The 13th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence

2.3
STABLE ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY LAYER EXPERIMENT IN SPAIN (SABLES 98)

J Cuxart, Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, Madrid, Spain; and M. R. Soler, C. Yague, E. Terradellas, H. E. Joergensen, and J. Vila

The current knowledge about the stable atmospheric boundary layer is far from completeness. Contrary to other PBL regimes, here the turbulence is not the major driving process. Instead, it is a relaxing mechanism of a variety of different forcings, very dependent on the characteristics of every site. Except in the case of sustained winds, turbulence will therefore be an intermitent process. The proposed similarity relationships in the SBL are far from universal, and other processes, such as internal waves or local surface inhomogeneity, might be playing an important role not already well characterized.

A campaign has been planned for next September in the North Castilian Plateau, in Spain, using the CIBA (Centro de Investigaciones de la Baja Atmosfera - Low Atmosphere Research Centre) facilities. A 100 meter tower will be instrumented with a high resolution array of sensors, including three levels with thermo-sonic anemometers. A surface layer tower with two more sonics and low frequency sensors, together with ground and radiation fluxes will also be used. The setup will be completed with a tethered balloon, a Sodar and an array of microbarographers.

We intend to describe in this presentation to the related scientific community the major purposes of the campaign, its development and focus on the observed phenomena captured by the experimental setup.

The 13th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence