On estimation of the height of a turbulent mixing layer from the height-time distributions of the Richardson number
V.A. Banakh, A.V. Falits, A.M. Sherstobitov, I.N. Smalikho, A.A. Sukharev, E.V. Gordeev, I.V. Zaloznaya
V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Tomsk, Russia
Keywords: wind lidar, temperature profiler, turbulent mixing layer height, Richardson number, turbulent energy dissipation rate
Abstract
The results of a comparison of the time series of the turbulent mixing layer height, which is determined from the height-time distributions of the kinetic energy dissipation rate of turbulence and from the height-time distributions of the gradient Richardson number are presented. It is found that only under conditions of atmospheric boundary layer instability due to convection, estimation of the height of the turbulent mixing layer from the height-time distributions of the Richardson number gives results close to those obtained from the distributions of the kinetic energy dissipation rate of turbulence. In other cases, the height of the mixing layer found from the Richardson number can be significantly underestimated.
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