Abstract
A long-term study of coherent turbulence structures in the atmospheric surface layer has been carried out using 10 months of turbulence data taken on a 30-m tower under varying meteorological conditions. We use an objective detection technique based on wavelet transforms. The applied technique permits the isolation of the coherent structures from small-scale background fluctuations which is necessary for the development of dynamical models describing the evolution and properties of these phenomena. It was observed that coherent structures occupied 36% of the total time with mean turbulent flux contributions of 44% for momentum and 48% for heat. The calculation of a transport efficiency parameter indicates that coherent structures transport heat more efficiently than momentum. Furthermore, the transport efficiency increases with increasing contribution of the structures to the overall transport.
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Barthlott, C., Drobinski, P., Fesquet, C. et al. Long-term study of coherent structures in the atmospheric surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 125, 1–24 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-007-9190-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-007-9190-9