Abstract
Observations of the dependence of the dimensionless wind speed gradient \({\phi_m}\) as a function of the Monin–Obukhov stability parameter z/L o under strong stability diverge from results of large-eddy simulation (LES) modelling. A kinetic energy budget analysis indicates that it is likely caused by violations of the assumptions of stationarity and/or homogeneity of turbulence in the field experiments rather than in imperfections of the LES. This confirms the validity of the widely used linear approximation for \({\phi_m}\) not only at weak to moderate stability, but also under strong stability. The new interpretation of the linear approximation of \({\phi_m}\) is given in terms of turbulent scales, which gives hope for its applicability to the free atmosphere as well.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Prof. M.A. Kallistratova for helpful discussions, and are grateful to Dr. I. Esau from Nansen Environmental and Research Center for providing the LES database. The SHEBA data were provided by NCAR/EOL under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (http://data.eol.ucar.edu/). This work has been supported by the EC FP7 project ERC PBL-PMES (No. 227915) and by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grants 08-05-00671 and 10-05-00802).
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Kouznetsov, R.D., Zilitinkevich, S.S. On the Velocity Gradient in Stably Stratified Sheared Flows. Part 2: Observations and Models. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 135, 513–517 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9487-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9487-y