Simultaneous profiles of turbulence statistics and mean ozone mixing ratio are used to establish a relation between eddy diffusivity and ozone mixing within the Amazon forest. A one‐dimensional ...diffusion model is proposed and used to infer mixing time scales from the eddy diffusivity profiles. Data and model results indicate that during daytime conditions, the upper (lower) half of the canopy is well (partially) mixed most of the time and that most of the vertical extent of the forest can be mixed in less than an hour. During nighttime, most of the canopy is predominantly poorly mixed, except for periods with bursts of intermittent turbulence. Even though turbulence is faster than chemistry during daytime, both processes have comparable time scales in the lower canopy layers during nighttime conditions. Nonchemical loss time scales (associated with stomatal uptake and dry deposition) for the entire forest are comparable to turbulent mixing time scale in the lower canopy during the day and in the entire canopy during the night, indicating a tight coupling between turbulent transport and dry deposition and stomatal uptake processes. Because of the significant time of day and height variability of the turbulent mixing time scale inside the canopy, it is important to take it into account when studying chemical and biophysical processes happening in the forest environment. The method proposed here to estimate turbulent mixing time scales is a reliable alternative to currently used models, especially for situations in which the vertical distribution of the time scale is relevant.
Key Points
A new model is proposed to estimate turbulent mixing time scales within the forest from turbulence statistics
Turbulence mixing is faster than (similar to) ozone chemistry during daytime (nighttime)
Oxidation of sesquiterpenes accounts for 39% of ozone loss inside canopy at night
We mapped tidal wetland gross primary production (GPP) with unprecedented detail for multiple wetland types across the continental United States (CONUS) at 16‐day intervals for the years 2000–2019. ...To accomplish this task, we developed the spatially explicit Blue Carbon (BC) model, which combined tidal wetland cover and field‐based eddy covariance tower data into a single Bayesian framework, and used a super computer network and remote sensing imagery (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Enhanced Vegetation Index). We found a strong fit between the BC model and eddy covariance data from 10 different towers (r2 = 0.83, p < 0.001, root‐mean‐square error = 1.22 g C/m2/day, average error was 7% with a mean bias of nearly zero). When compared with NASA's MOD17 GPP product, which uses a generalized terrestrial algorithm, the BC model reduced error by approximately half (MOD17 had r2 = 0.45, p < 0.001, root‐mean‐square error of 3.38 g C/m2/day, average error of 15%). The BC model also included mixed pixels in areas not covered by MOD17, which comprised approximately 16.8% of CONUS tidal wetland GPP. Results showed that across CONUS between 2000 and 2019, the average daily GPP per m2 was 4.32 ± 2.45 g C/m2/day. The total annual GPP for the CONUS was 39.65 ± 0.89 Tg C/year. GPP for the Gulf Coast was nearly double that of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts combined. Louisiana alone accounted for 15.78 ± 0.75 Tg C/year, with its Atchafalaya/Vermillion Bay basin at 4.72 ± 0.14 Tg C/year. The BC model provides a robust platform for integrating data from disparate sources and exploring regional trends in GPP across tidal wetlands.
Key Points
We created the Blue Carbon (BC) model, which mapped the Gross Primary Production (GPP) of all tidal wetlands within the continental United States
The BC model provides maps of tidal wetland GPP at sub‐250 m scales and at 16‐day intervals for the years 2000‐2019
The average daily GPP per m2 was 4.32 ± 2.45 g C/m2/day, and the total annual GPP for the continental United States was 39.65 ± 0.89 Tg C/year
Aircraft observations made off the coast of northern Chile in the Southeastern Pacific (20° S, 72° W; named Point Alpha) from 16 October to 13 November 2008 during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud- ...Atmosphere-Land Study-Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx), combined with meteorological reanalysis, satellite measurements, and radiosonde data, are used to investigate the boundary layer (BL) and aerosol-cloud-drizzle variations in this region. On days without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences, the BL at Point Alpha was typical of a non-drizzling stratocumulus-topped BL. Entrainment rates calculated from the near cloud-top fluxes and turbulence in the BL at Point Alpha appeared to be weaker than those in the BL over the open ocean west of Point Alpha and the BL near the coast of the northeast Pacific. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) varied between 15 g m−2 and 160 g m−2. The BL had a depth of 1140 ± 120 m, was generally well-mixed and capped by a sharp inversion without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences. The wind direction generally switched from southerly within the BL to northerly above the inversion. On days when a synoptic system and related mesoscale costal circulations affected conditions at Point Alpha (29 October–4 November), a moist layer above the inversion moved over Point Alpha, and the total-water mixing ratio above the inversion was larger than that within the BL. The accumulation mode aerosol varied from 250 to 700 cm−3 within the BL, and CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation within the BL ranged between 150 and 550 cm−3. The main aerosol source at Point Alpha was horizontal advection within the BL from south. The average cloud droplet number concentration ranged between 80 and 400 cm−3. While the mean LWP retrieved from GOES was in good agreement with the in situ measurements, the GOES-derived cloud droplet effective radius tended to be larger than that from the aircraft in situ observations near cloud top. The aerosol and cloud LWP relationship reveals that during the typical well-mixed BL days the cloud LWP increased with the CCN concentrations. On the other hand, meteorological factors and the decoupling processes have large influences on the cloud LWP variation as well.
