Turbulence Structure in the Convective Boundary Layer

Abstract

Results from a boundary layer experiment conducted over a flat site in northwestern Minnesota are discussed. Wind and temperature fluctuations near the ground were measured with AFCRL's fast-response instrumentation on a 32 m tower. Measurements between 32 m and the inversion base zi were made with MRU probes attached at five different heights to the tethering cable of a 1300 m2 kite balloon. The daytime convective boundary layer appears to be well-mixed with evidence of significant heat and momentum entrainment through the capping inversion. The spectra of velocity components are generalized within the framework of mixed-layer similarity. The characteristic wavelength for w increases linearly with height up to z = 0.l zi following free convection prediction, but approaches a limiting value of 1.5 zi, in the upper half of the boundary layer. The characteristic wavelengths for u and v are maintained at approximately 1.5 zi down to heights very close to the ground. This limiting wavelength corresponds to the length scale of large convective elements which extend to the top of the boundary layer. The behavior of the temperature specra above 0.l zi cannot be generalized in the same manner. Below that height the ? spectra follow behavior observed in the surface layer; z = 0.1 zi is also the upper limit for the free convection predictions of the w and ? variances. The high-order moments and the structure parameters reveal the strong influence of entrainment at heights above 0.5 zi.