Print Email Facebook Twitter Large-Eddy Simulations of the Steady Wintertime Antarctic Boundary Layer Title Large-Eddy Simulations of the Steady Wintertime Antarctic Boundary Layer Author van der Linden, S.J.A. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing) Edwards, John M. (Met Office) van Heerwaarden, Chiel C. (Wageningen University & Research) Vignon, Etienne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Genthon, Christophe (ENS-PSL Research University & CNRS) Petenko, Igor (National Research Council; A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences) Baas, P. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing) Jonker, H.J.J. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing) van de Wiel, B.J.H. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing) Date 2019 Abstract Observations of two typical contrasting weakly stable and very stable boundary layers from the winter at Dome C station, Antarctica, are used as a benchmark for two centimetre-scale-resolution large-eddy simulations. By taking the Antarctic winter, the effects of the diurnal cycle are eliminated, enabling the study of the long-lived steady stable boundary layer. With its homogeneous, flat snow surface, and extreme stabilities, the location is a natural laboratory for studies on the long-lived stable boundary layer. The two simulations differ only in the imposed geostrophic wind speed, which is identified as the main deciding factor for the resulting regime. In general, a good correspondence is found between the observed and simulated profiles of mean wind speed and temperature. Discrepancies in the temperature profiles are likely due to the exclusion of radiative transfer in the current simulations. The extreme stabilities result in a considerable contrast between the stable boundary layer at the Dome C site and that found at typical mid-latitudes. The boundary-layer height is found to range from approximately 50m to just 5m in the most extreme case. Remarkably, heating of the boundary layer by subsidence may result in thermal equilibrium of the boundary layer in which the associated heating is balanced by the turbulent cooling towards the surface. Using centimetre-scale resolutions, accurate large-eddy simulations of the extreme stabilities encountered in Antarctica appear to be possible. However, future simulations should aim to include radiative transfer and sub-surface heat transport to increase the degree of realism of these types of simulations. Subject Antarctic boundary layerLarge-eddy simulationsLong-lived stable boundary layerSubsidence heating To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3ba37352-e7c1-4b4c-942c-2871ec8dc937 DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-019-00461-4 ISSN 0006-8314 Source Boundary-Layer Meteorology: an international journal of physical and biological processes in the atmospheric boundary layer, 173 (2), 165-192 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2019 S.J.A. van der Linden, John M. Edwards, Chiel C. van Heerwaarden, Etienne Vignon, Christophe Genthon, Igor Petenko, P. Baas, H.J.J. Jonker, B.J.H. van de Wiel Files PDF Linden2019_Article_Large_ ... heStea.pdf 1.17 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:3ba37352-e7c1-4b4c-942c-2871ec8dc937/datastream/OBJ/view