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Inner Region Humidity Characteristics of the Neutral Boundary Layer Over Prairie Terrain
Author(s) -
Brutsaert Wilfried,
Sugita Michiaki,
Fritschen Leo J.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr026i012p02931
Subject(s) - radiosonde , humidity , planetary boundary layer , terrain , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , boundary layer , roughness length , meteorology , geology , geography , wind speed , physics , turbulence , wind profile power law , cartography , thermodynamics
Radiosonde observations were carried out over prairie terrain in the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas during the FIFE (First ISLSCP Field Experiment, International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) experiments in 1987. Analysis of 13 specific humidity profiles measured under neutral conditions revealed that they can be described by a logarithmic dependency on ( z − d 0 ), where z is the height above the zero‐plane reference at 330 m above sea level and d 0 = 26.9 m the assumed displacement height. With a roughness height z 0 = 1.05 m, this logarithmic layer was found to occupy the range 52(±28) ≤ ( z − 0 )/ z 0 ≤ 104(±37), which is consistent with previous experimental results. Good agreement was obtained ( r = 0.87) between the evaporation values derived from the radiosonde profiles and mean values determined independently at six ground stations distributed over the 15 × 15 km experimental region. On the basis of only one profile the scalar roughness for water vapor z 0υ was found to be 3 to 5 orders of magnitude smaller than z 0 .