The Effect of Gravity Wave Drag on Near-Surface Winds and Wind Profiles in the Nocturnal Boundary Layer over Land

During overnight cooling of the planetary boundary layer overland, near-surface wind speeds have been found to decrease approximately linearly with screen temperature. However numerical models incorporating only near-surface form drag or increased roughness length suggest that inertial oscillations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBoundary-layer meteorology Vol. 156; no. 2; pp. 325 - 335
Main Authors Lapworth, A., Claxton, B. M., McGregor, J. R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2015
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Analysis
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Boundary layers
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Gravity
Gravity effects
Gravity waves
Land
Mathematical models
Meteorology
Notes and Comments
Planetary boundary layer
Surface chemistry
Wind
Wind speed
Stable boundary layer
Gravity-wave drag
Evening transition
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Summary:During overnight cooling of the planetary boundary layer overland, near-surface wind speeds have been found to decrease approximately linearly with screen temperature. However numerical models incorporating only near-surface form drag or increased roughness length suggest that inertial oscillations in the stable layer limit the decrease in wind speed. A simple gravity-wave parametrization imposes a strong drag force that has been found to give reasonable quantitative agreement with surface observations and to agree qualitatively with vertical wind-profile changes measured on several evenings of observation. The vertical wind profiles clearly show the effect of an increasingly strong drag force in the lower atmospheric levels as the surface cools.
ISSN:0006-8314
1573-1472
DOI:10.1007/s10546-015-0026-8