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  • Author or Editor: Yi Jin x
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Gwang-Jin Lee
,
Domingo Muñoz-Esparza
,
Chaeyeon Yi
, and
Hi Jun Choe

Abstract

With the continuous increase in computing capabilities, large-eddy simulation (LES) has recently gained popularity in applications related to flow, turbulence, and dispersion in the urban atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Herein, we perform high-resolution building-scale LES over the Seoul, South Korea, city area to investigate the impact of inflow turbulence on the resulting turbulent flow field in the urban ABL. To that end, LES using the cell perturbation method for inflow turbulence generation is compared to a case where no turbulence fluctuations in the incoming ABL are present (unperturbed case). Validation of the model results using wind speed and wind direction observations at 3 m above ground level reveals minimal differences irrespective of the presence of incoming ABL turbulence. This is due to the high density of building structures present at the surface level that create shear instabilities in the flow field and therefore induce local turbulence production. In the unperturbed case, turbulent fluctuations are found to slowly propagate in the vertical direction with increasing fetch from the inflow boundaries, creating an internal boundary layer that separates the turbulent region near the building structures and the nonturbulent flow aloft that occupies the rest of the ABL. Analysis of turbulence quantities including energy spectra, velocity correlations, and passive scalar fluxes reveals significant underpredictions that rapidly grow with increasing height within the ABL. These results demonstrate the need for realistic inflow turbulence in building-resolving LES modeling to ensure proper interactions within the ABL.

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Jason E. Nachamkin
,
Yi Jin
,
Lewis D. Grasso
, and
Kim Richardson

Abstract

Cloud-top verification is inherently difficult because of large uncertainties in the estimates of observed cloud-top height. Misplacement of cloud top associated with transmittance through optically thin cirrus is one of the most common problems. Forward radiative models permit a direct comparison of predicted and observed radiance, but uncertainties in the vertical position of clouds remain. In this work, synthetic brightness temperatures are compared with forecast cloud-top heights so as to investigate potential errors and develop filters to remove optically thin ice clouds. Results from a statistical analysis reveal that up to 50% of the clouds with brightness temperatures as high as 280 K are actually optically thin cirrus. The filters successfully removed most of the thin ice clouds, allowing for the diagnosis of very specific errors. The results indicate a strong negative bias in midtropospheric cloud cover in the model, as well as a lack of land-based convective cumuliform clouds. The model also predicted an area of persistent stratus over the North Atlantic Ocean that was not apparent in the observations. In contrast, high cloud tops associated with deep convection were well simulated, as were mesoscale areas of enhanced trade cumulus coverage in the Sargasso Sea.

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