The 5th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography

J10.4
THE ARCTIC LOW-LEVEL CLOUD AND THE BOUNDARY LAYER TURBULENCE

Qing Wang, NPS, Monterey, CA; and S. Wang

Aircraft measurements on boundary layer turbulence structure were made by the NCAR C-130 during the Beaufort Arctic Storms Experiment (BASE) in 1994. Data from three flights during the BASE experiment have been analyzed to study the characteristics of the stable Arctic boundary layer that is usually characterized by weak turbulent mixing and significant wave and mesoscale perturbations. Spectral analyses have been performed for all leveled legs in the selected flights. Turbulence variance and fluxes were then obtained from the spectra and co-spectra. The characteristics of the weak turbulent field in the fall season Arctic boundary layer will be presented. One particular focus will be on the variation of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes. We will also present the turbulence length scale characteristics for the first and second moment variables in the stable boundary layer. Our results indicate that the integral scale for the second-moment variables, such as fluxes and variances, are smaller than those for the mean variables. However, the second-moment variables have much larger spatial variation, suggesting that a much longer measurement length is needed in order to obtain statistically significant results. A comparison of the results with those from the convective boundary layer will also be presented. In addition, we will look into the new aircraft data from the recent Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment and integrate the results from the BASE measurements

The 5th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography