laboratory Measurements of Heat Transfer and Drag Coefficients at Extremely High Wind Speeds

AbstractHeat and momentum transfer across the wind-driven breaking air–water interface at extremely high wind speeds was experimentally investigated using a high-speed wind-wave tank. An original multi-heat-balance method was utilized to directly measure latent and sensible heat transfer coefficients. The results show that both heat transfer coefficients level off at low and normal wind speeds but increase sharply at extremely high wind speeds. The coefficients have a similar shape for wind speeds at a height of 10 m. Therefore, the wind speed dependence on the latent and sensible heat transfer coefficients can be represented by that of the enthalpy coefficient even in the extremely high-speed region. To show how significantly the drag and enthalpy coefficients affect the intensity of tropical cyclones, the coefficients were applied to Emanuel’s analytic model. The analytic model shows that the difference between the present laboratory and conventional correlations significantly affects the maximum storm intensity predictions, and the present laboratory enthalpy and drag coefficients have the remarkable effect on intensity promotion at extremely high wind speeds. In addition, the simulations of strong tropical cyclones using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with the present and conventional correlations are shown for reference in the appendix. The results obtained from the models suggest that it is of great importance to propose more reliable correlations, verified not only by laboratory but also by field experiments at extremely high wind speeds.

Exploring sub-daily to seasonal variations in methane exchange in a single-crop rice paddy in central Japan

Season-long methane (CH4) exchange was observed in a rice paddy field in central Japan (Kanto Region) using the eddy covariance technique to clarify the variations in environmental controls on CH4 exchange in different stages of cultivation. Before heading of rice plant, the CH4 emission depended on wind speed and soil temperature. The soil temperature dependence can be due to an increase in CH4 production, higher molecular diffusion, and higher conductance within rice plant at higher soil temperature. An occurrence of ebullitive emission was also suggested from the wind speed dependence. After heading was completed, relative humidity and water temperature influenced CH4 emission. The amplitude of the diurnal variation in emission increased from 0.03μmolm−2s−1 in the late pre-heading stage to 0.13μmolm−2s−1 in the post-heading stage. Induced convective throughflow within the rice aerenchyma after the change in plant structure was attributable to this variation in environmental controls after the heading. After drainage, CH4 emission was confined to short periods after strong rain events. The water level controlled the timing of emission, most likely by influencing the diffusion efficiency from the anoxic soil to the atmosphere and CH4 oxidation in the surface oxic zone. The variation in the dominant transport pathway needs to be accounted for in terrestrial ecosystem models to accurately predict CH4 emission from rice paddies.

Development of Wind Speed Retrieval from Cross-Polarization Chinese Gaofen-3 Synthetic Aperture Radar in Typhoons.

The purpose of our work is to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of retrieving sea surface wind speeds from C-band cross-polarization (herein vertical-horizontal, VH) Chinese Gaofen-3 (GF-3) SAR images in typhoons. In this study, we have collected three GF-3 SAR images acquired in Global Observation (GLO) and Wide ScanSAR (WSC) mode during the summer of 2017 from the China Sea, which includes the typhoons Noru, Doksuri and Talim. These images were collocated with wind simulations at 0.12° grids from a numeric model, called the Regional Assimilation and Prediction System-Typhoon model (GRAPES-TYM). Recent research shows that GRAPES-TYM has a good performance for typhoon simulation in the China Sea. Based on the dataset, the dependence of wind speed and of radar incidence angle on normalized radar cross (NRCS) of VH-polarization GF-3 SAR have been investigated, after which an empirical algorithm for wind speed retrieval from VH-polarization GF-3 SAR was tuned. An additional four VH-polarization GF-3 SAR images in three typhoons, Noru, Hato and Talim, were investigated in order to validate the proposed algorithm. SAR-derived winds were compared with measurements from Windsat winds at 0.25° grids with wind speeds up to 40 m/s, showing a 5.5 m/s root mean square error (RMSE) of wind speed and an improved RMSE of 5.1 m/s wind speed was achieved compared with the retrieval results validated against GRAPES-TYM winds. It is concluded that the proposed algorithm is a promising potential technique for strong wind retrieval from cross-polarization GF-3 SAR images without encountering a signal saturation problem.

