DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Estimation of turbulence dissipation rate and its variability from sonic anemometer and wind Doppler lidar during the XPIA field campaign

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
  2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Abstract. Despite turbulence being a fundamental transport process in the boundary layer, the capability of current numerical models to represent it is undermined by the limits of the adopted assumptions, notably that of local equilibrium. Here we leverage the potential of extensive observations in determining the variability in turbulence dissipation rate (ϵ). These observations can provide insights towards the understanding of the scales at which the major assumption of local equilibrium between generation and dissipation of turbulence is invalid. Typically, observations of ϵ require time- and labor-intensive measurements from sonic and/or hot-wire anemometers. We explore the capability of wind Doppler lidars to provide measurements of ϵ. We refine and extend an existing method to accommodate different atmospheric stability conditions. To validate our approach, we estimate ϵ from four wind Doppler lidars during the 3-month XPIA campaign at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (Colorado), and we assess the uncertainty of the proposed method by data intercomparison with sonic anemometer measurements of ϵ. Our analysis of this extensive dataset provides understanding of the climatology of turbulence dissipation over the course of the campaign. Further, the variability in ϵ with atmospheric stability, height, and wind speed is also assessed. Finally, we present how ϵ increases as nocturnal turbulence is generated during low-level jet events.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; AGS-1554055; AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1463341
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1464916
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-135886; NREL/JA-5000-72199
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online), Vol. 11, Issue 7; ISSN 1867-8548
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 37 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (79)

