University of Ljubljana

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

Department of Meteorology

Seminar: 4th class

Turbulence kinetic energy - TKE

Author: Matic Šavli

Mentor: doc. dr. Nedjeljka Žagar

May 27, 2012

Abstract
In this seminar I present the measure of turbulence in the atmosphere. This is the so called
turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). Most of our life is spent in the lower layers of atmosphere. The
lovest layer of the atmosphere is called boundary layer (BL). In average this layer occupies from 100
m to few kilometers of atmosphere. First I present some basic concepts of boundary layer. Then I
introduce the concept of spectral-gap and Reynolds averaging that represent the starting point of
theoretical treatment of turbulence. There is following the theoretical derivation of TKE budget
equation and explanation of the most important mechanisms for the production of turbulence. At
the end, I present a slightly different perspective on the turbulent kinetic energy. This reveals some
interesting properties of turbulence in the boundary layer.
Contents
1 Introduction 1

2 Boundary layer 2

3 Turbulence spectrum and spectral gap 4

4 Mean and turbulent part 5

4.1 Reynolds averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2 Additional features of Reynolds averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5 Eddy flux 6

6 Conservation of momentum 8

7 Definition of TKE 9
7.1 Contribution to the TKE budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7.2 TKE budget as a function of eddy size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

8 Conclusion 14

1 Introduction
Turbulence is a type of fluid (gas or liquid) flow in which the fluid undergoes irregular fluctuations, or
mixing, in contrast to laminar flow, in which the fluid moves in smooth paths or layers. In turbulent
flow the speed of the fluid at a point is continuously undergoing changes in both magnitude and
direction [1]. Turbulence can be visualized as consisting of irregular swirls of motions called eddies.
Usually turbulence consists of many different size eddies superimposed on each other. The relative
strengths of these different scale eddies define the turbulent spectrum (see next chapter). Figure 1
presents some examples of visual representations of turbulence.

Figure 1: Visual representation of turbulent eddies. Laminar flow of cigarette smoke becoming turbulent, on the left picture. Flow
visualization of a turbulent jet, made by laser-induced fluorescence, on the right picture [2, 3].

Turbulence in the atmosphere is very important feature especially for aviation. Figure 2 shows in-
tensity of the so-called CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) at height in range 3 to 15 km. Clear-air turbulence
is a higher altitude (6 - 15 km) turbulence phenomenon occurring in cloud-free regions, associated with
wind shear, particularly between the core of a jet stream and the surrounding air [4].

1
Figure 2: The maximum amount of turbulence (CAT) one can expect in any given area of the US, from altitudes 20,000 (6 km)
feet to 45,000 feet (12 km). A typical flight cruises at around 35,000 feet (10 km). [5].

The intensity of turbulence presented in the above figures is actually directly related to the so-
called turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). As is apparent from the name of this quantity, the value of
TKE directly represents the ’strength’ of the turbulence in the flow. Turbulence and turbulent kinetic
energy are strongly related to the wind shear (see in the following chapters), especially in the case of
CAT. This means that in the case of clear air turbulence intensity of turbulence is strongly dependent
on the value of the horizontal velocity field shear. Obviously TKE is a very important quantity.
In the following sections I will describe the main features of turbulent kinetic energy. More im-
portantly, I will deal with TKE budget equation and its terms. These terms in more detail explain
the mechanisms that directly affect the intensity of the turbulence. Figure 2 shows the example of
Clear-Air-Turbulence, but in this seminar the turbulence in lower layers of the atmosphere will be
presented. This is the so-called boundary layer. Let us firstyl look at some of the characteristics of
this layer.

2 Boundary layer
Boundary layer (PBL, BL) is that part of the atmosphere that is directly influenced by the presence
of the earth’s surface, and responds to surface forcings with a timescale of about an hour or less [6].
This will be further explained in the next chapter.
Symbolic view of the atmosphere structure is shown on the left picture in Fig. 3. An example of
temperature variations in the lower troposphere is shown in the right picture in Fig. 3.

Figure 3: The troposphere can be divided into two parts: a boundary layer (blue) near the surface and the free atmosphere above
it. Evolution of temperatures (picture on the right) measured near the ground (975 mbar) and at the a height of roughly 1100 m
above ground. [7] [6].

2
 Time-history in Fig. 3 were constructed from sond-soundings made every several hours near Law-
ton, Oklahoma. They show a diurnal-variation of temperature at two different heights above ground.
Diurnal variations at greater altitudes are much less intense because the turbulence is less intense.
Such variation is one of the key characteristics of the bundary layer.

Some of the most important features of PBL:

→ Significant drag against earth’s surface. High energy dissipation (due to friction).

→ Continuous turbulence throughout layer.

→ Thickness between 100 and 3000 m, diurnal variation over land.

→ Rapid turbulent mixing in vertical and horizontal.

The PBL can be subdivided into four separate component layers: the surface layer, the mixed layer,
the stable layer, and the residual layer [7]. This is shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 4: Structure of boundary layer in time [7].

The Surface Layer is the sub-layer closest to the earth where eddy fluxes (discussed in further
chapters) are relatively constant. The magnitude of these fluxes vary by less than 10 percent of
their magnitudes. Therefore, the height of the surface layer is 10 percent of the height of the PBL.
Wind speeds decrease towards zero near the ground, resulting in a wind speed profile that is nearly
logarithmic with height in the surface layer.

Mixed Layer During the daytime, surface heating leads to convective motion in the PBL. Heat
transfer from the surface forms rising warm air. Radiative cooling from clouds forms sinking cooler air.
Convective motion also leads to significant turbulence which mixes the air within this layer. Because
of the convective motion and significant mixing of air, this sub-layer is called the convective layer or
mixed layer. Above the mixed layer is a stable layer which prevents the continued upward motion
of thermals. This stable layer also restricts turbulence, preventing frictional influences from reaching
above the PBL. This stable layer is called the entrainment zone, because it is here where air from above
the PBL entrains into the mixed layer. During the day, the mixed layer reaches heights over 1 km and
make up the entire layer of the PBL above the surface layer. However, the mixed layer vanishes with
the sun as the thermally driven convection ceases.

Stable Layer After sunset, convective motion dramatically decreases. However, the Earth’s surface
still affects the air, and a stable boundary layer forms (also called the nocturnal boundary layer). This
boundary layer is charaterized by light winds and weaker, more sporadic turbulence than in the mixed

3
layer. The height of the PBL, therefore, decreases significantly during the night. Though the height of
the nocturnal layer varies, it is usually less than half that of the mixed layer. Unlike the mixed layer,
the stable boundary layer does not have a well-defined top. Instead, it slowly merges with the residual
layer.

Residual Layer As turbulence and the mixed layer decay with sunset, the air maintains many of
the state variables that the well-mixed air had. This layer is called the residual layer (because its
properties are residuals of the mixed layer) and forms above the stable boundary layer. While the
nocturnal boundary layer has a very stable profile, the residual layer tends to have more of a neutral
profile. The residual layer does not have contact with the earth’s surface, and so is not influenced
by turbulent stresses like the stable boundary layer below it. The residual layer is bounded above by
a capping inversion, which approximates the height of the daytime height of the mixed layer. This
inversion simply prevents entrainment from aloft.

3 Turbulence spectrum and spectral gap

Justification for the derivation of turbulence kinetic energy equation is temporal spectrum of kinetic
energy. Spectrum of kinetic energy is shown in Fig. 5. This diagram is somewhat shematic and so
does not show units for the kinetic energy.

Figure 5: Temporal spectrum of atmospheric kinetic energy. [8]

The spetrum show four obvious energy peaks. The peaks at one day and one year are the diurnal
and annual cycles. The peak that occurs between one day and one month is associated with baroclinic
instability in the mid-latitude westerlies. The peak at about one minute is associated with atmospheric
turbulence and convection [8].
There appears to be a lack of energy having time periods of about 30 min to 1 h. This is the
so-called ’spectral gap’ which is very important for the derivation of TKE budget equation. That’s
why the 1 h response time in definition of boundary layer is no accident. Spectral gap provides a means
to separate the turbulent from nonturbulente influences on the boundary layer.

