Planetary boundary layer

The planetary boundary layer (PBL), also known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), is the lowest part of the atmosphere and its behavior is directly influenced by its contact with a planetary surface. On Earth it usually responds to changes in surface forcing in an hour or less. In this layer physical quantities such as flow velocity, temperature, moisture etc., display rapid fluctuations (turbulence) and vertical mixing is strong. Above the PBL is the "free atmosphere" where the wind is approximately geostrophic (parallel to the isobars) while within the PBL the wind is affected by surface drag and turns across the isobars. The free atmosphere is usually nonturbulent, or only intermittently turbulent.

Cause of surface wind gradient

Typically, due to aerodynamic drag, there is a wind gradient in the wind flow just a few hundred meters above the Earth's surfacethe surface layer of the planetary boundary layer. Wind speed increases with increasing height above the ground, starting from zero due to the no-slip condition. Flow near the surface encounters obstacles that reduce the wind speed, and introduce random vertical and horizontal velocity components at right angles to the main direction of flow. This turbulence causes vertical mixing between the air moving horizontally at one level and the air at those levels immediately above and below it, which is important in dispersion of pollutants and in soil erosion. The reduction in velocity near the surface is a function of surface roughness, so wind velocity profiles are quite different for different terrain types. Rough, irregular ground, and man-made obstructions on the ground can reduce the geostrophic wind speed by 40% to 50%. Over open water or ice, the reduction may be only 20% to 30%. These effects are taken into account when siting wind turbines. For engineering purposes, the wind gradient is modeled as a simple shear exhibiting a vertical velocity profile varying according to a power law with a constant exponential coefficient based on surface type. The height above ground where surface friction has a negligible effect on wind speed is called the "gradient height" and the wind speed above this height is assumed to be a constant called the "gradient wind speed". The shearing of the wind is usually three-dimensional, that is, there is also a change in direction between the 'free' pressure-driven geostrophic wind and the wind close to the ground. This is related to the Ekman spiral effect. The cross-isobar angle of the diverted ageostrophic flow near the surface ranges from 10 over open water, to 30 over rough hilly terrain, and can increase to 40-50 over land at night when the wind speed is very low.

After sundown the wind gradient near the surface increases, with the increasing stability. Atmospheric stability occurring at night with radiative cooling tends to contain turbulent eddies vertically, increasing the wind gradient. The magnitude of the wind gradient is largely influenced by the height of the convective boundary layer and this effect is even larger over the sea, where there is no diurnal variation

of the height of the boundary layer as there is over land. In the convective boundary layer, strong mixing diminishes vertical wind gradient.

Constituent layers
As NavierStokes equations suggest, the planetary boundary layer turbulence is produced in the layer with the largest velocity gradients that is at the very surface proximity. This layer conventionally called a surface layer constitutes about 10% of the total PBL depth. Above the surface layer the PBL turbulence gradually dissipates, losing its kinetic energy to friction as well as converting the kinetic to potential energy in a density stratified flow. The balance between the rate of the turbulent kinetic energy production and its dissipation determines the planetary boundary layer depth. The PBL depth varies broadly. At a given wind speed, e.g. 8 m/s, and so at a given rate of the turbulence production, a PBL in wintertime Arctic could be as shallow as 50 m, a nocturnal PBL in mid-latitudes could be typically 300 m in thickness, and a tropical PBL in the trade-wind zone could grow to its full theoretical depth of 2000 m.

In addition to the surface layer, the planetary boundary layer also comprises the PBL core (between 0.1 and 0.7 of the PBL depth) and the PBL top or entrainment layer or capping inversion layer (between 0.7 and 1 of the PBL depth). Four main external factors determine the PBL depth and its mean vertical structure:

1. 2. 3. 4.

the free atmosphere wind speed; the surface heat (more exactly buoyancy) balance; the free atmosphere density stratification; the free atmosphere vertical wind shear or baroclinicity

