The Surprising Transition in Atmospheric Boundary Layer Turbulence Structure from Neutral to Moderately Convective Stability States and Mechanisms Underlying Large-scale Rolls

Abstract

The vectoral wind structure of daytime atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) turbulence is strongly dependent on the balance between shear-driven turbulence production of horizontal fluctuations (driven by winds at the mesoscale), and buoyancy-driven turbulence production of vertical velocity fluctuations (driven by solar heating), characterized by the global instability state parameter $-z_i/L > 0$. In the fully shear-driven neutral limit $-z_i/L \rightarrow 0$, the surface layer is dominated by coherent streamwise-elongated concentrations of negative streamwise fluctuating velocity (low-speed streaks), while in the moderately convective state ($z_i/L \sim 10$ ) buoyancy generates streamwise-elongated thermal updraft sheets of concentrated vertical velocity fluctuations. Using large-eddy simulation (LES), we study the transition between the neutral and moderately convective states by quantifying correlations and integral scales as a function of $-z_i/L$ created by systematically increasing surface heat flux with fixed geostrophic wind. We discover a surprising sudden transition in ABL turbulence structure at $-z_i/L \approx 0.40$ with dramatic enhancement of streamwise coherence, particularly in the mixed layer, and a sudden change in ABL dynamic response to further increase in surface heating. In the supercritical ABL, continued increase in surface heat flux leads to a maximal coherence state at ($z_i/L \sim 1.0-1.5$) associated with helical large-scale roll structure and exceptionally coherent thermal updrafts, a process driven by two key dynamical effects: (a) a surprising continual increase in streamwise coherence of streamwise velocity fluctuations and shear-driven low-speed streaks and (b) increasing spatial correlation between the coherent low-speed streaks in the surface layer below and in the coherent thermal updrafts with in the mixed layer above.