Effect of Small-Scale Topographical Variations and Fetch from Roughness Elements on the Stable Boundary Layer Turbulence Statistics

Abstract

Understanding the influence of roughness and terrain slope on stable boundary layer turbulence is challenging. This is investigated using observations collected from October to November of 2018 during the Stable Atmospheric Variability ANd Transport (SAVANT) field campaign conducted in a shallow sloping Midwestern field. We analyze the turbulence velocity scale and its variation with the mean wind speed using observations up to 10–20 m on four meteorological towers located along a shallow gully. The roughness length for momentum over this complex terrain varied with wind direction from 0.0049 m to a maximum of 0.12 m for winds coming through deciduous trees present in the field. The variation of the turbulence velocity with wind speed shows a transition from a weak wind regime to a stronger wind regime, as reported by past studies. This transition is not observed for winds coming from the tree area, where turbulence is enhanced even for weak wind speeds. For weak stratification and stronger winds, the turbulent velocity scale increased with an increase in roughness while the terrain slope is seen to have a weak influence. The sizes of the dominant turbulent eddies seen from the vertical velocity power spectra are observed to be larger for winds coming through the tree area. The turbulence enhancement by the trees is found to be strong within a fetch distance of 7 times the tree height and not observable at 16 times of the tree height.