Spatiotemporal Variability of Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budgets in the Convective Boundary Layer over Both Simple and Complex Terrain
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
The assumption of subgrid-scale (SGS) horizontal homogeneity within a model grid cell, which forms the basis of SGS turbulence closures used by mesoscale models, becomes increasingly tenuous as grid spacing is reduced to a few kilometers or less, such as in many emerging high-resolution applications. Here in this paper, the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget equation is used to study the spatiotemporal variability in two types of terrain—complex [Columbia Basin Wind Energy Study (CBWES) site, northeastern Oregon] and flat [Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) site, west Texas]—using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. In each case, six nested domains [three domains each for mesoscale and large-eddy simulation (LES)] are used to downscale the horizontal grid spacing from ~10 km to ~10 m using the WRF Model framework. The model output was used to calculate the values of the TKE budget terms in vertical and horizontal planes as well as the averages of grid cells contained in the four quadrants of the LES domain. The budget terms calculated along the planes and the mean profile of budget terms show larger spatial variability at the CBWES site than at the SWiFT site. The contribution of the horizontal derivative of the shear production term to the total shear production was found to be ≈45% and ≈15% at the CBWES and SWiFT sites, respectively, indicating that the horizontal derivatives applied in the budget equation should not be ignored in mesoscale model parameterizations, especially for cases with complex terrain with <10-km scale.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1415063
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1488818
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-739279
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Vol. 56 Journal Issue: 12; ISSN 1558-8424
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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