scholarly journals Simulation of Turbulent Mixing Effects on Essential NOx–O3–Hydrocarbon Photochemistry in Convective Boundary Layer

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mi-Sug Kim

The turbulence kinetics model (TKM) describes an overall reaction rate for microscopic mass transfer phenomenon expressed as separation intensity, Is, in a turbulent reacting flow. This study examines the effects of turbulent mixing in the convective boundary layer (CBL) on essential NOx–O3–Hydrocarbon photochemistry containing sources of NO and a surrogate reactive hydrocarbon. The modeling approach applies for all species except OH with an assumption of a photostationary steady state. The TKM results reveal principal findings as follows: (1) effects of turbulence on reaction rates lead to significant segregations throughout most of the CBL in reaction pairs NO + O3, RH + OH and NO + HO2; (2) segregations permit significantly higher concentrations of NO and RH to build up and endure in the CBL than would occur for a non-turbulent atmosphere; (3) turbulent segregation influences limit and shift the ranges of NO and O3 concentrations compared to the non-turbulent case; (4) while there are differences between the TKM results and those for a published Large Eddy simulation (LES) of the same chemical system, there are also strong similarities. Therefore, a future study remains to compare model results to observations if and when appropriately time-resolved measurements of reacting species are obtained.

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 2657-2674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Zhou ◽  
Kefeng Zhu ◽  
Ming Xue

Abstract Compared to the representation of vertical turbulent mixing through various planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes, the treatment of horizontal turbulent mixing in the boundary layer has received much less attention. In mesoscale and convective-scale models, subgrid-scale horizontal turbulent mixing has traditionally been associated with mesoscale circulations or eddies. Its parameterization most often adopts the gradient-diffusion model, where the horizontal mixing coefficients are usually set constant, or through the 2D Smagorinsky formulation, or in some cases based on the 1.5-order turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) closure. For horizontal turbulent mixing associated with boundary layer eddies, the traditional schemes are shown to perform poorly. This work investigates the characteristic turbulence velocity and length scales based on analysis of a well-resolved, wide-domain large-eddy simulation of a convective boundary layer (CBL). To improve the representation of horizontal turbulent mixing by CBL eddies, a class of schemes is proposed with different levels of sophistication. The first two schemes can be used together with first-order PBL schemes, while the third uses TKE to define its characteristic velocity scale and can be used together with TKE-based higher-order PBL schemes. The proposed parameterizations are tested a posteriori in idealized simulations of turbulent dispersion of a passive scalar. Comparisons show improved horizontal dispersion by the proposed schemes and further demonstrate the weakness of the existing schemes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 244 ◽  
pp. 105035 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.V. Anisimov ◽  
S.V. Galichenko ◽  
A.A. Prokhorchuk ◽  
K.V. Aphinogenov

2014 ◽  
Vol 142 (11) ◽  
pp. 3955-3976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Nowotarski ◽  
Paul M. Markowski ◽  
Yvette P. Richardson ◽  
George H. Bryan

Abstract Nearly all previous numerical simulations of supercell thunderstorms have neglected surface fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum. This choice precludes horizontal inhomogeneities associated with dry boundary layer convection in the near-storm environment. As part of a broader study on how mature supercell thunderstorms are affected by a convective boundary layer (CBL) with quasi-two-dimensional features (i.e., boundary layer rolls), this paper documents the methods used to develop a realistic CBL in an idealized environment supportive of supercells. The evolution and characteristics of the modeled CBL, including the horizontal variability of thermodynamic and kinematic quantities known to affect supercell evolution, are presented. The simulated rolls result in periodic bands of perturbations in temperature, moisture, convective available potential energy (CAPE), vertical wind shear, and storm-relative helicity (SRH). Vertical vorticity is shown to arise within the boundary layer through the tilting of ambient horizontal vorticity associated with the background shear by vertical velocity perturbations in the turbulent CBL. Sensitivity tests suggest that 200-m horizontal grid spacing is adequate to represent rolls using a large-eddy simulation (LES) approach.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy A. Gibbs ◽  
Evgeni Fedorovich

AbstractAs computing capabilities expand, operational and research environments are moving toward the use of finescale atmospheric numerical models. These models are attractive for users who seek an accurate description of small-scale turbulent motions. One such numerical tool is the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, which has been extensively used in synoptic-scale and mesoscale studies. As finer-resolution simulations become more desirable, it remains a question whether the model features originally designed for the simulation of larger-scale atmospheric flows will translate to adequate reproductions of small-scale motions. In this study, turbulent flow in the dry atmospheric convective boundary layer (CBL) is simulated using a conventional large-eddy-simulation (LES) code and the WRF model applied in an LES mode. The two simulation configurations use almost identical numerical grids and are initialized with the same idealized vertical profiles of wind velocity, temperature, and moisture. The respective CBL forcings are set equal and held constant. The effects of the CBL wind shear and of the varying grid spacings are investigated. Horizontal slices of velocity fields are analyzed to enable a comparison of CBL flow patterns obtained with each simulation method. Two-dimensional velocity spectra are used to characterize the planar turbulence structure. One-dimensional velocity spectra are also calculated. Results show that the WRF model tends to attribute slightly more energy to larger-scale flow structures as compared with the CBL structures reproduced by the conventional LES. Consequently, the WRF model reproduces relatively less spatial variability of the velocity fields. Spectra from the WRF model also feature narrower inertial spectral subranges and indicate enhanced damping of turbulence on small scales.


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