edu.ucar.opensky::articles:14007 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T03:27:57.726995 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76q1z5f Temporal evolution of low-level winds induced by two-dimensional mesoscale surface heat-flux heterogeneity 2014-06-01T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76q1z5f https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-014-9912-8 Kang, S. author Lenschow, Donald H. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Using large-eddy simulation (LES), the effects of mesoscale local surface heterogeneity on the temporal evolution of low-level flows in the convective boundary layer driven by two-dimensional surface heat-flux variations are investigated at a height of about 100 m over flat terrain. The surface variations are prescribed with sinusoids of wavelength 32 km and varying amplitudes of 0, 50, 100, and 200 W m −2 . The Weather Research and Forecasting numerical model is used as a mesoscale-domain LES model that has a grid spacing fine enough to explicitly resolve energy-containing turbulent eddies and a model domain large enough to include mesoscale circulations. Mesoscale circulations induced by the two-dimensional surface heterogeneity may undergo a flow transition and an associated spectral energy cascade, which has been found previously but only with one-dimensional surface heat-flux variations. Over a strongly heterogeneous surface prescribed with a two-dimensional sinusoid of amplitude 200 W m −2 , the domain-averaged variance of the horizontal wind component initially grows rapidly, then undergoes a flow transition and subsequently rapidly decays. With a background wind, the induced mesoscale circulations are inhibited in the streamwise direction. However in the spanwise direction, somewhat stronger mesoscale circulations are induced, compared with those with no background wind. The background wind attenuates the significant reduction of the low-level temperature gradient by the fully-developed mesoscale horizontal flow. Spectral decomposition reveals that this rapid transition also exists in the mesoscale horizontal flows induced by the intermediate surface heterogeneity prescribed with a sinusoid of amplitude 100 W m −2 . However the transition is masked by continuously growing turbulence. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright 2014 Springer Science + Business Media Dordrecht None eng geoscientificInformation