Evaluation of Surface Layer Parameterizations Using In-Situ Observations

Authors

Jeremy Katz, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Geosciences

First Advisor's Name

Ping Zhu

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Hugh Willoughby

Second Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Haiyan Jiang

Third Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Keywords

Boundary Layer, Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Turbulent Fluxes, Monnin-Obukhov Similarity Theory, Surface Layer Parameterizations

Date of Defense

6-28-2016

Abstract

Appropriate calculation of surface turbulent fluxes between the atmosphere and the underlying surface is one of the major challenges in geosciences. In practice, the surface turbulent fluxes are estimated from the mean surface meteorological variables based on the bulk transfer model combined with Monnin-Obukhov Similarity (MOS) theory. Few studies have been done to examine the extent that to which this flux parameterization framework can be applied to different weather and surface conditions. A novel validation method is developed in this thesis research, which is applied to evaluate the surface flux parameterization using in-situ observations. The main findings are: (a) the theoretical prediction that uses MOS theory does not match well with those directly computed from the observations collected in the coastal region. (b) Large spread in exchange coefficients mainly occurs in the calm wind regime with strong stability. (c) Large turbulent eddies, which depend largely on the mean flow and surface conditions, tend to break the constant flux assumption in the surface layer.

Identifier

FIDC000720

Recommended Citation

Katz, Jeremy, "Evaluation of Surface Layer Parameterizations Using In-Situ Observations" (2016). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2604.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2604