Atmospheric Small-Scale Turbulence from Three-Dimensional Hot-film Data

The behavior of small-scale atmospheric turbulence is investigated using the three-dimensional Canopy Horizontal Array Turbulence Study hot-film data. The analysis relies on an in situ calibration versus simultaneous sonic anemometer measurements. The calibration is based on King’s law and geometric relationships between the individual hot-film sensors, and is able to account for the errors associated with sensors’ misalignment and the high turbulence intensity. The details of the calibration are provided, and its performance is validated by comparing results of spectra and structure functions with standard wind-tunnel data and model spectra. A single 3 h block of data was selected, containing 33 subblocks of 2 min data without error gaps, whose statistics were averaged to provide smooth results. These data were measured above canopy under stable conditions, and correspond to a Taylor Reynolds number Re_λ≈ 1550 . The agreement with wind tunnel results for a similar Re_λ and with model predictions provides a validation for the in situ calibration method applied. Furthermore, the results indicate a presence of the bottleneck effect in the lateral and vertical spectra, in addition to a lack of inertial range in the second-order structure function due to the low Reynolds number. An additional analysis of the effect of Reynolds number on the inertial range is provided using atmospheric data from the literature.