Abstract
Flow and turbulence above urban terrain is more complex than above rural terrain, due to the different momentum and heat transfer characteristics that are affected by the presence of buildings (e.g. pressure variations around buildings). The applicability of similarity theory (as developed over rural terrain) is tested using observations of flow from a sonic anemometer located at 190.3 m height in London, U.K. using about 6500 h of data. Turbulence statistics—dimensionless wind speed and temperature, standard deviations and correlation coefficients for momentum and heat transfer—were analysed in three ways. First, turbulence statistics were plotted as a function only of a local stability parameter z/Λ (where Λ is the local Obukhov length and z is the height above ground); the σ i /u * values (i = u, v, w) for neutral conditions are 2.3, 1.85 and 1.35 respectively, similar to canonical values. Second, analysis of urban mixed-layer formulations during daytime convective conditions over London was undertaken, showing that atmospheric turbulence at high altitude over large cities might not behave dissimilarly from that over rural terrain. Third, correlation coefficients for heat and momentum were analyzed with respect to local stability. The results give confidence in using the framework of local similarity for turbulence measured over London, and perhaps other cities. However, the following caveats for our data are worth noting: (i) the terrain is reasonably flat, (ii) building heights vary little over a large area, and (iii) the sensor height is above the mean roughness sublayer depth.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Jiboori MH (2008) Correlation coefficients in urban turbulence. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 126: 311–323
Al-Jiboori MH, Fei H (2005) Surface roughness around a 325-m meteorological tower and its effect on urban turbulence. Adv Atmos Sci 22: 595–605
Al-Jiboori MH, Xu Y, Qian Y (2002) Local similarity relationships in the urban boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 102: 63–82
Barlow JF, Coceal O (2009) A review of urban roughness sublayer turbulence. UK Met Office Technical Report no. 527, 68 pp
Barlow JF, Dobre A, Smalley RJ, Arnold SJ, Tomlin AS, Belcher SE (2009) Referencing of street-level flows measured during the DAPPLE 2004 campaign. Atmos Environ 43: 5536–5544
Brost RA, Wyngaard JC, Lenschow DH (1982) Marine stratocumulus layers. Part II: Turbulence budgets. J Atmos Sci 39: 818–836
Caughey SJ, Palmer SG (1979) Some aspects of turbulence structure through the depth of the convective boundary layer. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 105: 811–827
Chang S, Huynh G, Tofsted D (2009) Turbulence characteristics in Oklahoma City measured from an 83-meters pseudo tower. In: Eighth symposium on the urban environment, Phoenix, Arizona, January 12–15
Christen A (2005) Atmospheric turbulence and surface energy exchange in urban environments. PhD thesis, Faculty of Science, University of Basel, 142 pp
Clarke CF, Ching JKS, Godowich JM (1982) A study of turbulence in an urban environment. EPA technical report, EPA 600-S3-82-062
Dore A, Vieno M, Fournier N, Weston KJ, Sutton MA (2006) Development of a new wind-rose for the British Isles using radiosonde data, and application to an atmospheric transport model. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 132: 2769–2784
Evans S (2009) 3D cities and numerical weather prediction models: an overview of the methods used in the LUCID project. CASA working paper 148, 19 pp
Filho EPM, Sa LDA, Karam HA, Alvala RCS, Souza A, Periera MMR (2008) Atmospheric surface layer characteristics of turbulence above the Pantanal wetland regarding the similarity theory. Agric For Meteorol 148: 883–892
Grimmond CSB, Oke TR (1999) Aerodynamic properties of urban areas derived from analysis of surface form. J Appl Meteorol 38: 1262–1292
Hanna S, Zhou Y (2007) Results of analysis of sonic anemometer observations at street level and rooftop in Manhatan. In: 6th international conference on urban air quality, Limassol, Cyprus, March 27–29, 4 pp
Inagaki A, Kanda M (2008) Turbulent flow similarity over an array of cubes in near-neutrally stratified atmospheric flow. J Fluid Mech 615: 101–120
Kaimal JC, Finnigan JJ (1994) Atmospheric boundary layer flows: their structure and measurements. Oxford University Press, New York, p 289
Kaimal JC, Eversole RA, Lenschow DH, Stankov BB, Kahn PH, Businger JA (1982) Spectral characteristics of the convective boundary layer over uneven terrain. J Atmos Sci 39: 1098–1114
Kanda M, Moriizumi T (2009) Momentum and heat transfer over urban-like surfaces. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 131: 385–401
Kono H, Tamura D, Iwai Y, Aoki T, Watanabe S, Nishioka M, Ito Y, Adachi T (2008) Experimental study of turbulence and vertical temperature profile in the urban boundary layer. In: Proceedings of 12th international conference on harmonisation within atmospheric dispersion modelling for regulatory purposes, October 6–9, Cavtat, Croatia, 5 pp
Langford B, Nemitz E, House E, Phillips GJ, Famulari D, Davison B, Hopkins JR, Lewis AC, Hewitt CN (2010) Fluxes and concentrations of volatile organic compounds above central London, UK. Atmos Chem Phys 10: 627–645
Lenschow DH, Wyngaard JC, Pennell WT (1980) Mean-field and second moment budgets in a baroclinic, convective boundary layer. J Atmos Sci 37: 1313–1326
Liu X, Ohtaki E (1997) An independent method to determine the height of the mixed layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 85: 497–504
