Peter A. Coppin

Experiments on scalar dispersion within a model plant canopy part I: The turbulence structure

This is the first of a series of three papers describing experiments on the dispersion of trace heat from elevated line and plane sources within a model plant canopy in a wind tunnel. Here we consider the wind field and turbulence structure. The model canopy consisted of bluff elements 60 mm high and 10 mm wide in a diamond array with frontal area index 0.23; streamwise and vertical velocity components were measured with a special three-hot-wire anemometer designed for optimum performance in flows of high turbulence intensity. We found that:(i)The momentum flux due to spatial correlations between time-averaged streamwise and vertical velocity components (the dispersive flux) was negligible, at heights near and above the top of the canopy.(ii)In the turbulent energy budget, turbulent transport was a major loss (of about one-third of local production) near the top of the canopy, and was the principal gain mechanism lower down. Wake production was greater than shear production throughout the canopy. Pressure transport just above the canopy, inferred by difference, appeared to be a gain in approximate balance with the turbulent transport loss.(iii)In the shear stress budget, wake production was negligible. The role of turbulent transport was equivalent to that in the turbulent energy budget, though smaller.(iv)Velocity spectra above and within the canopy showed the dominance of large eddies occupying much of the boundary layer and moving downstream with a height-independent convection velocity. Within the canopy, much of the vertical but relatively little of the streamwise variance occurred at frequencies characteristic of wake turbulence.(v)Quadrant analysis of the shear stress showed only a slight excess of sweeps over ejections near the top of the canopy, in contrast with previous studies. This is a result of improved measurement techniques; it suggests some reappraisal of inferences previously drawn from quadrant analysis.

Experiments on scalar dispersion within a model plant canopy part II: An elevated plane source

This paper describes a wind-tunnel experiment on the dispersion of trace heat from an effectively planar source within a model plant canopy, the source height being hs = 0.80 hc, where hcis the canopy height. A sensor assembly consisting of three coplanar hot wires and one cold wire was used to make simultaneous measurements of the temperature and the streamwise and vertical velocity components. It was found that:(i)The thermal layer consisted of two parts with different length scales, an inner sublayer (scaling with hsand hc) which quickly reached streamwise equilibrium downstream of the leading edge of the source, and an outer sublayer which was self-preserving with a length scale proportional to the depth of the thermal layer.(ii)Below 2hc, the vertical eddy diffusivity for heat from the plane source (KHP) was substantially less than the far-field limit of the corresponding diffusivity for heat from a lateral line source at the same height as the plane source. This shows that dispersion from plane or other distributed sources in canopies is influenced, near the canopy, by turbulence ‘memory’ and must be considered as a superposition of both near-field and far-field processes. Hence, one-dimensional models for scalar transport from distributed sources in canopies are wrong in principle, irrespective of the order of closure.(iii)In the budgets for temperature variance, and for the vertical and streamwise components of the turbulent heat flux, turbulent transport was a major loss between hsand hcand a principal gain mechanism below hs, as also observed in the budgets for turbulent energy and shear stress.(iv)Quadrant analysis of the vertical heat flux showed that sweeps and ejections contributed about equal amounts to the heat flux between hs and hc, though among the more intense events, sweeps were dominant. Below hs, almost all the heat was transported by sweeps.

A three-component sonic anemometer/thermometer system for general micrometeorological research

A three-component sonic anemometer/thermometer system has been developed. It employs single switched transducer pairs and the inverse timed pulse method to yield an absolute calibration. Microprocessor control and use of newly developed transducers give a very small parts cost. The path length of the instrument can be varied from 10 to 15 cm; output is available in digital or analog form. Temperature sensing, via a 5 Μm tungsten resistance element, is integrated into the digital system. Wind tunnel and field results have confirmed the success of the prototype and a set of operational instruments has been constructed.

