AS2.1

The LIAISE experiment (Land surface Interactions with the Atmosphere over the Iberian Semi-arid Environment) was conducted during the summer of 2021 in the Pla d’Urgell region of the Ebro River Valley in Catalonia, Spain (Boone et al., 2021).  In the LIAISE experimental region, the surface was homogeneous at the field scale (e.g. fields of alfalfa); however, the surface was heterogeneous at the regional scale (~10-100km) because of the spatial distribution of irrigated crops and dry natural vegetation.  During the LIAISE experiment, there were extensive observations of both the surface and the boundary layer in the dry and irrigated landscapes.  The observed boundary layer is formed through a composite of surface fluxes from both the irrigated and rainfed surfaces.  Likewise, the observed surface fluxes of individual fields in both regions are controlled by both the surface properties and the regional boundary layer characteristics. 

In this study, we examine the impact of the boundary layer on surface fluxes at two of the LIAISE sites: one in the irrigated, crop-covered area and one in the dry, naturally-vegetated area.  We use an atmospheric mixed-layer column model (CLASS, Vilà-Guerau de Arellano et al., 2015) that is heavily constrained by the surface and boundary layer observations from the LIAISE experiment.  The modeling approach consists of two steps: first the boundary layer was modeled using a composite surface to mimic the landscape scale processes as a control, then a local perspective was adopted to investigate the drivers of evaporation in both the irrigated and rainfed areas.  At the local scale, we use a parameterized evaporation tendency equation introduced by van Heerwaarden et al., 2010 for both model data and observations.  This equation is used both to evaluate the time tendency of boundary layer feedbacks to evaporation and to diagnose the causes of local evaporation tendency.  This approach allows us to quantify the relative importance of the boundary layer controls on evaporation compared to other controls on evaporation (e.g. radiation and advection) at the field scale.

References

Boone, A., Bellvert, J., Best, M., Brooke, J., Canut-Rocafort, G., Cuxart, J., Hartogensis, O., Le Moigne, P., Miró, J. R., Polcher, J., Price, J., Quintana Seguí, P., & Wooster, M. (2021, December). Updates on the International Land Surface Interactions with the Atmosphere over the Iberian Semi-Arid Environment (LIAISE) Field Campaign. GEWEX News, 17–21.

van Heerwaarden, C. C., Vilà-Guerau de Arellano, J., Gounou, A., Guichard, F., & Couvreux, F. (2010). Understanding the Daily Cycle of Evapotranspiration: A Method to Quantify the Influence of Forcings and Feedbacks. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 11(6), 1405–1422. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JHM1272.1

Vilà-Guerau de Arellano, J., van Heerwaarden, C. C., van Stratum, B. J. H., & van den Dries, K. (2015). Atmospheric Boundary Layer: Integrating Chemistry and Land Interactions. Cambridge University Press.

How to cite: Mangan, M. R., Hartogensis, O., and Vilà Guerau de Arellano, J.: Evaporation Controlled by Boundary Layer Feedbacks in an Irrigated Semi-Arid Environment: a LIAISE Modeling and Data Study, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12283, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12283, 2022.

The earth’s surface and its properties impact, on different scales, the atmosphere. Thus, understanding the interactions between the surface and the atmosphere is important to establish and control global and regional numerical models. As a matter of fact, in February 2019, the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) reported that the bias observed on surface convective fluxes were the second source of errors in global and regional numerical models.

Reducing these errors by getting a better understanding of the impact of the surface-atmosphere interactions over heterogenous land surface is one of the main objectives of the Models and Observations for Surface-Atmosphere Interactions (MOSAI) project. Because experimental set-up that would help to study the impact of surface heterogeneity on surface convective fluxes is quite expensive, we tested a new method, based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), that be proved efficient, in previous studies, in estimating surface convective fluxes at low cost. Standard low-cost meteorological stations are associated with higher-cost surface Eddy-Covariance flux stations so that station measurements can be paired to train the network on estimating surface fluxes based only on classical meteorological variables. Based on this, one may then estimate fluxes using this method on a set of various vegetation covers at the same time.