Is the State of the Air-Sea Interface a Factor in Rapid Intensification and Rapid Decline of Tropical Cyclones?

Tropical storm intensity prediction remains a challenge in tropical meteorology. Some tropical storms undergo dramatic rapid intensification and rapid decline. Hurricane researchers have considered particular ambient environmental conditions including the ocean thermal and salinity structure and internal vortex dynamics (e.g., eyewall replacement cycle, hot towers) as factors creating favorable conditions for rapid intensification. At this point, however, it is not exactly known to what extent the state of the sea surface controls tropical cyclone dynamics. Theoretical considerations, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations suggest that the air-sea interface under tropical cyclones is subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability. Ejection of large quantities of spray particles due to this instability can produce a two-phase environment, which can attenuate gravity-capillary waves and alter the air-sea coupling. The unified parameterization of waveform and two-phase drag based on the physics of the air-sea interface shows the increase of the aerodynamic drag coefficient with wind speed up to hurricane force ( m s-1). Remarkably, there is a local minimum-"an aerodynamic drag well"-at around m s-1. The negative slope of the dependence on wind-speed between approximately 35 and 60 m s-1 favors rapid storm intensification. In contrast, the positive slope of wind-speed dependence above 60 m s-1 is favorable for a rapid storm decline of the most powerful storms. In fact, the storms that intensify to Category 5 usually rapidly weaken afterward.

Wave‐Related Reynolds Number Parameterizations of CO2 and DMS Transfer Velocities

AbstractPredicting future climate hinges on our understanding of and ability to quantify air‐sea gas transfer. The latter relies on parameterizations of the gas transfer velocity k, which represents physical mass transfer mechanisms and is usually parameterized as a nonlinear function of wind forcing. In an attempt to reduce uncertainties in k, this study explores empirical parameterizations that incorporate both wind speed and sea state dependence via wave‐wind and breaking Reynolds numbers, RH and RB. Analysis of concurrent eddy covariance gas transfer and measured wavefield statistics supplemented by wave model hindcasts shows for the first time that wave‐related Reynolds numbers collapse four open ocean data sets that have a wind speed dependence of CO2 transfer velocity ranging from lower than quadratic to cubic. Wave‐related Reynolds number and wind speed show comparable performance for parametrizing dimethyl sulfide (DMS) which, because of its higher solubility, is less affected by bubble‐mediated exchange associated with wave breaking.

Wind Speed and Sea State Dependencies of Air‐Sea Gas Transfer: Results From the High Wind Speed Gas Exchange Study (HiWinGS)

AbstractA variety of physical mechanisms are jointly responsible for facilitating air‐sea gas transfer through turbulent processes at the atmosphere‐ocean interface. The nature and relative importance of these mechanisms evolves with increasing wind speed. Theoretical and modeling approaches are advancing, but the limited quantity of observational data at high wind speeds hinders the assessment of these efforts. The HiWinGS project successfully measured gas transfer coefficients (k660) with coincident wave statistics under conditions with hourly mean wind speeds up to 24 m s−1 and significant wave heights to 8 m. Measurements of k660 for carbon dioxide (CO2) and dimethylsulfide (DMS) show an increasing trend with respect to 10 m neutral wind speed (U10N), following a power law relationship of the form: and . Among seven high wind speed events, CO2 transfer responded to the intensity of wave breaking, which depended on both wind speed and sea state in a complex manner, with increasing as the wind sea approaches full development. A similar response is not observed for DMS. These results confirm the importance of breaking waves and bubble injection mechanisms in facilitating CO2 transfer. A modified version of the Coupled Ocean‐Atmosphere Response Experiment Gas transfer algorithm (COAREG ver. 3.5), incorporating a sea state‐dependent calculation of bubble‐mediated transfer, successfully reproduces the mean trend in observed k660 with wind speed for both gases. Significant suppression of gas transfer by large waves was not observed during HiWinGS, in contrast to results from two prior field programs.