Measurements of flow over an elongated ridge and its thermal stability dependence: The mean field

Measurements of mean wind flow and turbulence parameters have been made over Coopers Ridge, a 115 m high elongated ridge with low surface roughness. This paper describes measurements of the streamwise and vertical variations in the mean field for a variety of atmospheric stability conditions. In near-neutral conditions, the normalised speedup over the ridge compares well with measurements from Askervein (Mickleet al., 1988). The near-neutral results are also compared to an analytical flow model based on that of Huntet al. (1988a). Measured streamwise variations show less deceleration at the foot of the hill and slightly more acceleration at the crest of the hill than does the model. In non-neutral conditions, the speedup over the ridge reduces slightly in unstable conditions and increases by up to a factor of two in stable conditions. The model is modified to allow boundary-layer stability to change the upwind wind profile and the depths of the inner and middle layers. Such a modification is shown to describe the observations of speedup well in unstable and weakly stable conditions but to overestimate the speedup in moderate to strongly stable conditions. This disagreement can be traced to the models overestimation of the upstream scaling velocity at the height of the middle layer through its use of a stable wind profile form which has greater shear than that of the observed profiles, in possible combination with the three-dimensionality of the ridge which would allow enhanced flow around, rather than over, the feature in more stable conditions.

Long-Term Wind Speed Trends over Australia

AbstractAccurate estimates of long-term linear trends of wind speed provide a useful indicator for circulation changes in the atmosphere and are invaluable for the planning and financing of sectors such as wind energy. Here a large number of wind observations over Australia and reanalysis products are analyzed to compute such trends. After a thorough quality control of the observations, it is found that the wind speed trends for 1975–2006 and 1989–2006 over Australia are sensitive to the height of the station: they are largely negative for the 2-m data but are predominantly positive for the 10-m data. The mean relative trend at 2 m is −0.10 ± 0.03% yr−1 (−0.36 ± 0.04% yr−1) for the 1975–2006 (1989–2006) period, whereas at 10 m it is 0.90 ± 0.03% yr−1 (0.69 ± 0.04% yr−1) for the 1975–2006 (1989–2006) period. Also, at 10 m light winds tend to increase more rapidly than the mean winds, whereas strong winds increase less rapidly than the mean winds; at 2 m the trends in both light and strong winds vary in lin...

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Fluxes of Energy, Water Vapour and Carbon Dioxide During OASIS 1994 and 1995

This paper introduces the micrometeorological field campaigns known asOASIS (Observations At Several Interacting Scales) and then summarizesseveral companion studies that have used the OASIS dataset. Instrumentedtowers, aircraft and atmospheric sondes were used for measurements overthree paired sites (crops and pastures), approximately equi-spaced along an88-km transect in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, during the australsprings of 1994 and 1995. Measurements included standard meteorologicaldata and the fluxes of solar and net radiation, sensible heat, water vapour andthe greenhouse gases CO2, N2O, CH4. Descriptions of the site, andthe spatial and temporal variations of climate fields and fluxes, are presented.There were strong contrasts in fluxes and surface conductances, evaporationratios and water use efficiencies between the 1994 drought year and the normalrainfall year of 1995. Despite greater incoming solar radiation in 1994 associatedwith less cloud cover, net radiation was lower than in 1995 because of greateroutgoing thermal radiation caused by higher surface temperatures. In 1994 dailysensible heat fluxes were about 50% higher and evaporation rates about half thosefor 1995. Rainfall in the three-month growing season prior to the field campaignswas the key determinant of leaf area index, surface conductances and the fluxes ofsensible and latent heat and CO2. Antecedent rainfall distribution also controlled variation in fluxes and surface properties along the transect within each year. There was a net loss of CO2 to the atmosphere at the drier central sites in 1994, and a net uptake at the wetter north-eastern sites. Both sites recorded uptake of CO2 in 1995, but values were lower at the central site than at the north–east site due to the strong rainfall gradient along the transect in the three months prior to each fieldcampaign. Differences in fluxes between crops and pastures at each site were smallerthan between sites.

