15th Conference on Boundary Layer and Turbulence

Monday, 15 July 2002
Statistical analysis of the clouds diurnal evolution in the PBL
N. Kitova, Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria; and K. Ivanova, M. A. Mikhalev, and M. Ausloos
Poster PDF (70.7 kB)
The statistical analysis is focused on the investigation of the self-affine and multi-affine properties (and their diurnal variation) of cloud base height data records. The data, used in the paper are measured during two programs: the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) held in June 1992, at the Azores Islands for marine BL and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program of the Department of Energy - the Southern Great Plains (SGP) (Oklahoma, USA) for continental BL. The scaling ranges of time correlations in the cloud base height records of boundary layer startus/stratocumulus clouds are studied, applying the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis statistical method [1]. We found that time dependent variations in the evolution of the similarity parameter (a)reflect the diurnal dynamics of cloud base height fluctuations in the both types of boundary layer - marine and continental. The generalized dimensions [2,3], determining the intermittency of the signals are studied. The multi-affine properties, described by h(g) functions [4,5,6] are determined also. The results are oriented toward the understanding, modeling and predicting the dynamical behavior of the cloud base evolution, governed by the boundary layer dynamics.

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