A Simple Derivation of Tropical Cyclone Ventilation Theory and Its Application to Capped Surface Entropy Fluxes

AbstractIn a recent study, a theory was presented for the dependence of tropical cyclone intensity on the ventilation of dry air by environmental vertical wind shear. This theory was found to successfully capture the statistics of intensity dynamics in the historical record. This theory is rederived here from a simple three-term power budget and extended to analytical solutions for the complete phase space, including the change in storm intensity itself. The derivation is then generalized to the case of a capped surface entropy flux wind speed, including analytical solutions defined relative to both the traditional potential intensity and the capped-flux potential intensity. The results demonstrate that a cap on the surface entropy flux wind speed reduces the potential intensity of the system and effectively amplifies the detrimental effect of ventilation on the tropical cyclone heat engine. However, such a cap does not alter the qualitative structure of the phase-space solution for intensity change phrased relative to the capped-flux potential intensity. Thus, the wind speed dependence of surface entropy fluxes is important for intensity change in real-world storms, though it is not a necessary condition for intensification in general. Indeed, a residual power surplus may remain available to intensify a storm even in the presence of a cap, though intensification may be fully suppressed for sufficiently strong ventilation. This work complements a recent numerical simulation study and provides further evidence that there is no disconnect between extant tropical cyclone theory and the finding in numerical simulations that a storm may intensify in the presence of capped surface entropy fluxes.

Evaluation of pedestrian wind comfort near ‘lift-up’ buildings with different aspect ratios and central core modifications

Owing to the void space at lower heights, lift-up buildings have high building permeability at ground level and subsequently improve the air circulation in congested urban areas. Despite this advantage, the lift-up design has been sparsely adopted for buildings in urban areas partly because of the lack of understanding of the combined effects of building dimensions and lift-up design on the surrounding pedestrian level wind (PLW) field. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of lift-up buildings with different aspect ratios (height/width) on the surrounding PLW field and pedestrian wind comfort level. Five lift-up buildings with aspect ratios 4:1 to 0.5:1 were tested in a boundary layer wind tunnel and results were compared with those of five buildings with similar dimensions but without lift-up design. The results reveal a strong dependence of the maximum wind speed in lift-up areas with building height, which results subsequently a small area of acceptable wind conditions near tall and slender lift-up buildings. Lift-up designs adopted for short and wide buildings produce larger areas of pedestrian wind comfort. The central cores modified with corner modifications are effective in increasing the pedestrian wind comfort in the lift-up area of tall and slender buildings.

A simple parameterisation of windbreak effects on wind speed reduction and resulting thermal benefits to sheep

It is well known that windbreaks can provide favourable conditions for livestock. Determining the benefit of any given windbreak system first requires that the impact of the windbreak on the wind microclimate is characterised, but in practice, modelling wind flow around obstacles is complex and computationally intensive. We report a simple parameterised model to estimate the wind speed reduction around a windbreak. Analytically, model parameters showed close links to the real-world attributes that characterise windbreaks. The model was validated with field measurements on a farmland in the UK; a Monte Carlo simulation was used to measure model parameter uncertainties. Results showed that the model produced an excellent fit to the relative wind speed (i.e. normalized by ambient wind speed) with root-mean-square error of 4%±0.5%. The model was further applied to literature data to characterise the dependence of the relative wind speed on windbreak porosity. A field-scale simulation of a sheep grazing system, including an explicit description of wind-chill effects, was conducted to estimate the net gain associated with including a windbreak in sheep productivity. The maximum productivity gain (27%) was found at a porosity of 0.5 and a wind speed of 12m/s. Wind-chill effects were further simulated for lowland and upland environments, and related to ovine-specific thermal tolerance limits. Results showed a distinct response to reduced wind speeds between sites, indicating different levels of thermal risk to livestock and different, microclimate-specific, windbreak benefits for each location. The simplified models proposed in this study provides a generic framework for an efficient and precise quantification of windbreak effects and optimising the design of windbreak systems.