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4 Mean and turbulent part
The method of separation turbulent from nonturbulent flow is signal averaging over period of 30 min
to 1 h. That’s how we can separate turbulent scale motions from nonturbulent scale motions. And
this is only possible because of existance of spectral gap. Nonturbulent part of the flow is presented
by equation:

1 T
Z
A(s) = A(t, s)dt, (1)
T 0
where T is some value in the time interval of spectral gap, so 30 min to 1 h. Here s is some other
spatial variable and A is variable like temperature or velocity field.
This is the way to eliminate turbulent fluctuations of scales shorter than about 1 h from the signal.
Once we have the mean (nonturbulent) part of the signal (A) we can substract it from the actual signal
(A), to give us turbulent part of the signal (a0 ):

a0 = A − A (2)

Here a0 is not necessarily small, because equations (2,1) just represent the method of separation tur-
bulent part from nonturbulent part of energy spectrum. But we can think of a0 as the fluctuation that
is superimposed on the mean (nonturbulent part).

From these equations it’s obvious that this kind of averaging is not so good for motions of scales
of about 1 h. This represents problems for larger scales of turbulence. But because of existance of
spectral gap this is not a problem, because there is no motions at those scales. That’s way spectral
gap is so important.

Let A and B be two variables that are dependent on time, and let c represent a constant. Then we
can present some basic rules of averaging. This can be done by using equation 1. To summarize:

c=c
cA = cA
A=A
AB = AB
A+B =A+B (3)

4.1 Reynolds averaging

The averaging rules in equation 3 can now be applied to variables that are split into mean and turbulent
parts. Let A = A + a0 and B = B + b0 like in equation 2. Using third and fifth rule in equation 3 we
can see that:

A = (A + a0 ) = A + a0 = A + a0

So the only way that the left and right sides can be equal is if a0 = 0. This result is not surprising if
one remembers the definition of mean value (equation 1). Similar to Ab0 = Ba0 = 0.
The most important feature of Reynolds averaging is presented with the following equation:

AB = (A + a0 )(B + b0 )
= (A)(B) + Ba0 + Ab0 + a0 b0
= (A)(B) + a0 b0 (4)

Where previously defined equations were used. The nonlinear product a0 b0 is not necessarily equal to
zero. The same is true for other nonlinear variables such as: a02 , b02 , a02 b0 etc. Such variable is called

5
eddy or turbulent flux and is of primary importance for understanding turbulence. More about that
follows below.
What is the reason that product like a0 b0 is not necessarily equal to zero? One statistical measure
of the dispersion of data is the variance σ 2 defined by:
i=N −1
2 1 X
σA = (Ai − A)2 = a02
N
i=0

Another statistical measure is covariance defined by:

i=N −1
1 X
covar(A, B) = (Ai − A)(Bi − B) = a0 b0
N
i=0

Thus, the nonlinear turbulence products that were introduced in equation 4 have the same meaning
as dispersion or covariance. These two measures could be zero but this is true only for a few selected
cases. Similarly we can define correlation as rAB = a0 b0 /σA σB .

4.2 Additional features of Reynolds averaging

Reynolds averaging has one very important feature. Let say Ui = Ui + Ui0 is velocity field (i∈[x, y, z])
and A = A + a0 is some variable, then:
dA ∂A ∂A
= + Ui
dt ∂t ∂xi
∂(A + a0 ) ∂(A + a0 )
= + (Ui + Ui0 )
∂t ∂xi
dA ∂A ∂A ∂a0
= + Ui + Ui0
dt ∂t ∂xi ∂xi
Where Einstein’s notation of summation is used. In the last equation we can see additional term. This
is advection of a0 with u0i . Now we use continuity equation where we assume incompressibility:

∂Ui ∂Ui ∂Ui0

=0 =⇒ =0 =0 (5)
∂xi ∂xi ∂xi
Where we already use rules from Reynolds averaging. Now let’s multiply last equation from system 5
with a0 . Then add this to dA/dt and we get:

dA ∂A ∂A ∂a0 u0i
= + Ui + (6)
dt ∂t ∂xi ∂xi

So, total derivative consists of two parts. The first one is just total derivative of A, where advection
is driven by Ui . The second term is advection of a0 driven by Ui0 or like in last equation it can also
be described as the divergence of turbulent momentum flux (see next section). This means that when
we want to calculate the average part of total derivative of A we also need to know something about
turbulence. This means that the mean flow is directly influenced by turbulence. This is very similar
conclusion as in equation 4.

5 Eddy flux
Fluid motion can transport quantities, resulting in fluxes. Turbulence also involves motion. Thus we
expect that turbulence transports quatities, too. This mechanisem is presented by terms similar to
a0 b0 .
Let’s see an example where eddy flux is defined by w0 Θ0 . This is so-called turbulent heat flux.
Where w0 is turbulent part of vertical velocity and Θ0 is turbulent part of potential temerature. The

6
potential temperature of a parcel of fluid at pressure p is the temperature that the parcel would acquire
if adiabatically brought to a standard reference pressure p0 , usually 1000 millibars. The potential
temperature is defined by:
p0
θ = T ( )R/cp , (7)
p
where T is the current absolute temperature (in K) of the parcel, R is the gas constant of air, and cp
is the specific heat capacity at a constant pressure. θ is simply the temperature that a parcel of dry
air at pressure p and temperature T would have if it were expanded or compressed adiabatically to a
standard pressure p0 [9].
A line of constant Θ presents where dry air particle can move.
If turbulence is completely random, then a positive w0 Θ0 one instant might cancel a negative w0 Θ0
at some later instant, resulting in a near zero value for average turbulent heat flux. But there are
situations where the average turbulent heat flux might be significantly different from zero. This is
shown in Fig. 6.

Figure 6: Small eddy mixing process. Net upward turbulent heat flux in a statically unstable (dΘ/dz < 0) environment (a) and
(b) net downward turbulent heat flux in a stable (dΘ/dz > 0) environment. Gray arrows represents the upward/downward heat
transfer. [6].

On a hot summer day (Fig. 6a) the average potential temperature profile is superadiabatic. This
means that atmosphere is statically unstable. So if some air particle is moved away from the equilibrium
there is now return or equivalent dΘ/dz < 0. If the eddy is a swirling motion, then some of the air
from position 1 will be mixed downward (w0 < 0), while some air from position 2 will mix up (w0 > 0).
The average motion caused by turbulence is w0 = 0. The downward moving air parcel (w0 < 0) ends up
being cooler then its surroundings (Θ0 < 0, assuming that particle Θ was conserved during its travel),
resulting in w0 Θ0 > 0. The upward moving air (w0 > 0) is warmer then its surroundings (Θ0 > 0), also
resulting in w0 Θ0 > 0. Both the upward and downward moving air contribute positively to the flux
w0 Θ0 , thus the average kinematic eddy flux w0 Θ0 is positive for this small-eddy mixing process.
This result shows that turbulence can cause a net transport of heat, even there is no net transport
of mass (w0 = 0). Turbulent eddies transport heat upward in this case tending to make dΘ/dz more
adiabatic (dΘ/dz > 0).
Let’s see what happens on a night (Fig. 6b) where a statically stable lapse rate is present (dΘ/dz >
0). There is small eddy moving air up (w0 > 0) and some back down (w0 < 0). An upward moving
parcel ends up cooler then its surrounding (w0 Θ0 < 0) while a downward moving parcel is warmer
(w0 Θ0 < 0). The net effect of this small-eddy mixing is to cause w0 Θ0 < 0, meaning a downward
transport of heat [6].
From both cases we can see that turbulence tends to destroy itself.