The first step is to test ANNs on well-known data. Two different datasets are used. The first one (twelve discontinuous sunny days), is a control dataset and allows to perform three type of tests to improve the estimated fluxes. The first group of tests concerns the influence of the training dataset, the second one concerns the topography of the network, and, the last one focuses on the choice of the input meteorological variables. The second dataset helps to deepen this study. The aim is to run the same tests but with a longer dataset (a dataset spanning over the course of an entire year, allowing for larger weather conditions) to propose some experimental deployment plan of the meteorological stations network and the Eddy-covariance station for the training of these stations, to apply this method to a future campaign. The first results proved for both datasets that estimating surface convective fluxes with ANNs using only a few variables and a simple topography is possible and would allow long-term monitoring of the surface energy fluxes over an heterogeneous surface.

How to cite: Jomé, M., Lohou, F., Lothon, M., Kelley, J., and Pardyjak, E.: Using Artificial Neural Network to estimate surface convective fluxes., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11095, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11095, 2022.

During the EUREC⁴A campaign high (up to 3 mm) resolution temperature time series have been collected with the UFT-2 (Ultra-Fast-Thermometer) onboard the BAS Twin Otter aircraft in the subtropical low atmosphere in and between trade wind warm cumulus clouds. The measurements covered a wide range of atmospheric conditions, from cloud interiors, through cloud shells, air spaces between the clouds, as well as the atmospheric boundary layer. Data, resolving scales down the dissipation range allow to estimate temperature dissipation rate (TD) directly from the recorded signal. Examples of temperature fluctuations and associate TD records, characteristic to the various atmospheric conditions, will be presented and discussed.

How to cite: Grosz, R., Król, S., Nowak, J., and Malinowski, S.: Temperature dissipation in convective clouds during EUREC4A, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4222, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4222, 2022.

The energy dissipation rate is one of the most important characteristics of a turbulent flow across the entire range of scales, and of particle-turbulence interaction. To investigate cloud microphysics and turbulence in clouds and in the atmospheric boundary layer, we infer coarse-grained time series of the energy dissipation rate from one-dimensional wind velocity time records by specially developed airborne platforms, the Max-Planck-CloudKite + (MPCK+) and the mini-Max-Planck-CloudKites (mini-MPCK). During the EUREC4A-ATOMIC field campaign in the Caribbean January - February 2020, both instruments are deployed aboard balloon-kite hybrids launched from RV Maria S. Merian and RV Meteor conducting in situ measurements of the wind velocity and meteorological as well as cloud microphysical properties with high spatial and temporal resolution. We present estimates of the energy dissipation rate from in situ velocity time records by the MPCKs during the EUREC4A-ATOMIC field campaign and preliminary assessment of turbulence features.

How to cite: Schröder, M., Nordsiek, F., Schlenczek, O., Ibañez Landeta, A., Güttler, J., Bodenschatz, E., and Bagheri, G.: Energy Dissipation Rate Estimates from Airborne Atmospheric Measurements with the Max Planck CloudKites, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12458, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12458, 2022.

Mid-latitude atmospheric boundary layers (ABL) in complex, mountainous terrain are often complicated because the large-scale radiative and dynamic forcings are modulated by local-scale forcings which may dominate the near-surface transport. The large-scale forcings of interest in our study are geostrophic winds and cloudiness which are known to cause variations in ABL depth and vertical coupling. The local-scale forcings we investigate are the slope, aspect, and land cover of valley shoulders and bottom which can create high-density cold airflows and pools often associated with submeso-scale motions. These topography-related phenomena may lead to vertical decoupling between the surface, the surface layer and the ABL in absence of strong large-scale synoptic forcing. Understanding the mechanisms by which the large-scale synoptic and local-scale topographic forcings interact has remained poorly understood despite many observational and modeling studies, but is crucial to understanding and quantifying mass and heat exchange in locations to weak winds.

We present results from the Large eddy Observation Voitsumra Experiment (LOVE) in summer 2019 conducted in a mid-range mountain valley in the Fichtelgebirge mountains, Germany over a two-month period as part of the ERC DarkMix project. Observations consist of fine to medium-scale (1s to 10 min) measurements from ground-based remote sensing including a ceilometer (150 to 8000 m above ground), wind Lidar (80 to 800 m above ground), and Sodar-Rass (15 to 300 m above ground) in combination with sonic anemometry and fiber-optic distributed temperature and wind sensing. The objective is to identify the mechanisms by which the land surface gets coupled or decoupled from the near-surface air aloft eventually forming the ABL, stable boundary layer, or residual layer. Particular attention is given to the stable weak-wind flow regime often persisting from sunset to sunrise. 

