Articles | Volume 23, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-23-75-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-23-75-2016
Research article
 | 
21 Mar 2016
Research article |  | 21 Mar 2016

Study of the overturning length scales at the Spanish planetary boundary layer

Pilar López and José L. Cano

Abstract. The focus of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of the maximum Thorpe displacement (dT)max and the Thorpe scale LT at the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), extending previous research with new data and improving our studies related to the novel use of the Thorpe method applied to ABL. The maximum Thorpe displacements vary between −900 and 950 m for the different field campaigns. The Thorpe scale LT ranges between 0.2 and 680 m for the different data sets which cover different stratified mixing conditions (turbulence shear-driven and convective regions). We analyse the relationship between (dT)max and the Thorpe scale LT and we deduce that they verify a power law. We also deduce that there is a difference in exponents of the power laws for convective conditions and shear-driven conditions. These different power laws could identify overturns created under different mechanisms.

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Short summary
The focus of this paper is to improve our studies related to the novel use of the Thorpe method applied to atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) using new data from Spanish field experiments. We analyse the time behaviour of the maximum Thorpe displacement (dT)max and the Thorpe-scale LT during a day cycle. We also analyse the relation between (dT)max and LT. We deduce that they confirm a power law statistically significant, with differences between convective conditions and shear-driven conditions.