55,858 research outputs found
G band atmospheric radars: New frontiers in cloud physics
No full textClouds and associated precipitation are the largest source of uncertainty in current weather and future climate simulations. Observations of the microphysical, dynamical and radiative processes that act at cloud scales are needed to improve our understanding of clouds. The rapid expansion of ground-based super-sites and the availability of continuous profiling and scanning multi-frequency radar observations at 35 and 94 GHz have significantly improved our ability to probe the internal structure of clouds in high temporal-spatial resolution, and to retrieve quantitative cloud and precipitation properties. However, there are still gaps in our ability to probe clouds due to large uncertainties in the retrievals. The present work discusses the potential of G band (frequency between 110 and 300 GHz) Doppler radars in combination with lower frequencies to further improve the retrievals of microphysical properties. Our results show that, thanks to a larger dynamic range in dual-wavelength reflectivity, dual-wavelength attenuation and dual-wavelength Doppler velocity (with respect to a Rayleigh reference), the inclusion of frequencies in the G band can significantly improve current profiling capabilities in three key areas: boundary layer clouds, cirrus and mid-level ice clouds, and precipitating snow. © 2014 Author(s)
Snow scattering signals in ground-based passive microwave radiometer measurements
No full textThis paper investigates the influence of snow microphysical parameters on the enhancement of ground�based passive microwave brightness temperature (TB) measurements. In addition to multispectral passive microwave observations between 20 and 150 GHz, a 35 GHz cloud radar and a 2�D video disdrometer for in situ measurements of snowfall were deployed as part of the �towards an optimal estimation�based snowfall characterization algorithm� campaign in the winter season of 2008�2009 at an Alpine environment located at 2650 m mean sea level. These observations are combined with nearby radiosonde ascents and surface standard meteorological measurements to reconstruct the atmospheric state (i.e., fields of temperature, humidity, snow, and liquid water contents) and are subsequently used as input for a microwave radiative transfer (RT) model. We investigate the sensitivity of the missing information about snow shape and snow particle size distribution (SSD) on the microwave TB measurements using the disdrometer data as a rough constraint. For an extended case study, we found that TBs at 90 and 150 GHz are significantly enhanced because of scattering of surface radiation at snow crystals and that this enhancement is clearly correlated with the radar derived snow water path (SWP < 0.2 kg m�2). RT simulations highlight the strong influence of the vertical distribution of cloud liquid water (liquid water path LWP < 0.1 kg m�2) on the TB, which in extreme cases, can fully obscure the snow scattering signal. TB variations of the same magnitude can also be caused by typical variations in SSD parameters and particle shape similar to results obtained by space�borne studies. Ground�based stations with their infrastructural capabilities in combining active and passive microwave observations have the potential to disentangle the influences of different snow shape, SSD, and SWP in snow retrievals, thus supporting current and future satellite missions
A Dynamic Subfilter-scale Stress Model for Large Eddy Simulations Based on Physical Flow Scales
No full textWe propose a new definition of the length scale in an eddy-viscosity model for large-eddy simulations (LES). This formulation extends and generalizes a previous proposal [Piomelli, Rouhi and Geurts, Proc. ETMM10, 2014], in which the LES length scale was expressed in terms of the integral length-scale of turbulence determined by the flow characteristics and explicitly decoupled from the simulation grid; this approach was named Integral Length-Scale Approximation (ILSA). As in the original ILSA, the model coefficient was determined by the user, and required to maintain a desired contribution of the unresolved, subfilter scales (SFS) to the global transport. We propose a local formulation (local ILSA) in which the model coefficient is local in space, allowing a precise control over SFS activity as a function of location. This new formulation preserves the properties of the global model; application to channel flow and backward-facing step verifies its features and accuracy
Large-eddy simulation of a separated flow with a sub-filter scale model based on the integral length-scale
No full textA new sub-filter scale model for large-eddy simulations, which uses a length-scale proportional to the integral scale of the turbulence instead of the grid resolution to parametrize the modelled stresses, will be assessed in the prediction of the flow of a boundary-layer over a rough surface, which includes separation and reattachment
Near Wall PIV-Measurements on the Windward Slope of a Hill
No full textThe turbulent flow over periodic hills was measured near to the wall, using planar Particle-Image-Velocimetry (PIV) at high spatial resolution. Our focus is on the near wall turbulence structure on the windward slope of the hill. For large-eddy simulation (LES) we suspect that, if this was not predicted accurately, it affects the prediction of the velocity profiles over the hill crest which in turn will affect the recirculation length downstream of the hill. Regarding the time averaged velocities, we were able to resolve the linear viscous region of the boundary layer. The velocity distribution and also the Reynolds stress does not comply with the law of the wall as it is valid for a turbulent boundary layer at equilibrium
Energy dissipation and flux laws for unsteady turbulence
No full textDirect Numerical Simulations of spatially periodic unsteady turbulence show that the high Reynolds number scalings of the instantaneous energy dissipation rate and interscale energy flux at intermediate wavenumbers are qualitatively different from the well-known cornerstone scalings of equilibrium turbulence where and are time-dependent rms velocity and integral length-scales. Instead, they both scale as where and are length and velocity scales characterizing initial/overall unsteady turbulence conditions
Direct numerical simulation of turbulent Couette-Poiseuille flow with zero skin friction
No full textThe near-wall scaling of mean velocity U(y) is addressed for the case of zero skin friction on one wall of a fully turbulent channel flow. The present DNS results can be added to the evidence in support of the conjecture that U is proportional to √yw in the region just above the wall at which the mean shear dU/dy = 0
Real-space Manifestations of Bottlenecks in Turbulence Spectra
No full textAn energy-spectrum bottleneck, a bump in the turbulence spectrum between the inertial and dissipation ranges, is shown to occur in the non-turbulent, one-dimensional, hyperviscous Burgers equation and found to be the Fourier-space signature of oscillations in the real-space velocity, which are explained by boundary-layer-expansion techniques. Pseudospectral simulations are used to show that such oscillations occur in velocity correlation functions in one- and three-dimensional hyperviscous hydrodynamical equations that display genuine turbulence
Braid Entropy of Faraday Waves driven 2D Turbulence
No full textWe report new experimental results that use tools from braid theory to characterize two-dimensional turbulent flows driven by Faraday waves. The average topological length of the material fluid lines is found to grow exponentially with time. It allows us to compute the braid’s topological entropy SBraid. We show that SBraid increases as the square root of the turbulence kinetic energy E ~ u^2, where u^2 is the horizontal velocity variance . At long times, the PDFs of Lbraid are positively skewed and present strong exponential tails
Mean flow generation by Görtler Vortices in a rotating annulus with librating side walls
No full textLongitudinal libration of the cylinder side walls of a rotating annulus in the supercritical regime induces a centrifugally unstable Stokes boundary layer which generates Görtler vortices only in a portion of a libration cycle. We show for the first time that these vortices propagate into the fluid bulk and generate an azimuthal mean flow which is retrograde (prograde) over the outer (inner) cylinder side wall. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out and Reynolds-averaged equations and kinetic energy budget of mean and fluctuating flow are used as diagnostic equations to discuss the generation mechanism and scaling behavior of the azimuthal mean flow in the fluid bulk
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