Article
 

Evaluating Formulations of Stable Boundary Layer Height

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Accessible Version
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/8c97kr93d

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Stable boundary layer height h is determined from eddy correlation measurements of the vertical profiles of the buoyancy flux and turbulence energy from a tower over grassland in autumn, a tower over rangeland with variable snow cover during winter, and aircraft data in the stable marine boundary layer generated by warm air advection over a cool ocean surface in summer. A well-defined h within the tower layer at the grass site (lowest 50 m) and the snow site (lowest 30 m) was definable only about 20% of the time. In the remaining stable periods, the buoyancy flux and turbulence energy either (a) remained constant with height, indicating a deep boundary layer, (b) increased with height, or (c) varied erratically with height. Approximately one-half of the tower profiles did not fit the traditional concepts of a boundary layer. The well-defined cases of h are compared with various formulations for the equilibrium depth of the stably stratified boundary layer based on the Richardson number or surface fluxes. The diagnostic models for h have limited success in explaining both the variance and mean magnitude of h at all three sites. The surface bulk Richardson number and gradient Richardson number approaches perform best for the combined data. For the surface bulk Richardson number method, the required critical value varies systematically between sites. The surface bulk Richardson number approach is modified to include a critical value that depends on the surface Rossby number, which incorporates the influence of surface roughness and wind speed on boundary layer depth.
Resource Type
DOI
Date Available
Date Issued
Citation
  • Vickers, D., L. Mahrt, 2004: Evaluating Formulations of Stable Boundary Layer Height. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 43, 1736–1749.
Journal Title
Journal Volume
  • 43
Journal Issue/Number
  • 11
Rights Statement
Funding Statement (additional comments about funding)
  • This material is based upon work supported by Grant DAAD19-9910249 from the U.S. Army Research Office, Grant 0107617-ATM from the Physical Meteorology Program of the National Sciences Foundation, Grant NAGS-11586 from the NASA Hydrology Program, and Grant N00014-01-1-0084 from the Marine Meteorology Program of the Office of Naval Research.
Publisher
Language
Replaces
Accessibility Feature

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details MahrtL.CEOAS.EvaluatingFormulationsStable.pdf 2017-07-24 Public Download