We test the following two hypotheses: (1) The observed meandering of the near-surface nocturnal flow in the lowest tens of meters is the result of three competing flow modes generated by cold-slope flows from a closely co-located valley slope by net-radiative cooling, an along-valley flow supported by a weak synoptic pressure gradient, and a colder-air pool collecting at the valley bottom. Differences in the relative temperature of the three modes cause quasi-oscillatory variations in static stability and thus vertical coupling. (2) Erosion of the near-surface inversion starts well before arrival of the direct shortwave radiation at the valley bottom caused by radiative warming of the surrounding mountain slopes and enhanced mixing from aloft. As a result, coupling the land-surface to the evolving ABL may be achieved earlier than anticipated from the local surface energy balance in the valley bottom.

How to cite: Thomas, C., Freundorfer, A., Lapo, K., Muppa, S., Olesch, J., and Schneider, J.: Observing vertical coupling near the surface in a shallow mid-range mountain valley using a suite of ground-based remote sensing and tower observations, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4098, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4098, 2022.

The pollutant concentration close to the surface at specific sites of a city depends on multiple factors. However, disentangling the relative importance of them using observational data is not an easy task. To deepen into these relationships, in this study we use intensive and multiple data from several urban field campaigns that were developed in the city of Madrid (Spain) during 2020 and 2021 under the framework of the AIRTEC-CM (*) research project (Urban Air Quality and Climate Change Integral Assessment).
Among the most typical pollutants in cities, the nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is of crucial importance due to its negative impacts on human health. The diurnal cycle of this pollutant is closely related to the anthropogenic emissions in the area and to the local meteorology, as well as to the turbulent transfers in the atmospheric boundary layer. In this work, we analyse the relation between the NO₂  concentration and different meteorological variables, including some turbulent parameters calculated from sonic anemometers: turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and friction velocity (U_*). In this sense, we have distinguished those situations where the turbulent parameters are more valuable (have better correlation) than the wind speed, which is the meteorological variable typically used to be correlated with the pollutant concentration.
The analysis of the data clearly reveals how the highest NO₂ concentrations are associated with fair-weather (stable) synoptic conditions, as it is already known and expected. However, the detailed analysis of the diurnal cycle in these periods also highlights how the stability favours the appearance of mesoscale diurnal winds (mountain breezes) in the city, increasing the turbulence close to the surface and favouring the pollutants dispersion. This is of key importance because in some cases these processes are not correctly simulated by numerical models, which could lead to wrong predictions (overestimation) of the pollutant’s concentrations at specific hours. Specifically, the evening transition and the following hours during stable conditions are the most difficult periods, displaying the highest and quicker variability in NO₂ concentration: very high concentration during calm periods in the transition followed by a rapid cleaning of the air a few hours later due to the breeze appearance.

(*) AIRTEC-CM research project (S2018/EMT-4329) is funded by The Regional Government of Madrid (Spain).

How to cite: Yagüe, C., Román-Cascón, C., Ortiz, P., Sastre, M., Maqueda, G., Serrano, E., Artíñano, B., Gómez-Moreno, F. J., Díaz-Ramiro, E., Alonso, E., Fernández, J., Borge, R., Narros, A., Cordero, J. M., García, A. M., and Núñez, A.: How do the local meteorology and turbulence influence the nitrogen dioxide concentration in Madrid?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10292, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10292, 2022.

The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges and World Climate Research Program have pointed out the importance of the land-atmosphere (L-A) coupling for weather and climate models. The Working Group on Numerical Experimentation survey on systematic errors established that the outstanding errors in the modelling of surface fluxes of momentum and sensible and latent heat is the second most important issue. Earth System Models (ESM) and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems often have large biases in their representation of surface-atmosphere fluxes when compared to observations. The detailed quantification and reduction of these biases are still on-going efforts in many modelling centres. The Models and Observations for Surface-Atmosphere Interactions (MOSAI) project aims at contributing to this effort.