Principal types
Convective planetary boundary layer (CBL) is the PBL where positive buoyancy flux at the surface creates a thermal instability and thus generates additional or even major turbulence. The CBL is typical in tropical and midlatitudes during daytime. Solar heating assisted by the heat released from the water vapor condensation could create so strong convective turbulence that the CBL comprises the entire troposphere up to 10 km to 18 km (Intertropical convergence zone). Stably stratified planetary boundary layer (SBL) is the PBL where negative buoyancy flux at the surface damps the turbulence. The SBL is solely driven by the wind shear turbulence and hence the SBL cannot exist without the free atmosphere wind. The SBL is typical in nighttime at all locations and even in daytime in places where the Earth's surface is colder than the air above. The SBL plays a particularly important role in high latitudes where it is often prolonged (days to months), resulting in very cold air temperatures. Physical laws and equations of motions, which govern the planetary boundary layer dynamics and microphysics, are strongly non-linear and considerably influenced by properties of the Earth's surface and evolution of the processes in the free atmosphere. To deal with this complicity, the whole array of turbulence modelling has been proposed. However, they are often not accurate enough to meet practical requests. Significant improvements are expected from application of a large eddy simulation technique to problems related to the PBL. Perhaps the most important processes, which are critically dependent on the correct representation of the PBL in the atmospheric models (Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project), are turbulent transport of moisture (evapotranspiration) and pollutants (air pollutants). Clouds in the boundary layer influence trade winds, the hydrological cycle, and energy exchange.

Land Breezes
At night, the land cools off faster than the ocean due to differences in their heat capacity, which forces the dying of the daytime sea breeze. If the land cools below that of the adjacent sea surface temperature, the pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, setting up a land breeze as long as the environmental surface wind pattern is not strong enough to oppose

it. If there is sufficient moisture and instability available, the land breeze can cause showers or even thunderstorms, over the water. Overnight thunderstorm development offshore due to the land breeze can be a good predictor for the activity on land the following day, as long as there are no expected changes to the weather pattern over the following 12 24 hours. This is mainly because the strength of the land breeze is weaker than the sea breeze. The land breeze will die once the land warms up again the next morning. On clear, calm evenings, temperature differences between a body of water and neighboring land produce a cool wind that blows offshore. This wind is called a "land breeze". Land breezes are strongest along the immediate coastline but weaken considerably further inland.

Land-breeze circulations can occur at any time of year, but are most common during the fall and winter seasons when water temperatures are still fairly warm and nights are cool.

On clear and calm evenings, the earth's surface cools by radiating (giving off) heat back into space, and this results in a cooling of the immediately overlying air.

Since the air over land cools more rapidly than the air over water, a temperature difference is established, with cooler air present over land and relatively warmer air located over water.

Sea breeze
A sea-breeze (or onshore breeze) is a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. It is formed by increasing temperature differences between the land and water; these create a pressure minimum over the land due to its relative warmth, and forces higher pressure, cooler air from the sea to move inland. Generally, air temperature gets cooler relative to nearby locations as one moves closer to a large body of water

Main cause
The sea has a greater heat capacity than land and can therefore absorb more heat than the land, so the surface of the sea warms up more slowly than the land's surface. As the temperature of the surface of the land rises, the land heats the air above it. The warm air is less dense and so it rises. This rising air over the land lowers the sea level pressure by about 0.2%. The cooler air above the sea, now with higher sea level pressure, flows towards the land into the lower pressure, creating a cooler breeze near the coast. The strength of the sea breeze is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land and the sea. If the environmental wind field is greater than 8 knots and opposing the direction of a possible sea breeze, the sea breeze is not likely to develop.

Effects
A sea-breeze front is a weather front created by a sea-breeze, also known as a convergence zone. The cold air from the sea meets the warmer air from the land and creates a boundary like a shallow cold front. When powerful this front creates cumulus clouds, and if the air is humid and unstable, cumulonimbus clouds, the front can sometimes trigger thunderstorms. If the flow aloft is aligned with the direction of the sea breeze, places experiencing the sea breeze frontal passage will be benign, or fair, weather for the remainder of the day. At the front warm air continues to flow upward and cold air continually moves in to replace it and so the front moves progressively inland. Its speed depends on whether it is assisted or hampered by the prevailing wind, and the strength of the thermal contrast between land and sea. At night, the sea-breeze usually changes to a land breeze, due to a reversal of the same mechanisms.

Mountain breeze and valley breeze

A mountain breeze and a valley breeze are two related, localized winds that occur one after the other on a daily cycle. They are not the same as katabatic winds, which usually occur on a larger scale. Mountain and valley breezes form through a process similar to sea and land breezes. During the day, the sun heats up valley air rapidly. This causes it to rise, causing a warm, upslope wind. At night, the process is reversed. Mountain air cools rapidly at night and "falls" downslope, causing a wind going in the other direction.

Wind tunnel components

Role of non-dimensional groups

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Reynolds number (Re) Mach number (M) Strouhal number (Str) Froude number (Fr) Weber number (We) Prandtl number (pr)

1. Reynolds number (Re): It is a dimensionless number which is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces. The Reynolds number can be defined as

where:

is the mean velocity of the object relative to the fluid is a characteristic linear dimension, (travelled length of the fluid) (m) is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pas or Ns/m or kg/(ms)) is the kinematic viscosity ( is the density of the fluid (kg/m) ) (m/s)

2. Mach number (M): It is the ratio of the speed of the object to the speed of the sound. It is also the ratio of the inertial forces to the elastic forces.

where is the Mach number, is the velocity of the object relative to the medium and is the speed of sound in the medium.

