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Spatiotemporal Variability of Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budgets in the Convective Boundary Layer over Both Simple and Complex Terrain

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
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  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
  2. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
  4. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
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The assumption of sub-grid 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. Herein, we use the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget equation to study the spatio-temporal variability in two types of terrain—complex (Columbia Basin Wind Energy Study [CBWES] site, north-eastern Oregon) and flat (ScaledWind Farm Technologies [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 (a quarter area) of the LES domain. The budget terms calculated along the planes and the mean profile of budget terms show larger spatial variability at CBWES site than at the SWiFT site. The contribution of the horizontal derivative of the shear production term to the total production shear was found to be 45% and 15% of the total shear, 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:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind Energy Technologies Office (EE-4WE)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1416688
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-125867; WW0600000
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 56; ISSN 1558-8424
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (3)

Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications journal August 2017
Daytime Temporal Variation of Surface-Layer Parameters and Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budget in Topographically Complex Terrain Around Umiam, India journal April 2019
Large-eddy simulation sensitivities to variations of configuration and forcing parameters in canonical boundary-layer flows for wind energy applications journal January 2018

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Related Subjects

SGS
Spatio-temporal
TKE
convective boundary layer
sub-grid scale
turbulence kinetic energy