Convective Mixed Layer

Abstract

Buoyancy is the dominant mechanism driving turbulence in a convective boundary layer. Such turbulence is not completely random, but is often organized into identifiable structures such as thermals and plumes (Young, 1988). Entertainment happens at a variety of scales: lateral entertainment by small eddies into the sides of thermals, and vertical entertainment on the thermal scale into the whole mixed layer. In this chapter we examine the structure and evolution of the convective boundary layer, and study the forcings acting on it.