This paper complements the existing studies of Bora flow properties in the Vipava valley with the study of Bora turbulence in a lower region of the troposphere. The turbulence characteristics of Bora ...flow were derived from high resolution Doppler wind lidar measurements during eight Bora wind episodes that occurred in November and December 2019. Based on the vertical profiles of wind velocity, from 80 to 180 m above the valley floor, the turbulence intensity related to all three spatial directions and the along-wind integral length scales related to three velocity components were evaluated and compared to the approximations given in international standards. The resulting turbulence characteristics of Bora flow in a deep mountain valley exhibited interesting behaviour, differing from the one expected and suggested by standards. The intensity of turbulence during Bora episodes was found to be quite strong, especially regarding the expected values for that particular category of terrain. The specific relationship between along-wind, lateral and vertical intensity was evaluated as well. The scales of turbulence in the along-wind direction were found to vary widely between different Bora episodes and were rather different from the approximations given by standards, with the most significant deviations observed for the along-wind length scale of the vertical velocity component. Finally, the periodicity of flow structures above the valley was assessed, yielding a wide range of possible periods between 1 and 10 min, thus confirming some of the previous observations from the studies of Bora in the Vipava valley.
Aerosol direct radiative forcing is strongly dependent on aerosol distributions and aerosol types. A detailed understanding of such information is still missing at the Alpine region, which currently ...undergoes amplified climate warming. Our goal was to study the vertical variability of aerosol types within and above the Vipava valley (45.87°N, 13.90°E, 125 m a.s.l.) to reveal the vertical impact of each particular aerosol type on this region, a representative complex terrain in the Alpine region which often suffers from air pollution in the wintertime. This investigation was performed using the entire dataset of a dual-wavelength polarization Raman lidar system, which covers 33 nights from September to December 2017. The lidar provides measurements from midnight to early morning (typically from 00:00 to 06:00 CET) to provide aerosol-type dependent properties, which include particle linear depolarization ratio, lidar ratio at 355 nm and the aerosol backscatter Ångström exponent between 355 nm and 1064 nm. These aerosol properties were compared with similar studies, and the aerosol types were identified by the measured aerosol optical properties. Primary anthropogenic aerosols within the valley are mainly emitted from two sources: individual domestic heating systems, which mostly use biomass fuel, and traffic emissions. Natural aerosols, such as mineral dust and sea salt, are mostly transported over large distances. A mixture of two or more aerosol types was generally found. The aerosol characterization and statistical properties of vertical aerosol distributions were performed up to 3 km.
Southwest Slovenia is a region well-known for frequent episodes of strong and gusty Bora wind, which may damage structures, affect traffic, and poses threats to human safety in general. With the ...increased availability of computational power, the interest in high resolution modeling of Bora on local scales is growing. To model it adequately, the flow characteristics of Bora should be experimentally investigated and parameterized. This study presents the analysis of wind speed vertical profiles at Razdrto, Slovenia, a location strongly exposed to Bora during six Bora episodes of different duration, appearing between April 2010 and May 2011. The empirical power law and the logarithmic law for Bora wind, commonly used for the description of neutrally stratified atmosphere, were evaluated for 10-min averaged wind speed data measured at four different heights. Power law and logarithmic law wind speed profiles, which are commonly used in high resolution computational models, were found to approximate well the measured data. The obtained power law coefficient and logarithmic law parameters, which are for modeling purposes commonly taken to be constant for a specific site, were found to vary significantly between different Bora episodes, most notably due to different wind direction over complex terrain. To increase modeling precision, the effects of local topography on wind profile parameters needs to be experimentally assessed and implemented.
Airflows over mountain barriers in the Alpine region may give rise to strong, gusty downslope winds, called Bora. Oscillations, caused by the flow over an orographic barrier, lead to formation of ...mountain waves. These waves can only rarely be observed visually and can, in general, not be reliably reproduced by numerical models. Using aerosols as tracers for airmass motion, mountain waves were experimentally observed during Bora outbreak in the Vipava valley, Slovenia, on 24-25 January 2019 by two lidar systems: a vertical scanning lidar positioned just below the peak of the lee side of the mountain range and a fixed direction lidar at valley floor, which were set up to retrieve two-dimensional structure of the airflow over the orographic barrier into the valley. Based on the lidar data, we determined the thickness of airmass layer exhibiting downslope motion, observed hydraulic jump phenomena that gave rise to mountain waves and characterized their properties.
In order to investigate the aerosol variability over the southwest region of Slovenia, an ultraviolet scanning elastic backscatter LiDAR was utilized to make the vertical scan for atmospheric ...probing. With the assumption of horizontal atmospheric homogeneity, aerosol optical variables were retrieved from the horizontal pixel data points of two-dimensional range-height-indicator (RHI) diagrams by using a multiangle retrieval method, in which optical depth is defined as the slope of the resulting linear function when height is kept constant. To make the data retrieval feasible and precise, a series of key procedures complemented the data processing, including construction of the RHI diagram, correction of Rayleigh scattering, assessment of horizontal atmospheric homogeneity and retrieval of aerosol optical variables. The measurement example demonstrated the feasibility of the ultraviolet scanning elastic backscatter LiDAR in the applications of the retrieval of aerosol extinction and determination of the atmospheric boundary layer height. Three months' data combined with the modeling of air flow trajectories using Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model were analyzed to investigate aerosol variability. The average value of aerosol extinction with the presence of land-based air masses from the European continent was found to be two-times larger than that influenced by marine aerosols from the Mediterranean or Adriatic Sea.
