Transitional periods of the atmospheric boundary layer

• Autores: Estel Blay Carreras
• Directores de la Tesis: David Pino González (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2014
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Marie Lothon (presid.), Joan Cuxart Rodamilans (secret.), Joachim Reuder (voc.), María Rosa Soler Duffour (voc.), Eric Pardyjak (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Ciencias de la tierra y del espacio
    • Ciencias de la atmósfera
    • Meteorología
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
• Resumen

  • The atmospheric boundary layer is the part of the troposphere influenced by the presence of the surface, and where most weather phenomena occur. During the day, with fair weather conditions, a convective boundary layer exists. In contrast, during the night, a stable boundary layer appears. It is important to note that the evolution from a convective boundary layer to a stable boundary layer and vice versa happens through two transitional processes. Due to its complexity and the rapid variability, there is a lack of studies about the morning or afternoon/evening transitions. This thesis wants to solve some of the uncertainties related with the morning and afternoon/evening transition of the atmospheric boundary layer. It is based on observations from the project Boundary-Layer Late Afternoon and Sunset Turbulence (BLLAST) and numerical simulation experiments developed with mixed-layer and large-eddy simulation models. In this thesis, we develop an analysis focused on the role played by the residual layer during the morning transition and by the large-scale subsidence on the evolution of the boundary layer. DALES numerical experiments that include the residual layer are capable of modeling the observed sudden increase of the boundary-layer depth during the morning transition and the subsequent evolution of the boundary layer. These simulations show a large increase in the entrainment buoyancy flux when the residual layer is incorporated into the mixed layer. We also examine how the inclusion of the residual layer above a shallow convective boundary layer modifies the turbulent kinetic energy budget. Large-scale subsidence mainly acts when the boundary layer is fully developed and, for the studied day, it is necessary to consider this in order to reproduce the afternoon observations. Finally, we also investigate how CO2 stored the previous night in the residual layer plays a fundamental role in the evolution of the CO2 mixing ratio during the following day. Moreover, we hypothesize that during the evening transition a delay exists between the instant when the buoyancy flux goes to zero and the time when the local gradient of the virtual potential temperature changes sign contradict the assumption in which are base the gradient-based turbulence models. The results from this work confirm and quantify a flux-gradient delay. Specifically, the observed values of the delay are between approximately 30 and 80 min. The existence of the delay and its duration can be explained by considering the convective time and the competition of forces associated with the classical Rayleigh-Bénard problem. This combined theory predicts that the last eddy formed should produce a delay when the sensible heat flux changes sign during the evening transition. It appears that this last eddy is decelerated through the action of turbulent momentum and thermal diffusivity, and that the delay is related to the convective turnover time. Observations indicate that, as horizontal shear becomes more important, the delay time apparently increases to values greater than the convective turnover time. Finally, we study the existence and characteristics of Lifted Temperature Minimum (LTM) during the evening transition. The study shows that LTM can be detected in calm conditions already during day¿night transition, several hours earlier than the usual time of occurrence reported by previous works. These conditions are fulfilled when weak synoptic forcing exists and the local flow shifts from valley to mountain breeze in a relatively complex orography. Under these special conditions, turbulence becomes a crucial parameter to determine the ideal conditions for observing LTM. Additionally, the correlation of longwave radiation measured at 0.8 m and estimated at the ground varies when the LTM is observed. Therefore, LTM is also related to a change in the atmospheric radiative characteristics under calm conditions.