89th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

Wednesday, 14 January 2009: 9:45 AM
Turbulence Characteristics in Oklahoma City Measured from an 83-meter PseudoTower
Room 124A (Phoenix Convention Center)
Sam Chang, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD; and G. Huynh and D. Tofsted
Sonic anemometer data taken using Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's 83 m pseudo tower during the Oklahoma City Joint Urban 2003 field experiment are analyzed. Velocity and temperature fluctuations were measured at eight heights within and above the urban canopy. Turbulent standard deviations of three wind components (Sigma-i, i=u,v,w) are calculated. Two methods have been adopted for our spectral analysis: a non-linear least-squares curve fitting technique and the LOWESS method. Both methods provide good estimates of the peak frequency of the turbulence spectral function weighted by frequency, fS(f). We present the results of turbulence characteristics of both standard deviations and velocity spectra for Oklahoma City. In particular, we discuss the vertical dependence of Sigma-i and the peak wavelength. Both also exhibited dependence on atmospheric stability.

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