Topics to be covered in EAS 572 (2012)

Topics, 2012

• Refresher on some background fluid mechanics, leading to the Navier-Stokes equations
• Assignment: Computing turbulence statistics from observed time series
• The Reynolds equations, and their interpretation
• The turbulence closure problem
• Horizontally-homogeneous boundary layers
• The ideal atmospheric surface layer (ASL, constant flux layer)
  • The surface radiation and energy budgets
  • Basis of the Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (MOST)
  • MOST laws for mean wind profile and other velocity statistics
  • Assignment: Best-fitting MOST profiles to observations so as to extract the surface layer scales (friction velocity and Obukhov length)
• Flow in uniform plant or forest canopies
• Disturbed micrometeorological flows
  • Local advection due to step change in surface temperature, humidity etc.
  • Windbreak flows
  • Flow over a low ridge
• Atmospheric dispersion
  • Eulerian approach with first-order closure (K-theory, or eddy diffusion model)
    • Gaussian puff/plume model (unsheared flow, constant K)
    • More realistic profile laws: U(z), K(z)
  • Higher-order closure
• Lagrangian stochastic (LS) method
  • Taylor's solution, revealing a limitation of the eddy diffusion approach
  • Some formalism relating to LS models
  • Random displacement model
  • Generalized Langevin model
  • The well-mixed condition
  • Applications
    • Assignment: Dispersion from continuous a point source in the ASL (Project Prairie Grass)
    • The convective boundary layer
    • The bLS (backward Lagrangian stochastic) method for inferring surface-atmosphere fluxes
• Special topics
  • Methods for measuring surface-atmos. exchange (incl. eddy covariance)
  • Flux footprint

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Last Modified: Sep. 6, 2012