3. Strouhal number (Str): The Strouhal number is a dimensionless number describing oscillating flow mechanisms. It is the ratio of unsteady forces to steady forces.

Where:
is the frequency of vortex shedding, is the characteristic length is the velocity of the fluid.

4. Froude number (Fr): It is defined as the ratio of a characteristic velocity to a gravitational wave velocity. It may equivalently be defined as the ratio of a body's inertia to gravitational forces. The Froude number is used to determine the resistance of a partially submerged object moving through water, and permits the comparison of objects of different sizes. The Froude number is defined as,

Where is a characteristic velocity, and is a characteristic water wave propagation velocity.

The Froude number is thus analogous to the Mach number. The greater the Froude number, the greater the resistance. 5. Weber number (We): It is a measure of the relative importance of the fluid's inertia compared to its surface tension. The Weber number is a dimensionless number in fluid mechanics that is often useful in analyzing fluid flows where there is an interface between two different fluids, especially for multiphase flows with strongly curved surfaces. The Weber number is defined as:

where is the density of the fluid (kg/m3). is its velocity (m/s). is its characteristic length, typically the droplet diameter (m). is the surface tension (N/m). 6. Prandtl number (pr): The Prandtl number {Pr} is a dimensionless number; the ratio of momentum diffusivity (kinematic viscosity) to thermal diffusivity.

where: : Kinematic viscosity, , (m2/s)

: Thermal diffusivity,

, (m2/s)

: Dynamic viscosity, (Pa s = (N s)/m2) : Thermal conductivity, (W/(m K) ) : Specific heat, (J/(kg K) ) : Density, (kg/m3).

Scaling laws: 1. Two flows are equivalent as long as all the relevant scale parameters are equal. 2. In practice it is nearly impossible to enforce all the scale parameters to be equal. 3. In very expensive tunnels such problems are sometimes addressed by changing the pressure and density of the air or, even, using a heavy gas instead of air. Consider the following examples, Air flow over a real bridge deck with width of 30m and over a model of the bridge deck with width 0.3m. Air flow over a real fighter plane at M=1.2 at sea level and a 1/32 scale model.

Atmospheric boundary layer flow in wind tunnel

In Wind Engineering, wind tunnel tests are used to measure the velocity around, and forces or pressures upon structures. Very tall buildings, buildings with unusual or complicated shapes (such as a tall building with a parabolic or a hyperbolic shape), cable suspension bridges or cable stayed bridges are analyzed in specialized atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnels. These feature a long upwind section to accurately represent the wind speed and turbulence profile acting on the structure. Wind tunnel tests provide the necessary design pressure measurements in use of the dynamic analysis and control of tall buildings. The simulation of atmospheric flows in wind tunnels is particularly useful to investigate the effects of shear generated turbulence in the surface layer and of topography and non-uniform wall heat flux on the structure of the flow, including the turbulent transport processes. Of course, wind tunnel operating ranges depend on the dimensions of the tunnel itself, on the dimensions of any simulated environment, on the flow speed and turbulence properties and on the characteristics of the measurement instrumentation.

For studies related to the dispersion of air pollution, frequently the effects of thermal stratification must be considered. It is a plain fact that thermal stratification plays a major role in pollution diffusion in the actual atmosphere and often hazardous environmental conditions arise as a result of, for example, a strongly stable layer created after sunset in the winter; this layer traps down low-level emission.

Simulation Methods

As mentioned by Hunt and Fernholz (1975) several techniques have been used to artificially thicken the boundary layer. Typical examples are the use of fences, uniform grids, graded or sheared grids, jets, pulsation, wall roughness, steps, screens, vortex generators and thermal stratification. Usually, these techniques are divided into three categories: 1. Alteration of the surface conditions by the use of roughness or boundary layer trips. 2. Alteration of both the inner and the outer regions of the boundary layer by directional jets placed in the floor at the entrance to the working section or by multiple horizontal jets of variable strength directed at each other from either side of the wind tunnel. 3. Alteration of the external irrotational flow by spires extending all the way from the wall to the oncoming flow. The turbulent wakes formed by the spires convect downstream to merge with the existing boundary layer resulting in a new structure which, in some cases, may resemble a thick boundary layer.