Estimates of Turbulence from Numerical Weather Prediction Model Output with Applications to Turbulence Diagnosis and Data Assimilation journal October 2004
Spectral characteristics of surface-layer turbulence journal July 1972
Turbulent Velocity-Variance Profiles in the Stable Boundary Layer Generated by a Nocturnal Low-Level Jet journal November 2006
Measurements of dissipation rate in frontal zones journal July 2001
Antenna parameters for incoherent backscatter heterodyne lidar journal January 1979
Matching in the Convective Planetary Boundary Layer journal February 1978
Sonic Anemometer Tilt Correction Algorithms journal April 2001
Low-Frequency Effects on Eddy Covariance Fluxes under the Influence of a Low-Level Jet journal March 2007
Turbulent fluxes, stability and shear in the offshore environment: Mesoscale modelling and field observations at FINO1 journal November 2012
The Effect of Wind-Turbine Wakes on Summertime US Midwest Atmospheric Wind Profiles as Observed with Ground-Based Doppler Lidar journal July 2013
Improved observations of turbulence dissipation rates from wind profiling radars journal January 2017
Turbulent structure and scaling of the inertial subrange in a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer observed by a Doppler lidar journal January 2015
Remote Measurement of Turbulent Wind Spectra by Heterodyne DopplerLidar Technique journal December 2000
Measuring Second- through Fourth-Order Moments in Noisy Data journal October 2000
Surface-Layer Fluxes, Profiles, and Turbulence Measurements over Uniform Terrain under Near-Neutral Conditions journal April 1996
Impact assessment of biomass burning on air quality in Southeast and East Asia during BASE-ASIA journal October 2013
Assessing atmospheric stability and its impacts on rotor-disk wind characteristics at an onshore wind farm journal July 2011
Flux Measurements, Flux Estimation Techniques, and Fine-Scale Turbulence Measurements in the Unstable Surface Layer Over Land journal March 1977
The Boulder Atmospheric Observatory journal May 1983
Consequences of Urban Stability Conditions for Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of Urban Dispersion journal July 2007
Evaluation of Cut-Off Frequency and Correction of Filter-Induced Phase Lag and Attenuation in Eddy Covariance Analysis of Turbulence Data journal August 2003
An Analysis of the Performance of the UFAM Pulsed Doppler Lidar for Observing the Boundary Layer journal February 2009
Sensitivity of Turbine-Height Wind Speeds to Parameters in Planetary Boundary-Layer and Surface-Layer Schemes in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model journal July 2016
Next-Generation Numerical Weather Prediction: Bridging Parameterization, Explicit Clouds, and Large Eddies journal January 2012
Assessing State-of-the-Art Capabilities for Probing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: The XPIA Field Campaign journal February 2017
Low-Altitude Jet Streams journal August 1961
Doppler Lidar Measurements of Vertical Velocity Spectra in the Convective Planetary Boundary Layer journal June 2009
Identification of tower-wake distortions using sonic anemometer and lidar measurements journal January 2017
How Long Is Long Enough When Measuring Fluxes and Other Turbulence Statistics? journal June 1994
Development of an Improved Turbulence Closure Model for the Atmospheric Boundary Layer journal January 2009
The boundary layer contribution to intertropical convergence zones in the quasi-equilibrium tropical circulation model framework journal September 2006
The Relation Between Large-Scale Vertical Motion and Weather in Summer journal October 1958
The spatial structure of neutral atmospheric surface-layer turbulence journal August 1994
Implementation of a Nonlinear Subfilter Turbulence Stress Model for Large-Eddy Simulation in the Advanced Research WRF Model journal November 2010
High-Resolution In Situ Profiling through the Stable Boundary Layer: Examination of the SBL Top in Terms of Minimum Shear, Maximum Stratification, and Turbulence Decrease journal April 2006
Research towards a wake-vortex advisory system for optimal aircraft spacing journal May 2005
Measurement of Atmospheric Turbulence by 2- μ m Doppler Lidar journal November 2005
Performance of a Wind-Profiling Lidar in the Region of Wind Turbine Rotor Disks journal March 2012
Dissipation of Turbulence in the Wake of a Wind Turbine journal November 2014
Observing and Simulating the Summertime Low-Level Jet in Central Iowa journal June 2015
Nocturnal Low-Level Jet Characteristics Over Kansas During Cases-99 journal November 2002
Surface Layer Turbulence Measurements during a Frontal Passage journal July 2004
Coherent Doppler lidar signal covariance including wind shear and wind turbulence journal January 1994
Turbulence Dissipation Rate in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: Observations and WRF Mesoscale Modeling during the XPIA Field Campaign journal January 2018
A Method for Estimating the Turbulent Kinetic Energy Dissipation Rate from a Vertically Pointing Doppler Lidar, and Independent Evaluation from Balloon-Borne In Situ Measurements journal October 2010
Turbulence Structure of the Hurricane Boundary Layer between the Outer Rainbands journal August 2009
The average dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy in the neutral and unstable atmospheric surface layer journal June 1997
Aircraft Observations of Boundary Layer Rolls off the Coast of California journal July 1997
Evaluation of a Procedure to Correct Spatial Averaging in Turbulence Statistics from a Doppler Lidar by Comparing Time Series with an Ultrasonic Anemometer journal October 2016
On the universality of the Kolmogorov constant journal November 1995
WRF-Fire: Coupled Weather–Wildland Fire Modeling with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model journal January 2013
Representativeness of wind measurements with a cw Doppler lidar in the atmospheric boundary layer journal January 1995
An Improved Mellor–Yamada Level-3 Model: Its Numerical Stability and Application to a Regional Prediction of Advection Fog journal March 2006
Measurements of Boundary Layer Profiles in an Urban Environment journal June 2006
Modelling velocity spectra in the lower part of the planetary boundary layer journal July 1984
The determination of the Kolmogoroff constants for velocity, temperature and humidity fluctuations from second- and third-order structure functions journal November 1971
Turbulence kinetic energy budget during the afternoon transition – Part 1: Observed surface TKE budget and boundary layer description for 10 intensive observation period days journal January 2016
Validating precision estimates in horizontal wind measurements from a Doppler lidar journal January 2017
Measurements of wind turbulence parameters by a conically scanning coherent Doppler lidar in the atmospheric boundary layer journal January 2017
Some aspects of turbulence structure through the depth of the convective boundary layer journal October 1979
A Numerical Study of Flow and Pollutant Dispersion Characteristics in Urban Street Canyons journal November 1999
Errors in radial velocity variance from Doppler wind lidar journal January 2016
Estimation of Velocity Error for Doppler Lidar Measurements journal October 2001
Statistical theory of turbulence-II journal September 1935
A First Course in Turbulence January 1972
Turbulent Energy Dissipation Rate Measurement Using Doppler Lidar book January 1997
The spectral velocity tensor for homogeneous boundary-layer turbulence journal April 1989
Statistical Theory of Turbulence journal September 1935
Some aspects of turbulence structure through the depth of the convective boundary layer journal October 1979
Measurements of dissipation rate in frontal zones journal July 2001
How long is long enough when measuring fluxes and other turbulence statistics? text January 1993
Some aspects of turbulence structure through the depth of the convective boundary layer journal October 1979
The spectral velocity tensor for homogeneous boundary-layer turbulence journal April 1989
An Improved Mellor–Yamada Level-3 Model: Its Numerical Stability and Application to a Regional Prediction of Advection Fog journal March 2006
Doppler Lidar Measurements of Vertical Velocity Spectra in the Convective Planetary Boundary Layer journal June 2009
The Effect of Wind-Turbine Wakes on Summertime US Midwest Atmospheric Wind Profiles as Observed with Ground-Based Doppler Lidar journal July 2013
Development of an Improved Turbulence Closure Model for the Atmospheric Boundary Layer journal January 2009
A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Version 2 text January 2005
Turbulence kinetic energy budget during the afternoon transition – Part 1: Observed surface TKE budget and boundary layer description for 10 intensive observation period days journal January 2016

Cited By (5)

Aircraft wake vortex and turbulence measurement under near-ground effect using coherent Doppler lidar journal January 2019
Spatial and temporal variability of turbulence dissipation rate in complex terrain journal January 2019
Estimation of turbulence dissipation rate from Doppler wind lidars and in situ instrumentation for the Perdigão 2017 campaign journal January 2019
Do wind turbines pose roll hazards to light aircraft? journal January 2018
Do Wind Turbines Pose Roll Hazards to Light Aircraft? journal June 2018