An improved parameterisation of ozone dry deposition to the ocean and its impact in a global climate–chemistry model

Abstract. Schemes used to parameterise ozone dry deposition velocity at the oceanic surface mainly differ in terms of how the dominant term of surface resistance is parameterised. We examine three such schemes and test them in a global climate–chemistry model that incorporates meteorological nudging and monthly-varying reactive-gas emissions. The default scheme invokes the commonly used assumption that the water surface resistance is constant. The other two schemes, named the one-layer and two-layer reactivity schemes, include the simultaneous influence on the water surface resistance of ozone solubility in water, waterside molecular diffusion and turbulent transfer, and a first-order chemical reaction of ozone with dissolved iodide. Unlike the one-layer scheme, the two-layer scheme can indirectly control the degree of interaction between chemical reaction and turbulent transfer through the specification of a surface reactive layer thickness. A comparison is made of the modelled deposition velocity dependencies on sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed with recently reported cruise-based observations. The default scheme overestimates the observed deposition velocities by a factor of 2–4 when the chemical reaction is slow (e.g. under colder SSTs in the Southern Ocean). The default scheme has almost no temperature, wind speed, or latitudinal variations in contrast with the observations. The one-layer scheme provides noticeably better variations, but it overestimates deposition velocity by a factor of 2–3 due to an enhancement of the interaction between chemical reaction and turbulent transfer. The two-layer scheme with a surface reactive layer thickness specification of 2.5 µm, which is approximately equal to the reaction-diffusive length scale of the ozone–iodide reaction, is able to simulate the field measurements most closely with respect to absolute values as well as SST and wind-speed dependence. The annual global oceanic deposition of ozone determined using this scheme is approximately half of the original oceanic deposition obtained using the default scheme, and it corresponds to a 10 % decrease in the original estimate of the total global ozone deposition. The previously reported modelled estimate of oceanic deposition is roughly one-third of total deposition and with this new parameterisation it is reduced to 12 % of the modelled total global ozone deposition. Deposition parameterisation influences the predicted atmospheric ozone mixing ratios, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. For the latitudes 45–70° S, the two-layer scheme improves the prediction of ozone observed at an altitude of 1 km by 7 % and that within the altitude range 1–6 km by 5 % compared to the default scheme.

Impact of wave breaking on upper-ocean turbulence

Previous studies have demonstrated that surface wave breaking can impact upper-ocean turbulence through wave-breaking-induced turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) flux and momentum flux. Wave-breaking-induced momentum flux decays approximately exponentially with depth, and the decay exponent depends on both the wind speed and wave age. With increasing wave age, the decay speed of wave-breaking-induced momentum flux first decreases, reaching a minimum around a wave age of 16, and then increases. In this study, a wave-breaking-induced momentum flux parameterization was proposed based on wave age and wind-speed dependence. The new proposed parameterization was introduced into a one-dimensional (1-D) ocean model along with a wave-age-dependent wave-breaking-induced TKE flux parameterization. The simulation results showed that the wave-breaking impact on the ocean mainly affected the upper-ocean layer. Adding the wave-age impact to the wave-breaking-induced TKE flux and momentum flux improved the 1-D model performance concerning the sea temperature. Moreover, the wave-breaking-induced momentum flux had a larger impact on the simulation results than the wave-breaking-induced TKE flux.

