Intermittency of Energy-Containing Scales in Atmospheric Surface Layer

Abstract

Orthonormal wavelets are applied to quantify the level of intermittency of energy-containing scales in the surface layer of the atmospheric boundary layer. These scales contain most of the kinetic energy, arise through instabilities, and usually exhibit nonstationary characteristics. The results show that the energy of each of these scales varies significantly with time. Some of these scales have a significant contribution to the total energy over short periods of time. Moreover, from the wavelet coefficients, several quantities are determined. These include the level of contribution of energy by each scale to the total signal, the percentage of time of high-energy events, and the percentage of energy in these events. These quantities allow us to characterize the level of energetic events and intermittency of the energy-containing scales in the surface layer.