Temperature Ramps in the Atmospheric Surface Layer

Abstract

A review of the evidence for the organized temperature structure observed in both the atmospheric surface layer and the laboratory boundary layer reveals similar features between the two turbulent flows. This similarity suggests that the atmospheric temperature ramp may be interpreted as the signature of an organized large-scale motion rather than a necessary consequence of the presence of buoyant plumes. An experiment was conducted in which the translation velocity Ut of the sharp edge of the temperature ramp is determined from the transit time of the ramp between two thermistors placed at the same height in the marine surface layer but separated in a direction parallel to the wind. Ut was found to be in more nearly constant ratio to the local velocity than to the friction velocity. Velocities determined from the phase angle of the temperature cross spectrum and from the optimum temperature cross correlation obtained from the two thermistors are in reasonable agreement with Ut. Cross correlations of temperature signals from thermistors separated in either vertical or lateral directions are briefly discussed in the context of the spatial geometry of the organized temperature structure.