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The Height of the Atmospheric Planetary Boundary layer: State of the Art and New Development

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National Security and Human Health Implications of Climate Change

Abstract

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is defined as the strongly turbulent atmospheric layer immediately affected by dynamic, thermal and other interactions with the Earth’s surface. It essentially differs in nature from the weakly turbulent and persistently stably-stratified free atmosphere. To some extent the PBL upper boundary acts as a lid preventing dust, aerosols, gases and any other admixtures released from ground sources to efficiently penetrate upwards, thus blocking them within the PBL. It is conceivable that the air pollution is especially hazardous when associated with shallow PBLs. Likewise, positive or negative perturbations of the heat budget at the Earth’s surface immediately impact on the PBL and are almost completely absorbed within the PBL through the very efficient mechanism of turbulent heat transfer. Determination of the PBL height is, therefore, an important aspect of modelling and prediction of air-pollution events and extreme colds or heats dangerous for human health. Because of high sensitivity of shallow PBLs to thermal impacts, variability of the PBL height is an important factor controlling fine features of climate change. Deep convective PBLs strongly impact on the climate system through turbulent entrainment (“ventilation”) at the PBL upper boundary, and thus essentially control development of convective clouds. This paper outlines modern knowledge about physical mechanisms and theoretical models of the PBL height and turbulent entrainment, and presents an advanced model of geophysical convective PBL.

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Abbreviations

CBL:

convective boundary layer

CN:

conventionally neutral

IGW:

internal gravity waves

LES:

large-eddy simulation

LS:

long-lived stable

NS:

nocturnal stable

PBL:

planetary boundary layer

SBL:

stable boundary layer

TKE:

turbulent kinetic energy

TN:

truly neutral

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by EC FP7 project ERC PBL-PMES (No. 227915) and Federal Targeted Programme “Research and Educational Human Resources of Innovation Russia 2009–2013” (Contract No. 02.740.11.5225); and the Russian Federation Government Grant No. 11.G34.31.0048.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Finnish Meteorological Institute, 503, 00101, Helsinki, Finland

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

  2. Division of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

  3. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre, Bergen, Norway

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

  4. A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Moscow, Russia

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

  5. Department of Radio Physics, N.I. Lobachevski State University of Nizhniy, Novgorod, Russia

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

  6. Department of Meteorology, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Sergej S. Zilitinkevich

Authors
  1. Sergej S. Zilitinkevich
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Correspondence to Sergej S. Zilitinkevich .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Civil Engineering &, Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Fitzpatrick Hall 156, Notre Dame, 46556, Indiana, USA

    H. J. S. Fernando

  2. Andrija Mohorovicic Geophysical Inst., Department of Geophysics, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 95, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

    Z. Klaić

  3. , Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287-9809, USA

    J.L. McCulley

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Zilitinkevich, S.S. (2012). The Height of the Atmospheric Planetary Boundary layer: State of the Art and New Development. In: Fernando, H., Klaić, Z., McCulley, J. (eds) National Security and Human Health Implications of Climate Change. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2430-3_13

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