•Lidar data were complemented by meteorological and environmental data.•We examine variations of boundary layer and effects of aerosols on environment.•The ABL height was highly variable and related ...to local meteorological conditions.•A ten-fold increase of optical depth was observed with presence of Saharan dust.•High optical depths correlated with slowly approaching air masses from the Balkans.
From August to October 2010 lidar measurements of aerosols in the troposphere were performed at Otlica observatory, Slovenia, using a vertical scanning elastic lidar. The lidar data sample, which contains 38 nighttime vertical profiles of the mean aerosol extinction, was combined with continuous ozone concentration (O3), particulate matter concentrations (PM) and daily radiosonde data. The obtained radiosonde- and lidar-derived heights of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), which varied considerably from day to day, were found to be in good agreement. The mean values of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 355 nm, were calculated separately for the ABL and for the free troposphere (FT). A ten-fold increase of the FT AOD was observed during the days with predicted presence of Saharan dust above the lidar site. To correlate AOD values with the type and origin of aerosols, backward trajectories of air-masses above Otlica were modeled using the HYSPLIT model and clustered. High ABL AOD values were found to be correlated with local circulations and slowly approaching air masses from the Balkans and low values with northwestern flows. The highest values correlated with southwestern flows originating in northern Africa.
Aerosol vertical profiles are valuable inputs for the evaluation of aerosol transport models, in order to improve the understanding of aerosol pollution ventilation processes which drive the ...dispersion of pollutants in mountainous regions. With the aim of providing high-accuracy vertical distributions of particle mass concentration for the study of aerosol dispersion in small-scale valleys, vertical profiles of aerosol mass concentration for aerosols from different sources (including Saharan dust and local biomass burning events) were investigated over the Vipava valley, Slovenia, a representative hot-spot for complex mixtures of different aerosol types of both anthropogenic and natural origin. The analysis was based on datasets taken between 1–30 April 2016. In-situ measurements of aerosol size, absorption, and mass concentration were combined with lidar remote sensing, where vertical profiles of aerosol concentration were retrieved. Aerosol samples were characterized by SEM-EDX, to obtain aerosol morphology and chemical composition. Two cases with expected dominant presence of different specific aerosol types (mineral dust and biomass-burning aerosols) show significantly different aerosol properties and distributions within the valley. In the mineral dust case, we observed a decrease of the elevated aerosol layer height and subsequent spreading of mineral dust within the valley, while in the biomass-burning case we observed the lifting of aerosols above the planetary boundary layer (PBL). All uncertainties of size and assumed optical properties, combined, amount to the total uncertainty of aerosol mass concentrations below 30% within the valley. We have also identified the most indicative in-situ parameters for identification of aerosol type.
Phenological observations are a valuable source of information for investigating the relationship between climate variation and plant development. Potential climate change in the future will shift ...the occurrence of phenological phases. Information about future climate conditions is needed in order to estimate this shift. General circulation models (GCM) provide the best information about future climate change. They are able to simulate reliably the most important mean features on a large scale, but they fail on a regional scale because of their low spatial resolution. A common approach to bridging the scale gap is statistical downscaling, which was used to relate the beginning of flowering of Taraxacum officinale in Slovenia with the monthly mean near-surface air temperature for January, February and March in Central Europe. Statistical models were developed and tested with NCAR/NCEP Reanalysis predictor data and EARS predictand data for the period 1960–1999. Prior to developing statistical models, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was employed on the predictor data. Multiple linear regression was used to relate the beginning of flowering with expansion coefficients of the first three EOF for the Janauary, Febrauary and March air temperatures, and a strong correlation was found between them. Developed statistical models were employed on the results of two GCM (HadCM3 and ECHAM4/OPYC3) to estimate the potential shifts in the beginning of flowering for the periods 1990–2019 and 2020–2049 in comparison with the period 1960–1989. The HadCM3 model predicts, on average, 4 days earlier occurrence and ECHAM4/OPYC3 5 days earlier occurrence of flowering in the period 1990–2019. The analogous results for the period 2020–2049 are a 10- and 11-day earlier occurrence.
The Vipava valley in Slovenia is well known for the appearance of strong, gusty North-East Bora winds, which occur as a result of air flows over an adjacent orographic barrier. There are three ...prevailing wind directions within the valley which were found to give rise to specific types of atmospheric structures. These structures were investigated using a Mie scattering lidar operating at 1064nm, which provided high temporal and spatial resolution backscatter data on aerosols, which were used as tracers for atmospheric flows. Wind properties were monitored at the bottom of the valley and at the rim of the barrier using two ultrasonic anemometers. Twelve time periods between February and April 2015 were selected when lidar data was available. The periods were classified according to the wind speed and direction and investigated in terms of appearance of atmospheric structures. In two periods with strong or moderate Bora, periodic atmospheric structures in the lidar data were observed at heights above the mountain barrier and are believed to be Kelvin–Helmholtz waves, induced by wind shear. No temporal correlation was found between these structures and wind gusts at the ground level. The influence of the wind on the height of the planetary boundary layer was studied as well. In periods with low wind speeds, the vertical evolution of the planetary boundary layer was found to be governed by solar radiation and clouds. In periods with strong or moderate Bora wind, convection within the planetary boundary layer was found to be much weaker due to strong turbulence close to the ground, which inhibited mixing through the entire layer.
•Kelvin–Helmholz waves were observed during Bora events in Vipava valley, Slovenia.•Their period was found to be between 2 and 12min with wavelengths of several km.•No correlation was found between wave and Bora gust periodicity at the ground level.
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