The first step to achieve this objective is to conduct a fair and correct evaluation of the L-A interactions simulated by ESM and NWP models. This is based on (1) reliable references against which the simulated L-A exchanges can be evaluated, and (2) relevant comparison methods able to point out the ESM and NWP system weaknesses. These points define the two first scientific objectives of MOSAI project. The first scientific objective is to investigate and determine the uncertainty and representativeness of L-A exchanges measured over heterogeneous landscapes. Three one-year campaigns are planned to document this heterogeneity on three of the ACTRIS instrumented sites in France. The objective is to make these permanent fluxes measurements well documented in terms of uncertainty, surface energy imbalance and surface heterogeneity representativeness at the scale of the model grid-mesh. The second scientific objective is to propose and test two methods to evaluate the L-A exchanges in ESM using long-term measurements. The first approach is based on sensitivity studies performed with 3D models or with their corresponding single-column version, either forced by data from the MOSAI one-year campaigns or coupled with their LSM, and for which an atmospheric forcing will be derived from operational analyses. The second approach relies on Artificial Intelligence methods (Neural Network or Random Forest) to test the dependency of the surface fluxes to several meteorological variables, at the same time for observation and models. These two methods will allow identifying specific weaknesses of each model at different spatial and time scales.

The second step of the project concerns the improvement of the L-A exchanges simulated by ESM and NWP systems. The coupling between land surface models (LSM) and atmospheric models is based on several simplifications which are different when considering Large-Eddy Simulation (LES), weather or climate models. The third scientific objective of MOSAI project addresses some of these underlying simplifications in the coupling between LSM and atmospheric models, and their impacts on the simulated L-A exchanges. After determining the importance of a realistic heterogeneous landscape versus percentages of unified landscape to correctly simulate the surface flux in ESM and NWP, differential treatment of the boundary-layer parameterizations will be developed, so that the atmosphere model can describe as many sub-columns as the number of land-surface patches to explicitly represent the L-A coupling.

How to cite: Lohou, F., Lothon, M., Bastin, S., Brut, A., Canut, G., Cheruy, F., Couvreux, F., Cohard, J.-M., Darrozes, J., Dupont, J.-C., Lafont, S., Roehrig, R., and Román-Cascón, C. and the MOSAI Team: Model and Observation for Surface Atmosphere Interactions (MOSAI) project, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8797, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8797, 2022.

It is known that irrigation can impact the local atmospheric boundary layer characteristics, thereby modifying near surface atmospheric conditions within and downwind of irrigated areas and potentially the recycling of precipitation. The understanding of the impact of anthropization and its representation in models have been inhibited due to a lack of consistent and extensive observations, but in recent years, land surface and atmospheric observation capabilities have advanced. The overall objective of the Land surface Interactions with the Atmosphere over the Iberian Semi-arid Environment (LIAISE) project is to improve the understanding and prediction of land-atmosphere-hydrology interactions in a semi-arid region characterized by strong surface heterogeneity between the natural landscape and intensive agriculture. The study region is located over the Pla d’Urgell region within the Ebro basin in NE Spain. This area was selected since it is a breadbasket region: there are discussions underway to further expand this irrigated zone owing to its economic importance, but consensus of current climate projections predicts a significant warming and drying over this region in upcoming years. Thus there is an urgent need to improve the prediction of the potential changes to the regional water cycle since water resources are limited.

Here we present an overview of the intense phase of the LIAISE observational campaign, which is part of the HYdrological cycles in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX) phase 2, that took place in July, 2021 when land surface heterogeneity was at a maximum. A network of 7 stations provided continuous measurements of the surface energy and water budget components for multiple representative land cover types, including irrigated surfaces, along with detailed surface biophysical measurements from the leaf to field scale. Surface fluxes at the field scale were made using scintillometer configurations over 3 of the sites. Lower atmospheric measurements were obtained from tethered balloons, lidar, UHF profilers, frequent radio-sounding releases, UAVs and several aircraft. Finally, airborne instruments measured solar induced florescence, surface temperature over several spectral bands and soil moisture over a transect cutting across the rain-fed and irrigated areas. The main outcome of this project is to provide the underpinnings for improved models leading to better water resource impact studies for both the present and under future climate change.

How to cite: Boone, A., Best, M., Bellvert, J., Brooke, J., Canut-Rocafort, G., Cuxart, J., Hartogensis, O., Ramon Miro, J., LeMoigne, P., Polcher, J., Price, J., and Quintana Segui, P.: Land surface Interactions with the Atmosphere over the Iberian Semi-arid Environment (LIAISE) Project: Overview of the Field Campaign intense phase, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8028, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8028, 2022.

In this work we show how to retrieve information about temporal changes of turbulence in the atmosphere based on in-situ wind velocity measurements. The performance of our method is illustrated with the use of high-resolution data taken by a helicopter-borne platform ACTOS (Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System) in stratocumulus-topped boundary layer (STBL).

Atmospheric turbulence is a complex phenomenon, characterized by the presence of a plethora of scales (eddies). Turbulence may undergo large space and time variations due to rapidly changing external conditions, it may be locally suppressed or enhanced. To describe characteristic features of turbulence, statistical theories are sought for. In this context, a number of recent research works address the problem of the equilibrium Taylor’s law and its failure in the presence of rapid changes of the system. A new, non-classical, although universal scaling is introduced to describe the latter.

In this work we calculate two non-dimensional indicators, the dissipation factor and the integral-to-Taylor scale ratio and study their dependence on the Taylor-based Reynolds number. By analysing these results we can identify regions where turbulence is in its stationary state, with production balancing the dissipation and regions where turbulence decays in time or, on the contrary, becomes stronger. We also detect non-equlibrium turbulence states which indicate the presence of rapidly-changing external conditions. In this case the investigated statistics do not follow the equilibrium Taylor’s law, but both, the dissipation factor and the integral-to-Taylor scale ratio become inversly proportional to the Taylor-based Reynolds number. 

The presence of non-equilibrium turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer has important implications, as it indicates that common turbulence closures may fail to predict the dynamics of such systems correctly.  Incorporating non-equilibrium effects to turbulence models may largely improve their predictions.

How to cite: Waclawczyk, M., Nowak, J. L., and Malinowski, S. P.: Detecting non-equilibrium states in atmospheric turbulence., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4965, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4965, 2022.

Urban areas, which constitute 2% of the land surface, are responsible for around. 70% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Estimation of the anthropogenic contribution in total atmospheric CO₂ load observed in cities is crucial for better understanding of the human influence on the carbon cycle and can help improve and validate atmospheric models dedicated for such regions.

In 2021, diurnal measurement campaigns were performed with approximately monthly resolution aimed at characterization of vertical profiles of CO₂ over the urban area of Krakow, Southern Poland, using a tethered touristic balloon located in the city center. The measurements were conducted up to the altitude of 280 m a.g.l. Simultaneously,  spot air samples were collected in order to determine the contribution of anthropogenic component based on radiocarbon analysis. Based on preliminary results presented in this work, the temporal evolution of the nocturnal (NBL) and convective (CBL) boundary layer over the city can be observed. Part of the profiles also shows CO₂ plums detected at the elevation of ca. 200 m a.g.l. originating potentially from nearby industrial emission sources. The model analysis performed using the HySplit model enabled to identify a potential emission source.

This project has been partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 958927, and the subsidy of the Ministry of Education and Science.

How to cite: Zimnoch, M., Sekula, P., Skiba, A., Maslouski, M., Jasek-Kaminska, A., Gorczyca, Z., Chmura, L., Bartyzel, J., Necki, J., and Jagoda, P.: Vertical profiles of CO2 concentration in the urban area of Krakow, Poland – preliminary results of CoCO2 measurement campaigns., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12270, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12270, 2022.

In the last decades, ecosystem activities are continuously monitored at long-term eddy covariance (EC) research infrastructures located worldwide, in order to estimate turbulent exchanges at the land-atmosphere interface, which plays a key role in many applications. In this context, the eddy covariance technique represents the reference method for the estimation of direct aerosol turbulent exchanges. In this study, the performance of Linear Detrending (LDT) and a Recursive Digital Filter (RDF) in removing the low-frequency contribution to the calculations of aerosol vertical turbulent fluxes is investigated. The both methods are applied in order to obtain a correct evaluation of ultrafine particles, exchange velocity, separating the negative cases (named emission velocity - Ve) from positive cases (the so called deposition velocity - Vd). An ogive analysis of turbulent fluxes was carried out in order to obtain the low-frequency time scales (τc) required by the RDF for different atmospheric stability conditions (i.e. unstable, stable and neutral). RDF was applied also with a constant low-frequency time scale (RDF300, τc=300s). In this comparison study LDT has been used as method of reference. Stationarity test proposed by Mahrt (1998 - MST98) has been applied particle number fluxes with and without applying LDT and RDF methods, in order to investigate the impact of separation criteria on stationarity test performances. The novelty of this work consists in the straightforward application of the recursive digital filter to real long-case EC measurement of particle number concentration flux, assessing the performance of the two filtering methodologies, which can be applied in real-time and post-processing automated procedures. Results show that there are no significant differences in stationary cases for filtering procedures. The sensitivity analysis carried out for the main turbulent parameters highlights that wider discrepancies occur between LDT and RDF300, showing a large increase in turbulent number particles flux.  Filtering procedures lead a slight increase of exchange velocity, although and underestimation occurs for emission and deposition velocities. The filtering effect of RDF manuscript strongly depends on the low-frequency time scale, which should be preferably estimated by means of spectral criteria.