Liu G, Sun J, Jiang W (2009) Observational verification of urban surface roughness parameters derived from morphological models. Meteorol Appl 16: 205–213
Lundquist JK, Leach M, Gouveia F (2004) Turbulent kinetic energy in the Oklahoma City urban environment. In: 5th conference on urban environment, Vancouver, BC, August 23–27, 5 pp
Macdonald RW, Griffiths RF, Hall DJ (1998) An improved method for estimation of surface roughness of obstacle arrays. Atmos Environ 32: 1857–1864
Martin C (2009) Transportation of urban ultrafine particles in four European cities. PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 282 pp
Mengesha YG (1999) Atmospheric boundary-layer flow over topography: data analysis and representations of topography. MSc thesis, York University, Toronto, Canada
Moraes OLL, Acevedo OC, Degrazia GA, Anfossi D, da Silva R, Anabor V (2005) Surface layer turbulence parameters over complex terrain. Atmos Environ 39: 3103–3112
Moriwaki R, Kanda M (2006) Local and global similarity in turbulent transfer of heat, water vapour and CO 2 in the dynamic convective sub-layer over a suburban area. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 120: 163–179
Mortarini L, Ferrero E, Richiardone R, Falabino S, Anfossi D, Trini Castelli S, Carretto E (2009) Assessment of dispersion parameterizations through wind data measured by three sonic anemometers in a urban canopy. Adv Sci Res 3: 91–98
Padhra A (2009) Estimating the sensitivity of urban surface drag to building morphology. PhD thesis, University of Reading, UK, 143 pp
Pahlow M, Parlange M, Porté-Agel F (2001) On Monin-Obukhov similarity in the stable atmospheric boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 99: 225–248
Panofsky HA, Tennekes H, Lenschow DH, Wyngaard JC (1977) The characteristics of turbulent velocity components in the surface layer under convective conditions. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 11: 355–361
Qian W, Princevac M, Venkatram A (2009) Relationships between urban and suburban micrometeorological variables. In: Eighth symposium on the urban environment, Phoenix, Arizona, January 12–15, 11 pp
Quan L, Hu F (2009) Relationship between turbulent flux and variance in the urban canopy. Meteorol Atmos Phys 104: 29–36
Raupach MR (1994) Simplified expressions for vegetation roughness length and zero-plane displacement as functions of canopy height and area index. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 71: 211–216
Rotach MW (1999) On the influence of the urban roughness sublayer on turbulence and dispersion. Atmos Environ 33: 4001–4008
Roth M (1993) Turbulent transfer relationships over an urban surface. II: Integral statistics. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 119: 1105–1120
Roth M (2000) Review of atmospheric turbulence over cities. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 126: 941–990
Sato A, Michioka T, Takimoto H (2008) Field experiments of flow and dispersion within street canyons using outdoor urban scale model. In: 12th conference on harmonization within the atmospheric dispersion modelling for regulatory purposes, Cavtat, Croatia, October 6–9, 18 pp
Schmid HP (1997) Experimental design for flux measurements: matching scales of observation and fluxes. Agric For Meteorol 87: 179–200
Sorbjan Z (1989) Structure of the atmospheric boundary layer. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, p 317
Stull RB (1988) An introduction to boundary layer meteorology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, p 680
Tampieri F, Maurizi A, Viola A (2009) An investigation on temperature variance scaling in the atmosphere surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 132: 31–42
Verkaik JW, Holtslag AAM (2007) Wind profiles, momentum fluxes and roughness lengths at Cabauw revisited. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 122: 701–719
Vittal Murty KPR, Prasad GSSD, Sá LDA, Filho EPM, de Souza A, Malhi Y (1998) A method to determine the height of the mixed layer from spectral peak frequency of horizontal velocity. In: X Congresso Brasileiro de Meteorologia, 1998, Brasília. Anais do X Congresso Brasileiro de Meteorologia, 4 pp
Wesely ML, Thurtell GW, Tanner CB (1970) Eddy correlation measurements of sensible heat flux near the earth’s surface. J Appl Meteorol 9: 45–50
Wilczak JM, Phillips MS (1986) An indirect estimation of convective boundary layer structure for use in pollutant dispersion models. J Clim Appl Meteorol 25: 1609–1624
Wilczak JM, Oncley SP, Stage SA (2001) Sonic anemometer tilt correction algorithms. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 99: 127–150
Wilson JD (2008) Monin-Obukhov functions for standard deviations of velocity. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 129: 353–369
Wood CR, Arnold SJ, Balogun AA, Barlow JF, Belcher SE, Britter RE, Cheng H, Dobre A, Lingard JJN, Martin D, Neophytou M, Petersson FK, Robins AG, Shallcross DE, Smalley RJ, Tate JE, Tomlin AS, White IR (2009) Dispersion experiments in central London: the 2007 DAPPLE project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 90: 955–969
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wood, C.R., Lacser, A., Barlow, J.F. et al. Turbulent Flow at 190 m Height Above London During 2006–2008: A Climatology and the Applicability of Similarity Theory. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 137, 77–96 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9516-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-010-9516-x