A Simple Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Flow in Complex Terrain in the Context of Wind Energy Modelling

A simple temporal and spatial analysisis done on wind speed and direction data from a number ofmeteorological towers separated by distances between roughly 1 and 100 kilometres. The analysis is done in the context of expected model error in wind energy calculations. The study first uses single point statistics to show the evolution of mean values with time. It is shown that strong seasonal signals are present and that stable means are achieved only after averaging periods of a year or more. The study then uses discrete Fourier transforms to show that significant amounts of spectral energy reside in modes with periods of a few days to less than a day. Frequency dependent cross correlation values are then derived and used to show how correlation between towers diminishes with increasing frequency. The mechanism responsible for this diminished correlation is shown through the comparison of cross-correlation phase as a function of frequency and its relationship to distance between towers. Error in wind energy estimates are shown to be strongly related to correlation and therefore distance over which the prediction is made. In summary, much of the inaccuracy in modelling flow in the context of wind energy calculations is due to a lack of scale separation between the deterministic part of the flow, which is well modelled, and that part of the flow that is stochastic at the length and time scales modelled.

Estimation of Regional Evapotranspiration by Combining Aircraft and Ground-Based Measurements

Two methods are examined for combining measurements from instrumented aircraftand towers to estimate regional scale evapotranspiration. Aircraft data provided spatially averaged values of properties of the surface, the evaporative fraction and maximum stomatal conductance. These quantities are less sensitive to meteorological conditions than the turbulent fluxes of heat and water vapour themselves. The methods allowed aircraft data collected over several days to be averaged and thus to reduce the random error associated with the temporal under-sampling inherent in aircraft measurements. Evaporative fraction is estimated directly from the aircraft data, while maximum stomatal conductance is estimated by coupling the Penman–Monteith equation to a simple model relating surface conductance to the incoming shortwave radiation and specific humidity saturation deficit. The spatial averages of evaporative fraction and maximum stomatal conductance can then be used with routine tower data to estimate the regional scale evapotranspiration. Data from aircraft flights and six ground based sites during the OASIS field campaign in south–east New South Wales in 1995 have been used to check the methods. Both the evaporative fraction and the maximum stomatal conductance derived from the aircraft data give information on the spatial variability of the surface energy budget at scales from 10 to 100 km. Daily averaged latent heat fluxes estimated using these methods for the OASIS study region agree with the available observations in quasi-stationary conditions or in weakly non-stationary conditions when the data from several aircraft flights are averaged to reduce the impact of short term imbalances in the surface energy budget.

Comparisons of aircraft, ship, and buoy radiation and SST measurements from TOGA COARE

Mean radiative fluxes and sea surface temperature measured by the five Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) boundary layer research aircraft were compared with each other and with surface measurements from moored buoys and ships. The basic data-processing techniques for radiative flux and sea surface temperature (SST) measurements from an aircraft were reviewed, and an empirical optimization method to calibrate an Eppley pyrgeometer was introduced. On the basis of aircraft wingtip-to-wingtip comparison periods, the processed aircraft downwelling shortwave and longwave irradiance and SST measurements were found to agree to 28±18 W m−2, 9±4 W m−2, and 0.7±0.4°C, respectively. By using the same comparison periods, empirical corrections that removed systematic errors in the aircraft data were determined. Application of these corrections improved the wingtip comparison accuracy to 3±16 W m−2, 1±4 W m−2, and 0.1±0.3°C, respectively. Comparisons between the (fully corrected) aircraft and the surface platform measurements revealed the aircraft data to be slightly greater for all three parameters. The agreement was around 3±37 W m−2, 3±6 W m−2, and 0.3±0.5°C for shortwave irradiance, longwave irradiance, and SST, respectively. (Detailed comparison results were provided for each individual ship and buoy.) After applying the aircraft empirical corrections the level of accuracy was near the COARE objectives.

Simulation of Wind Power at Several Locations Using a Measured Time-Series of Wind Speed

The large-scale integration of wind power into electrical power systems is likely to require significant improvements to transmission infrastructure over coming years. Planning for these developments may involve modeling of power systems using estimates of the time-varying power output of proposed wind farms. Such estimates may be derived from wind measurements, although it is rarely the case that measurements are available simultaneously for all sites of interest. In the present work, a method is developed to produce synthetic time-series of wind power at several locations based on a measured time-series of wind speed from a reference site. The stochastic properties of the modeled time-series are shown to be comparable with those of measured data from south-eastern Australia. It is anticipated that with appropriate tuning for local conditions, the method could be applied in other geographical regions.