How to cite: Pappaccogli, G., Donateo, A., and Famulari, D.: A comparison study between linear detrending and recursive digital filter in aerosol deposition velocity evaluation by eddy covariance method, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2521, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2521, 2022.

How to cite: Schmidli, J., Bašták Ďurán, I., and Sakradzija, M.: Unified parameterization of turbulence and boundary layer clouds using the updated two-energies turbulence scheme, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7028, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7028, 2022.

Uncertainties associated with the determination of model vertical turbulent diffusion profiles are generally considered to be one of the main causes of the discrepancies between modeled and measured pollutant concentrations. In this work, we performed four two-year long offline simulations, specifically for the period 2018–2019, using the WRF-CAMx model system over Central Europe with a horizontal resolution of 9 km x 9 km in which we used various methods of calculation of vertical turbulent diffusion coefficients (based on WRF meteorology) while the other meteorological fields we kept the same. Further, we analyzed the effects of these perturbations on spatio-temporal changes in concentrations of some components of the fine fraction of inorganic aerosols (ammonium, sulfates and nitrates) and their gaseous precursors (ammonia, NO_x, sulfur dioxide). We also validated the surface concentrations of the mentioned pollutants using the AirBase and EMEP datasets.

How to cite: Bartík, L., Liaskoni, M., and Huszar, P.: Study of the influence of various vertical turbulent diffusion profiles on the concentrations of secondary inorganic aerosol and their gas precursors over Central Europe, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1296, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1296, 2022.

Heat transport through short and closed vegetation, such as, grass is modelled by a

simple diffusion process. The grass is treated as a homogeneous ``sponge layer'' with

uniform thermal diffusivity and conductivity, placed on top of the soil. The temperature

and heat flux dynamics in both vegetation and soil are described using harmonic

analysis. All thermal properties have been determined by optimization against

observations from the Haarweg station in the Netherlands. Our results

indicate that both phase and amplitude of soil temperatures can be accurately

reproduced from the vegetation surface temperature. The diffusion approach requires

no specific tuning to, e.g., the daily cycle, but instead responds to all frequencies

present in the input data, including quick changes in cloud cover and day-night

transitions. The newly determined heat flux at the atmosphere-vegetation interface is

compared with the other components of the surface energy balance. The budget is

well-closed, particularly in the most challenging cases with varying cloud cover and

during transition periods. We conclude that the diffusion approach is a promising and

physically consistent alternative to more ad-hoc methods, like ``skin resistance''

approaches for vegetation and bulk correction methods for upper soil heat storage.

However, more work is needed to evaluate parameter variability and robustness under

different climatological conditions. From a numerical perspective, the multi-frequency

description allows for studying cases where the atmospheric boundary layer and the

top-surface interact on sub-hourly timescales. It would therefore be interesting to

couple the current land-surface description to turbulent resolving methods, such as,

large-eddy simulations.

How to cite: Van de Wiel, B., van der linden, S., Kruis, M., Hartogensis, O., Moene, A., and Bosveld, F.: Heat Transfer through Grass: A Diffusive Approach, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8030, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8030, 2022.

The effects of the land-cover (LC) type on the surface fluxes have been investigated using observational data and numerical weather prediction models in numerous studies. Most of these works stress the need for a realistic and accurate representation of the LC within the models, including appropriate soil and vegetation parameters. This is needed to obtain more realistic near-surface atmospheric processes, leading to better forecasts of atmospheric variables of common interest (2-m temperature, 10-m wind speed, relative humidity, etc.). In a previous work, we have studied these effects focusing on a fair-weather day in a heterogeneous area of southern France. To this aim, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at 1 km with an improved (30-m and more realistic) representation of the LC, configured with four land surface models (LSM): Noah, Noah-MP, CLM4 and RUC.

The results showed that the influence of LC on surface fluxes were important but differed depending on the LSM, displaying some extreme flux values for specific LC categories (e.g., urban and conifer). This opened the question of how these effects impacted the development of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), which motivated the present work. To this aim, we analysed the ABL height (zi) simulated by WRF in each LC category using the different LSM. These values were compared to those observed with multiple instrumentation (radiosoundings, unmanned aerial vehicles, wind profilers, etc.) available during the Boundary Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence (BLLAST) field campaign, which took place in the area of study in summer 2011.

The zi simulated values were similar in magnitude and in temporal evolution than those observed, indicating a good performance of the model for the 4 LSMs. However, some LSM displayed a higher variability in the simulated zi depending on the sensible/latent heat partitioning and on the type of LC. These results indicate that the important effects of the LC type on the surface fluxes are transferred to the top of the PBL, affecting zi even from an analysis of this variable at a model resolution of 1x1 km.

In order to disentangle whether the spatial variability of the modelled zi is close to the reality, for future works we highlight the importance of intensive and frequent zi measurements at the field over different nearby sites with contrasting LC. This will help to continue understanding how the surface forcing affects the PBL development and to what extent the processes reproduced in the model differ from those observed in the reality.

How to cite: Román-Cascón, C., Lothon, M., Lohou, F., Hartogensis, O., Vila-Guerau de Arellano, J., Pino, D., Yagüe, C., and Pardyjak, E.: Analysis of the land cover impact on boundary layer height from WRF and BLLAST data, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5253, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5253, 2022.

Various types of one-dimensional RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) parametrizations are widely used in modern weather and climate models for replicating atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) dynamics. RANS models can accurately reproduce states of ABL close to stationary [1,2], but fail to model the ABL diurnal cycle and other non-stationary processes with similar accuracy[3]. Therefore, one of the purposes of studying non-stationary states of the ABL is using the information about the processes that govern such ABL states for the improvement of RANS models.

This study focuses on the evening transition, which is a part of the ABL diurnal cycle. During this transition, the decay of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) takes place. Results of large-eddy simulation (LES) experiments where the evening transition is modeled, both sheared and shear-free cases, are presented. The TKE balance between components is analyzed. It is shown that the transition can be broken down into well-pronounced periods of fast and slow TKE decay. TKE anisotropy within these two periods is studied, where the destruction of the large part of TKE due to thermals inertial movement is observed during the fast decay period. This is followed by the redistribution of the energy into horizontal components, which results in the formation of quasi-horizontal turbulence, with TKE decay, in comparison to the isotropic state, slowing down significantly. Finally, the distribution of TKE between large- and small-scale eddies is analyzed, both within the entire ABL domain and at certain heights.

The results are then compared to those obtained in one-dimensional boundary layer model, where k-ε closure is utilized for the parametrization of turbulent diffusion, and it is shown that the latter fails to reproduce evening transition dynamics properly, at least in part due to gradient approximation of turbulent fluxes. The choice of the k-ε closure results in decreased TKE decay rate during the fast decay period and increased rate during the slow decay period, which may be due to the TKE dissipation equation inclusion in the model. Therefore, possible approaches towards modification of RANS closures aimed at correct modeling of ABL non-stationary dynamics are explored.

This study was funded by Russian Foundation of Basic Research within the project #20-05-00776.

1. Debolskiy A., Mortikov E., Glazunov A. and Lüpkes C., 2021. Evaluation of surface layer stability functions and their extension to first order turbulent closures for weakly and strongly stratified stable boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Under review.
2. Mortikov, E.V., Glazunov, A.V., Debolskiy, A.V., Lykosov, V.N. and Zilitinkevich, S.S., 2019. On the modelling of the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy. Doklady Akademii Nauk, 489(4), pp. 414-418.
3. Svensson, G., Holtslag, A.A.M., Kumar, V., Mauritsen, T., Steeneveld G.J., Angevine W.M., Bazile E., Beljaars A., de Bruijn E.I.F., Cheng A., Conangla L., Cuxart J., Ek M., Falk M.J., Freedman F., Kitagawa H., Larson V.E., Lock A., Mailhot J., Masson V., Park S., Pleim J., Söderberg S., Weng W., Zampieri M., 2011. Evaluation of the diurnal cycle in the atmospheric boundary layer over land as represented by a variety of single-column models: The second GABLS experiment. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 140(2), pp.177-206.

How to cite: Tkachenko, E., Debolskiy, A., and Mortikov, E.: Large-eddy simulation and parametrization of turbulence decay in atmospheric boundary layer, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12569, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12569, 2022.

