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Long-term study of coherent structures in the atmospheric surface layer

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Abstract

A long-term study of coherent turbulence structures in the atmospheric surface layer has been carried out using 10 months of turbulence data taken on a 30-m tower under varying meteorological conditions. We use an objective detection technique based on wavelet transforms. The applied technique permits the isolation of the coherent structures from small-scale background fluctuations which is necessary for the development of dynamical models describing the evolution and properties of these phenomena. It was observed that coherent structures occupied 36% of the total time with mean turbulent flux contributions of 44% for momentum and 48% for heat. The calculation of a transport efficiency parameter indicates that coherent structures transport heat more efficiently than momentum. Furthermore, the transport efficiency increases with increasing contribution of the structures to the overall transport.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

    Christian Barthlott, Clément Fesquet, Thomas Dubos & Christophe Pietras

  2. Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Universität Karlsruhe/Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, POB 3640, 76021, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Christian Barthlott

  3. Service d’Aéronomie, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

    Philippe Drobinski

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  1. Christian Barthlott
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  2. Philippe Drobinski
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  3. Clément Fesquet
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  4. Thomas Dubos
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  5. Christophe Pietras
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Correspondence to Christian Barthlott.

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Barthlott, C., Drobinski, P., Fesquet, C. et al. Long-term study of coherent structures in the atmospheric surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 125, 1–24 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-007-9190-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-007-9190-9

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