Date of Award

1-1-2011

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (xviii, 192 pages) : illustrations (some color), color maps.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

David R Fitzjarrald

Committee Members

Gilbert G Lala, Chris Walcek, Kenneth L Demerjian

Keywords

intermittent turbulence, landscape, stable boundary Layer, Boundary layer (Meteorology), Earth temperature

Subject Categories

Atmospheric Sciences

Abstract

Field observations made in Hudson Valley region, NY during the Hudson Valley Ambient Meteorology Study (HVAMS) are analyzed to examine how terrain and land cover influence nocturnal mixing in real-world landscapes. Important terrain features such as local topographic concavity and site sheltering are shown to exhibit systematic influence on turbulent intermittency and on the consequent nocturnal heat and momentum fluxes. Very local obstacles have their most important effects on mixing during strong winds (> 5m/s). Local terrain concavity was found to be the more important factor influencing surface fluxes than sheltering for all classes of winds.

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