Area–volume properties of fluid interfaces are investigated to quantify the scale-local
and cumulative structure. An area–volume density g3(λ) and ratio Ω3(λ) are introduced
to examine the ...interfacial behaviour as a function of scale λ or across a range
of scales, respectively. These measures are demonstrated on mixed-fluid interfaces
from whole-field ∼10003 three-dimensional space–time concentration measurements
in turbulent jets above the mixing transition, at Re ∼ 20000 and Sc ∼ 2000, recorded
by laser-induced-fluorescence and digital-imaging techniques, with Taylor's hypothesis
applied. The cumulative structure is scale dependent in Ω3(λ), with a dimension D3(λ)
that increases with increasing scale. In contrast, the scale-local structure exhibits
self-similarity in g3(λ) with an exponent αg ≈1.3 for these interfaces. The scale
dependence in the cumulative structure arises from the large scales, while the self-similarity
corresponds to the small-scale area–volume contributions. The small scales
exhibit the largest area–volume density and provide the dominant contributions to the
total area–volume ratio, which corresponds to ∼10 times the area of a purely large-scale
interface for the present flow conditions. The self-similarity in the scale-local
structure at small scales provides the key ingredient to extrapolate the area–volume
behaviour to higher Reynolds numbers.
Experiments have been conducted to investigate turbulent mixing and the dynamics
of outer fluid interfaces, i.e. the interfaces between mixed fluid and pure ambient
fluid. A novel six-foot-diameter ...octagonal-tank flow facility was developed to enable
the optical imaging of fluid interfaces above the mixing transition, corresponding to
fully developed turbulence. Approximately 10003 whole-field three-dimensional space–
time measurements of the concentration field were recorded using laser-induced-
fluorescence digital-imaging techniques in turbulent jets at a Reynolds number of
Re ∼ 20 000, Schmidt number of Sc ∼ 2000, and downstream distance of
∼ 500 nozzle
diameters. Multiple large-scale regions of spatially nearly uniform-concentration fluid
are evident in instantaneous visualizations, in agreement with previous findings above
the mixing transition. The ensemble-averaged probability density function of concentration is found to exhibit linear dependence over a wide range of concentration
thresholds. This can be accounted for in terms of the dynamics of large-scale well-
mixed regions. Visualization of the three-dimensional space–time concentration field
indicates that molecular mixing of entrained pure ambient fluid is dynamically initiated and accomplished in the vicinity of the unsteady large scales. Examination
of the outer interfaces shows that they are dynamically confined primarily near the
instantaneous large-scale boundaries of the flow. This behaviour is quantified in terms
of the probability density of the location of the outer interfaces relative to the flow
centreline and the probability of pure ambient fluid as a function of distance from
the centreline. The current measurements show that the dynamics of outer interfaces
above the mixing transition is significantly different from the behaviour below the
transition, where previous studies have shown that unmixed ambient fluid can extend
across a wide range of transverse locations in the flow interior. The present observations of dynamical confinement of the outer interfaces to the unsteady large scales,
and considerations of entrainment, suggest that the mechanism responsible for this
behaviour must be the coupling of large-scale flow dynamics with the presence of
small-scale structures internal to the large-scale structures, above the mixing transition. The dynamics and structure of the outer interfaces across the entire range of
space–time scales are quantified in terms of a distribution of generalized level-crossing
scales. The outer-interface behaviour determines the mixing efficiency of the flow, i.e.
fraction of mixed fluid. The present findings indicate that the large-scale dynamics of
the outer interfaces above the mixing transition provides the dominant contribution
to the mixing efficiency. This suggests a new way to quantify the mixing efficiency of
turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers.
Abstract Transitional changes in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) are known to facilitate the onset of terrestrial fog, which is defined as a condition with near‐surface visibility <1 km due to ...airborne water droplets. In particular, the evening transition from a daytime convective ABL to a night‐time stable ABL provides favorable conditions for fog. This article describes a local fog event observed during the evening transition at a Canadian islet in the north Atlantic known as Sable Island during the “Fog and Turbulence Interactions in the Marine Atmosphere (Fatima)” field campaign. The comprehensive set of data collected using a myriad of instruments covering a wide range of scales allowed identification of a novel mechanism underlying this fog event. Therein an ocean–land discontinuity created a flow regime consisting of several stacked boundary layers, interplay of which produced a thin low‐level cloud that then diffused downward to the surface, causing visibility reduction. This mechanism offers useful insights on the role of boundary layers, stratification, and turbulence in fog genesis over oceanic islands.
Fog Intermittency and Critical Behavior Huang, Kelly Y.; Katul, Gabriel G.; Hintz, Thomas J. ...