Ocean Surface Wind Retrieval Using SMAP L-Band SAR

The soil moisture active passive (SMAP) L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) could continuously provide global km scale ocean surface wind observations, which had a better coverage than other SARs and a higher spatial resolution than scatterometers. This paper investigates SMAP normalized radar cross sections (NRCS) dependence on wind vectors using more than 5 million matchups consisting of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F17 Special Sensor Microwave Image/Sounder wind speed, National Center for Environmental Predication wind direction and SMAP L-band NRCS. An L-band geophysical model function (GMF) is proposed for SMAP wind retrieval on the basis of these matchups, and it indicates wind speed and direction dependence of SMAP L-band NRCS for about 40° incidence angle and 0–25 m/s wind speed range in both HH and VV polarization. The wind speed dependence increases rapidly with wind speed, and HH-polarized one is greater than VV polarization. The upwind–downwind difference for HH polarization is greater than that for VV polarization. A negative upwind–crosswind asymmetry occurs for HH- and VV-polarized backscatter at lower wind speeds. The retrieved SMAP wind speed using the proposed GMF is validated by using National Data Buoy Center buoy winds. The root mean square differences and biases are 1.77 and 0.19 m/s, respectively. The accuracies of SMAP wind speeds at 0–10 m/s range are better than those at higher wind speed range. In addition, SMAP wind speeds in upwind and downwind directions are relatively more accurate than those in crosswind directions.

Model/data comparison of typhoon-generated noise**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11434012, 41561144006, and 11125420).

Ocean noise recorded during a typhoon can be used to monitor the typhoon and investigate the mechanism of the wind-generated noise. An analytical expression for the typhoon-generated noise intensity is derived as a function of wind speed. A “bi-peak” structure was observed in an experiment during which typhoon-generated noise was recorded. Wind speed dependence and frequency dependence were also observed in the frequency range of 100 Hz–1000 Hz. The model/data comparison shows that results of the present model of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, and the typhoon-generated noise intensity has a dependence on frequency and a power-law dependence on wind speed.

Parameterization of oceanic whitecap fraction based on satellite observations

Abstract. In this study, the utility of satellite-based whitecap fraction (W) data for the prediction of sea spray aerosol (SSA) emission rates is explored. More specifically, the study aims at evaluating how an account for natural variability of whitecaps in the W parameterization would affect SSA mass flux predictions when using a sea spray source function (SSSF) based on the discrete whitecap method. The starting point is a data set containing W data for 2006 together with matching wind speed U10 and sea surface temperature (SST) T. Whitecap fraction W was estimated from observations of the ocean surface brightness temperature TB by satellite-borne radiometers at two frequencies (10 and 37 GHz). A global-scale assessment of the data set yielded approximately quadratic correlation between W and U10. A new global W(U10) parameterization was developed and used to evaluate an intrinsic correlation between W and U10 that could have been introduced while estimating W from TB. A regional-scale analysis over different seasons indicated significant differences of the coefficients of regional W(U10) relationships. The effect of SST on W is explicitly accounted for in a new W(U10, T) parameterization. The analysis of W values obtained with the new W(U10) and W(U10, T) parameterizations indicates that the influence of secondary factors on W is for the largest part embedded in the exponent of the wind speed dependence. In addition, the W(U10, T) parameterization is able to partially model the spread (or variability) of the satellite-based W data. The satellite-based parameterization W(U10, T) was applied in an SSSF to estimate the global SSA emission rate. The thus obtained SSA production rate for 2006 of 4.4 × 1012 kg year−1 is within previously reported estimates, however with distinctly different spatial distribution.

Effects on deep ocean ambient noise caused by typhoon

Sea-surface wind speed has significant impacts on ocean ambient noise at medium and low frequency bands. When a typhoon comes close, sea-surface wind speed increases sharply, which results in the surge of the ambient noise level. By analyzing the sound data collected by a vertical array in deep ocean environment during two typhoon periods, both the wind speed and frequency dependencies of ambient noise are established. Noise field at receivers is calculated via numerical simulations with combination of the source intensity model of wind generated noise and the typhoon generated noise intensity model. Simulated noise intensity is fitted with the experimental data by least square method, through which the exponent of the wind speed and frequency in the source intensity model is determined. Our result indicate that the variations of wind speed caused by typhoon heavily impact on the noise at frequency band higher than 200 Hz. And specifically, the ambient noise intensity is approximately proportional to the 3rd power of the wind speed, where the exponent of frequency is around - 0.85.

