Identification

Title

An investigation of coupled atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers using large-eddy simulation

Abstract

The marine atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and oceanic boundary layer (OBL) are a two-way coupled system. At the ocean surface, the ABL and OBL share surface fluxes of momentum and buoyancy that incorporate variations in sea surface temperature (SST) and currents. To investigate the interactions, a coupled ABL–OBL large-eddy simulation (LES) code is developed and exercised over a range of atmospheric stability. At each time step, the coupling algorithm passes oceanic currents and SST to the atmospheric LES, which in turn computes surface momentum, temperature, and humidity fluxes driving the oceanic LES. Equations for each medium are time advanced using the same time step but utilize different grid resolutions: the horizontal grid resolution in the ocean is approximately four times finer, e.g., (Δ x o , Δ x a ) = (1.22, 4.88) m. Interpolation and anterpolation (its adjoint) routines connect the atmosphere and ocean surface layers. In the simplest setup of a statistically horizontally homogeneous flow, the largest scale ABL turbulent shear-convective rolls leave an imprint on the OBL currents in the upper layers. This result is shown by comparing simulations that use coupling rules that are applied either instantaneously at every x – y grid point or averaged across an x – y plane. The spanwise scale of the ABL turbulence is ∼1000 m, while the depth of the OBL is ∼20 m. In these homogeneous, fully coupled cases, the large-scale spatially intermittent turbulent structures in the ABL modulate SST, currents, and the connecting momentum and buoyancy fluxes, but the mean profiles in each medium are only slightly different.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7765ksm

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-04-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact