Premium
The geostrophic drag coefficient and the ‘effective’ roughness length
Author(s) -
Fiedler F.,
Panofsky H. A.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49709841519
Subject(s) - geostrophic wind , drag coefficient , roughness length , terrain , surface roughness , drag , surface finish , wind speed , geology , meteorology , thermal wind , latitude , buoyancy , mechanics , atmospheric sciences , geodesy , wind profile power law , physics , materials science , geography , climatology , thermodynamics , composite material , cartography
An ‘effective’ roughness length is defined for use over heterogeneous terrain as the roughness length which homogeneous terrain would have to give the correct surface stress over a given area. A method is suggested to compute geostrophic drag coefficient, wind‐contour angle and surface heat flux, given this roughness length, latitude, geostrophic wind speed and insolation or ground‐air temperature differences.