Comparisons of urban and rural PM<sub>10−2.5</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> mass concentrations and semi-volatile fractions in northeastern Colorado

Abstract. Coarse (PM10−2.5) and fine (PM2.5) particulate matter in the atmosphere adversely affect human health and influence climate. While PM2.5 is relatively well studied, less is known about the sources and fate of PM10−2.5. The Colorado Coarse Rural-Urban Sources and Health (CCRUSH) study measured PM10−2.5 and PM2.5 mass concentrations, as well as the fraction of semi-volatile material (SVM) in each size regime (SVM2.5, SVM10−2.5), from 2009 to early 2012 in Denver and comparatively rural Greeley, Colorado. Agricultural operations east of Greeley appear to have contributed to the peak PM10−2.5 concentrations there, but concentrations were generally lower in Greeley than in Denver. Traffic-influenced sites in Denver had PM10−2.5 concentrations that averaged from 14.6 to 19.7 µg m−3 and mean PM10−2.5 ∕ PM10 ratios of 0.56 to 0.70, higher than at residential sites in Denver or Greeley. PM10−2.5 concentrations were more temporally variable than PM2.5 concentrations. Concentrations of the two pollutants were not correlated. Spatial correlations of daily averaged PM10−2.5 concentrations ranged from 0.59 to 0.62 for pairs of sites in Denver and from 0.47 to 0.70 between Denver and Greeley. Compared to PM10−2.5, concentrations of PM2.5 were more correlated across sites within Denver and less correlated between Denver and Greeley. PM10−2.5 concentrations were highest during the summer and early fall, while PM2.5 and SVM2.5 concentrations peaked in winter during periodic multi-day inversions. SVM10−2.5 concentrations were low at all sites. Diurnal peaks in PM10−2.5 and PM2.5 concentrations corresponded to morning and afternoon peaks of traffic activity, and were enhanced by boundary layer dynamics. SVM2.5 concentrations peaked around noon on both weekdays and weekends. PM10−2.5 concentrations at sites located near highways generally increased with wind speeds above about 3 m s−1. Little wind speed dependence was observed for the residential sites in Denver and Greeley. The mass concentration data reported here are being used in ongoing epidemiologic studies for PM in northeastern Colorado.

Air-sea transfer of gas phase controlled compounds

Gases in the atmosphere/ocean have solubility that spans several orders of magnitude. Resistance in the molecular sublayer on the waterside limits the air-sea exchange of sparingly soluble gases such as SF6 and CO2. In contrast, both aerodynamic and molecular diffusive resistances on the airside limit the exchange of highly soluble gases (as well as heat). Here we present direct measurements of air-sea methanol and acetone transfer from two open cruises: the Atlantic Meridional Transect in 2012 and the High Wind Gas Exchange Study in 2013. The transfer of the highly soluble methanol is essentially completely airside controlled, while the less soluble acetone is subject to both airside and waterside resistances. Both compounds were measured concurrently using a proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer, with their fluxes quantified by the eddy covariance method. Up to a wind speed of 15 m s-1, observed air-sea transfer velocities of these two gases are largely consistent with the expected near linear wind speed dependence. Measured acetone transfer velocity is ∼30% lower than that of methanol, which is primarily due to the lower solubility of acetone. From this difference we estimate the “zero bubble” waterside transfer velocity, which agrees fairly well with interfacial gas transfer velocities predicted by the COARE model. At wind speeds above 15 m s-1, the transfer velocities of both compounds are lower than expected in the mean. Air-sea transfer of sensible heat (also airside controlled) also appears to be reduced at wind speeds over 20 m s-1. During these conditions, large waves and abundant whitecaps generate large amounts of sea spray, which is predicted to alter heat transfer and could also affect the air-sea exchange of soluble trace gases. We make an order of magnitude estimate for the impacts of sea spray on air-sea methanol transfer.