Aircraft observed diurnal variations of the planetary boundary layer under heat waves

Zhang, Yuanjie; Wang, Liang; Santanello, Joseph A.; Pan, Zaitao; Gao, Zhiqiu; Li, Dan

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2019.104801

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…More recently, Zhang et al (2019) developed a decade-long (from 2007 to 2016) data record of hourly PBL profiles of temperature, wind, and humidity with a vertical resolution of 20 m based on AMDAR data over 54 main U.S. airports. They found that this data record is particularly suited for investigating the diurnal variation of the PBL due to their higher temporal resolution in comparison with radiosonde data (Zhang et al, 2019(Zhang et al, , 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal Climatology of Planetary Boundary Layer Height Over the Contiguous United States Derived From AMDAR and Reanalysis Data

et al. 2020

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The diurnal variation of the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) over the contiguous United States (CONUS) is examined using Aircraft Meteorological Data Reports (AMDAR) at 54 major airports and the ERA5 reanalysis product. The bulk Richardson number method is used to derive the PBLH at hourly scales from the AMDAR profiles. It is found that the estimated PBLH is sensitive to the value of the critical bulk Richardson number and to the consideration of the surface friction effect, especially under stable and near-neutral conditions. Parameters constrained by field campaign observations are finally selected to estimate the PBLH. The results reveal that the diurnal climatology of PBLH exhibits seasonal and spatial variations, with greater diurnal variations in spring and summer and in the western regions. It is demonstrated that the traditional twice-daily radiosonde data may roughly capture the diurnal amplitude of PBLH in the western but not the eastern CONUS. Compared to the AMDAR data, the ERA5 reanalysis product overestimates the daytime PBLH throughout the CONUS by 18-41% and shows an earlier peak time by 1-2 hr in the western regions and a later peak time by 1 hr in the eastern regions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diurnal Climatology of Planetary Boundary Layer Height Over the Contiguous United States Derived From AMDAR and Reanalysis Data

et al. 2020

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“…Dry soils also correspond to reduced evaporation, and if dry to a sufficient depth, reduced transpiration, further exacerbating the heat (Dirmeyer et al, 2015;Zscheischler et al, 2015). Such land-atmosphere (L-A) feedbacks alter the daytime atmospheric boundary layer, which ultimately affect cloud formation, precipitation, and the state of the free atmosphere above the boundary layer (Betts, 2004;Ek & Holtslag, 2004;Gentine et al, 2013;Santanello et al, 2007Santanello et al, , 2011Zhang et al, 2020). In this way, VWC can be a driver of extremes when water availability in the soil is a limiting factor for evapotranspiration (Santanello et al, 2018), an unusual situation in wet, cool, and cloudy northern Europe.…”

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Land‐Atmosphere Interactions Exacerbated the Drought and Heatwave Over Northern Europe During Summer 2018

et al. 2021

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The summer of 2018 saw a combination of drought and heat concentrated over northern Europe. The conditions had far-reaching economic and ecological impacts, with spring and summer dryness affecting crops and natural vegetation, leading to increased tree and forest mortality, and unprecedented wildfires in Sweden (Albergel et al., 2019;Rösner et al., 2019). The summer of 2018 was among the warmest, sunniest, and driest on record in the UK (Kendon et al., 2019). Figure 1 quantifies the drought and heatwave, showing the fraction of the 122 days spanning May through August 2018 that lie within the indicated tails of maximum 2 m air temperature anomalies and surface (top 7 cm) volumetric soil water content (VWC), based on the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) fifth reanalysis (ERA5) from 1979 to 2018 (Hersbach et al., 2020). One would expect by chance a value of 0.05 at any location in the maximum temperature plot, and 0.25 for VWC. There is strong spatial correspondence between the two panels, but the core

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“…Denissen et al (2021) found soil moisture signals globally in boundary layer profiles. Zhang et al (2020) have applied sounding data from commercial aircraft to quantify land surface drivers of boundary layer development. Dirmeyer et al (2018) verified L-A coupling in forecast models, reanalyses, and land surface models against in situ observations using process-based multivariate statistics, demonstrating that the models generally underrepresent spatial and temporal variability relative to observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the diurnal cycle of land–atmosphere interactions from flux site observations

Seo

Dirmeyer²

2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Land–atmosphere interactions have been investigated at daily or longer timescales due to limited data availability and large errors for measuring high-frequency variations. Yet coupling at the subdaily timescale is characterized by the diurnal cycle of incoming solar radiation and surface fluxes. Based on flux tower observations, this study investigates the climatology of observed land–atmosphere interactions on subdaily timescales during the warm season. Process-based multivariate metrics are employed to quantitatively measure segmented coupling processes, and mixing diagrams are adopted to demonstrate the integrative moist and thermal energy budget evolution in the atmospheric mixed layer. The land, atmosphere, and combined couplings for the entire daily mean, midday, and midnight periods show different situations to which surface latent and sensible heat fluxes are relevant, and they also reveal the climate sensitivity to soil moisture and surface air temperature. The 24 h coevolution of the moist and thermal energy within the boundary layer traces a particular path on mixing diagrams, exhibiting different degrees of asymmetry (time shifts) in water- and energy-limited locations. Water- and energy-limited processes also show opposing long tails of low humidity during the daytime and nighttime, related to the impact on land and atmospheric couplings of latent heat flux and other diabatic processes like radiative cooling. This study illustrates the necessity of considering the entire diurnal cycle to understand land–atmosphere coupling processes comprehensively in observations and models.

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Aircraft observed diurnal variations of the planetary boundary layer under heat waves

Cited by 23 publications

References 61 publications

Diurnal Climatology of Planetary Boundary Layer Height Over the Contiguous United States Derived From AMDAR and Reanalysis Data

Diurnal Climatology of Planetary Boundary Layer Height Over the Contiguous United States Derived From AMDAR and Reanalysis Data

Land‐Atmosphere Interactions Exacerbated the Drought and Heatwave Over Northern Europe During Summer 2018

Understanding the diurnal cycle of land–atmosphere interactions from flux site observations

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