15th Conf on Biometeorology and Aerobiology and the 16th International Congress of Biometeorology

Wednesday, 30 October 2002
On the sensitivity of Lagrangian simulations of diffusion to the Lagrangian turbulence scales formulations
Monique Y. Leclerc, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; and T. V. Prabha
This work has important implications for the dispersion of spores and pollen inside vegetation canopies. Dispersion inside vegetation has been of notorious complexity despite the fact that numerous techniques have been tried over decades to do so. In the last few years, the Large-Eddy Simulation has been the technique which has shown the most promise, but its intensive calculations and its complexity remains a strong deterrent to anyone interested in addressing the movement of spores and pollen motion in canopies.

This work presents data obtained from the Large-Eddy Simulation which is used here to make calculations of the Lagrangian turbulence scales inside and above a forest canopy in neutral conditions. By performing a series of Eulerian calculations on the LES generated data to determine the Eulerian time scales, it is possible to retrieve the Lagrangian time scales. These Lagrangian timescales are then embedded into the various Lagrangian length scales formulations and the sensitivity of each to the Lagrangian simulation determined.

This work has important implications for Lagrangian dispersion of spores and pollen as well as for gas exchange between the canopy layer and the atmosphere.

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