A.B. Nunes, H.F. de Campos Velho, P. Satyamurty, G.A. Degrazia, A. G. Goulart, U. Rizza (2008): Morning Boundary Layer Turbulent Kinetic Energy by Theoretical Models, Boundary-Layer Meteorology.

Abstract: One of the important factors that influence the diurnal variation of Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) is the sensible heat flux at the surface, which injects thermal energy for the generation of turbulence. In this article the TKE variations are analyzed during the morning transition phase because subsequent to the neutral or stable stratification during the night, peaks of concentration of scalars develop. The characteristics of the TKE during the growing phase of convection are analyzed with the help of four analytical models. For this purpose 3-dimensional spectral model of growth of convection and other formulations of micrometeorological parameters like the convective and neutral spectra, velocity variance and dissipation rates are utilized. The peak values in the TKE spectra in the lower, middle and upper levels of the Convective Boundary Layer (CBL) showed migration to higher wavelengths as the depth of the CBL increased with time in all the four models. The TKE evolutions generated by the analytical models agree fairly well with the results of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for the three levels.