Atmosphere,
05/2023, Letnik:
14, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The intermittency of fog occurrence (the switching between fog and no-fog) is a key stochastic feature that plays a role in its duration and the amount of moisture available. Here, fog intermittency ...is studied by using the visibility time series collected during the month of July 2022 on Sable Island, Canada. In addition to the visibility, time series of air relative humidity and turbulent kinetic energy, putative variables akin to the formation and breakup conditions of fog, respectively, are also analyzed in the same framework to establish links between fog intermittency and the underlying atmospheric variables. Intermittency in the time series is quantified with their binary telegraph approximations to isolate clustering behavior from amplitude variations. It is shown that relative humidity and turbulent kinetic energy bound many stochastic features of visibility, including its spectral exponent, clustering exponent, and the growth of its block entropy slope. Although not diagnostic, the visibility time series displays features consistent with Pomeau–Manneville Type-III intermittency in its quiescent phase duration PDF scaling (−3/2), power spectrum scaling (−1/2), and signal amplitude PDF scaling (−2). The binary fog time series exhibits properties of self-organized criticality in the relation between its power spectrum scaling and quiescent phase duration distribution.
Aircraft observations made off the coast of northern Chile in the Southeastern Pacific (20° S, 72° W; named Point Alpha) from 16 October to 13 November 2008 during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud- ...Atmosphere-Land Study-Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx), combined with meteorological reanalysis, satellite measurements, and radiosonde data, are used to investigate the boundary layer (BL) and aerosol-cloud-drizzle variations in this region. On days without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences, the BL at Point Alpha was typical of a non-drizzling stratocumulus-topped BL. Entrainment rates calculated from the near cloud-top fluxes and turbulence in the BL at Point Alpha appeared to be weaker than those in the BL over the open ocean west of Point Alpha and the BL near the coast of the northeast Pacific. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) varied between 15 g m−2 and 160 g m−2. The BL had a depth of 1140 ± 120 m, was generally well-mixed and capped by a sharp inversion without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences. The wind direction generally switched from southerly within the BL to northerly above the inversion. On days when a synoptic system and related mesoscale costal circulations affected conditions at Point Alpha (29 October–4 November), a moist layer above the inversion moved over Point Alpha, and the total-water mixing ratio above the inversion was larger than that within the BL. The accumulation mode aerosol varied from 250 to 700 cm−3 within the BL, and CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation within the BL ranged between 150 and 550 cm−3. The main aerosol source at Point Alpha was horizontal advection within the BL from south. The average cloud droplet number concentration ranged between 80 and 400 cm−3. While the mean LWP retrieved from GOES was in good agreement with the in situ measurements, the GOES-derived cloud droplet effective radius tended to be larger than that from the aircraft in situ observations near cloud top. The aerosol and cloud LWP relationship reveals that during the typical well-mixed BL days the cloud LWP increased with the CCN concentrations. On the other hand, meteorological factors and the decoupling processes have large influences on the cloud LWP variation as well.
Aircraft observations made off the coast of northern Chile in the Southeastern Pacific (20° S, 72° W; named Point Alpha) from 16 October to 13 November 2008 during the VAMOS ...Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study-Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx), combined with meteorological reanalysis, satellite measurements, and radiosonde data, are used to investigate the boundary layer (BL) and aerosol-cloud-drizzle variations in this region. The BL at Point Alpha was typical of a non-drizzling stratocumulus-topped BL on days without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences. The BL had a depth of 1140 ± 120 m, was well-mixed and capped by a sharp inversion. The wind direction generally switched from southerly within the BL to northerly above the inversion. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) varied between 15 g m−2 and 160 g m−2. From 29 October to 4 November, when a synoptic system affected conditions at Point Alpha, the cloud LWP was higher than on the other days by around 40 g m−2. On 1 and 2 November, a moist layer above the inversion moved over Point Alpha. The total-water specific humidity above the inversion was larger than that within the BL during these days. Entrainment rates (average of 1.5 ± 0.6 mm s−1) calculated from the near cloud-top fluxes and turbulence (vertical velocity variance) in the BL at Point Alpha appeared to be weaker than those in the BL over the open ocean west of Point Alpha and the BL near the coast of the northeast Pacific. The accumulation mode aerosol varied from 250 to 700 cm−3 within the BL, and CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation within the BL ranged between 150 and 550 cm−3. The main aerosol source at Point Alpha was horizontal advection within the BL from south. The average cloud droplet number concentration ranged between 80 and 400 cm−3, which was consistent with the satellite-derived values. The relationship of cloud droplet number concentration and CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation from 18 flights is Nd =4.6 × CCN0.71. While the mean LWP retrieved from GOES was in good agreement with the in situ measurements, the GOES-derived cloud droplet effective radius tended to be larger than that from the aircraft {in situ} observations near cloud top. The aerosol and cloud LWP relationship reveals that during the typical well-mixed BL days the cloud LWP increased with the CCN concentrations. On the other hand, meteorological factors and the decoupling processes have large influences on the cloud LWP variation as well.