The contribution of shear to the evolution of a convective boundary layer

Abstract

The role of shear in the development and maintenance of a convective boundary layer is studied by means of observations and large eddy simulations (LESs). Particular emphasis is given to the growth of the boundary layer and to the way in which this growth is affected by surface fluxes of heat and moisture and entrainment fluxes. This paper analyzes the processes that drive the latter mechanism, which accounts for approximately 30% of the growth of the mixing layer. Typically, it is found that under pure convective conditions, without shear, the entrainment buoyancy flux at the inversion is about -20% of the surface buoyancy flux. This value is widely used for entrainment rate closures in general circulation models. The data collected during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement campaign allow one to introduce realistic vertical profiles and surface fluxes into the LES runs and to compare the simulation results with the observed evolution of the boundary layer height during a convective situation with high entrainment rates and high geostrophic winds. The analysis of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget shows that the inclusion of geostrophic winds, which produce shear at the surface and in the entrainment zone, modifies the vertical profile of the various terms in the TKE budget. As a consequence, the entrainment flux is enhanced. resulting in increased growth of the boundary layer. The numerical experiments and the observations enable one to validate the efficiency of earlier representations, based on the TKE equation, which describe the evolution of the ratio between entrainment and surface buoyancy fluxes. The proposed parameterization for the entrainment and surface buoyancy flux ratio (β), which includes the main buoyancy and shear contributions, is in good agreement with the LES results. Some aspects of the parameterization of β, for instance, the absence of entrainment flux and its behavior during the transition between convective to neutral conditions, are discussed.