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is becoming more and more popular for its conceptual simplicity and increasing degree of realism: domain sizes and simulation durations can be attained that allow for extrapolation of results to the geophysical limit. Geophysical flows predominantly occur over rough surfaces, which significantly affects drag, mixing and transport properties of the flow. For such flows, a method is needed that allows one to impose the intricate mechanical boundary condition resulting from a rough wall, while maintaining the efficient and tuned numerical methods for Cartesian meshes. This is achieved by an immersed boundary method (IBM), where three-dimensional roughness elements are fully resolved at the bottom wall of the simulation domain. Based on the work by Laizet and Lamballais (J. Comp. Phys 2009, Vol 228, p.5989-6015), we develop an IBM for efficient use in a stratified environment. First, a spline interpolation method is used to reduce oscillations in the artificial part of the velocity field. Second, a partially staggered arrangement is introduced to avoid spurious pressure oscillations, as is the case with collocated grids for pressure and velocity. Third, the thermal boundary conditions need to be adjusted to account for background gradients across the height of roughness elements. Based on this implementation, the effect of roughness is investigated in terms of fully resolved three-dimensional roughness elements located on the bottom wall of the simulation domain for neutral and stably stratified turbulent Ekman layer flows.

* This work is funded by the ERC Starting Grant ”Turbulence-Resolving Approaches of the Intermittently Turbulent Atmospheric Boundary Layer [trainABL]” of the European Research Council (funding ID 851347).

How to cite: Kostelecky, J. and Ansorge, C.: Direct Numerical Simulation of the Aerodynamically Rough Atmospheric Boundary Layer – Implementation of an Immersed Boundary Method for Turbulent Ekman Flow, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9463, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9463, 2022.

Last year the scientific community lost a great scientist; leader in environmental turbulence and planetary boundary layer research; recipient of the 2019 International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize and many other science awards; leader of numerous international research projects; outstanding mentor, and dear friend, Professor Sergej Zilitinkevich.

Among his numerous outstanding scientific achievements in the boundary layer theory, several theoretical results broadly used in the numerical weather prediction, climate, and air pollution modelling communities, in particular, should be mentioned:

• The Zilitinkevich formula for the depth of stably stratified PBLs is often called that depth scale by Sergej’s name, which indicates that his result is a truly classical one.
• The Zilitinkevich correction to the rate equation for the depth of a convectively mixed layer, and the resistance and the heat and mass transfer laws for geophysical turbulent flows are also widely known and used.
• The Zilitinkevich scale - a length scale of a rotational stratification turbulent mixing in stably stratified PBLs.
• Conceptual models of new types of atmospheric PBLs, i.e.,: conventionally neutral PBLs settled on the background of the strongly stable stratification typical of the free atmosphere are several times thinner than truly neutral PBLs settled in neutral stratification; and long-lived stable PBLs typical in winter time at high latitudes and affected by the stably stratified free atmosphere.
• Discovered and described by Zilitinkevich: the “weak turbulence regime,” typical of the free atmosphere, which determines the turbulent transport of energy and momentum and the diffusion of passive scalars.
• Non-local turbulent transport for BLM and the pollution dispersion aspects of the coherent structure of convective flows.

These results have paved the way towards improved theories and parametrizations of boundary layers in many NWP, climate, and ACT models worldwide.
Over the last few decades, Sergej Zilitinkevich was deeply concerned with general questions of the physical nature of geophysical (and astrophysical) turbulence. The classical view, pioneered by Kolmogorov, assumes a cascade process from large eddies towards small eddies and eventually to heat. This “chaos out of order” paradigm put forward for shear-generated non-stratified turbulence is shifted towards an “order out of chaos” paradigm more appropriate for real-world turbulence complicated by body forces, where small-scale motions can organize themselves and give rise to quasi-organized coherent structures at larger scales. Sergej made a remarkable contribution to this paradigm shift. He passionately addressed several fundamental issues, such as the: origin and transport properties of coherent motions, effect of buoyancy on turbulent transport, and maintenance of turbulence at strongly stable stratification. This promising and long-awaited scientific revolution in this area of research will allow for a better understanding of the nature of global pollution and climate change.
In this presentation we analyze the scientific legacy of Sergej Zilitinkevich for further developments in boundary layer research and modelling.

How to cite: Baklanov, A. and Bornstein, R.: Scientific legacy of Sergej Zilitinkevich for boundary layer research and modelling, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12966, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12966, 2022.