7
 These arguments can be extended to various kinds of eddy flux:

→ Vertical eddy heat flux =⇒ w0 Θ0

→ Vertical eddy moisture flux =⇒ w0 q 0

→ Horizontal eddy heat flux =⇒ u0 Θ0 , v 0 Θ0

→ Vertical eddy momentum flux =⇒ w0 u0 , w0 v 0

Figure 7 shows idealizations of the turbulent (heat, momentum and moisture) fluxes for both the
daytime and nightime boundary layer. It’s quite clear that at night fluxes are much weaker.

Figure 7: Idealized turulent fluxes at day (a) and at night (b). [6].

6 Conservation of momentum
In order to derive turbulent kinetic energy equation, it is necessary to start with Newton’s second law.
The basic form of the equation is [6]:

∂Ui ∂Ui 1 ∂p 1 ∂τij

+ Uj = −δi3 g − 2εijk Ωj Uk − + (8)
∂t ∂xj ρ ∂xi ρ ∂xj

Where Ui = Ui + Ui0 is velocity field (U1 = Ux = u, U2 = Uy = v and U3 = Uz = w), δij is Kronecker

delta, εijk is alternating unit tensor, p is pressure, ρ is density and τij is stress (’Stress is the force
tending to produce deformation in a body’ [6]). Here Einstein’s summation notation is used.
This is very basic equation where 1st term on LHS represents storage of momentum, 2nd term on
LHS represents advection of momentum, 1st term on RHS allows gravity to act vertically, 2nd term on
RHS represents the Coriolis effects, 3rd term on RHS describes pressure-gradient forces and 4th term
on RHS represents the influence of viscous strees.
First and fourth term on RHS can be further simplified. In first term, the components of the
angular momentum Ω ~ = (0, ωcos(φ), ωsin(φ)), where φ is latitude and ω = 2π/24 1/h. First term is
often writen as f εij3 Uj , where f = 2ωsin(φ) is Coriolis parameter.
Simplification of fourth term is somewhat more complicated. To a close approximation, air in the
atmosphere behaves like Newtonian fluid. This is the fluid for which the viscous stress is linearly
dependent on the shear. With this aproximation and by assuming incompressibility, fourth term
reduces to (µ/ρ)∂ 2 Ui /∂x2j .

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7 Definition of TKE
~ is velocity
Idea of turbulence kinetic energy is very similar to the idea of kinetic energy. Let’s say U
~ =U
field. Then we can define U ~ + U~ 0 like in equation 2. We can define two kinds of kinetic energy:

1
M KE/m = (u2 + v 2 + w2 ) (9)
2
1 1
T KE/m = e = (u02 + v 02 + w02 ) = Ui02 (10)
2 2
The first equation represents kinetic energy of the mean flow (MKE) and second equation represents
kinetic energey of turbulent part of the flow (TKE). The second equation is also-called turbulent kinetic
energy.
Turbulent kinetic energy is one of the most important variables in micrometeorology. It’s a measure
of the intensity of turbulence. But since the turbulence may change in time we are more interested in
TKE budget equation (∂e/∂t).
This equation is obtained from equation 8, in addition with equations 6 and 5. This gives us the
TKE budget equation [6]:

∂e ∂e g 0 0 0 0 ∂U i ∂Uj0 e 1 ∂Ui0 p0
+ Uj = δi3 Ui Θ − Ui Uj − − −ε
∂t ∂xj Θ ∂xj ∂xj ρ ∂xi
This equation can be further simplified if we assume horizontal homogenity. So final version is:
∂e g ∂Ui ∂w0 e 1 ∂w0 p0
= w0 Θ0 − Ui0 w0 − − −ε (11)
∂t Θ ∂z ∂z ρ ∂z
Turbulence is disspative, that’s why we have additional term ε. This term exists whenever TKE is
nonzero. This means that turbulence will always tend to decrease and disappear with time. The other
terms are also very important. They represents physical processes that can increase/decrease TKE
budget in time.

7.1 Contribution to the TKE budget

Now let’s look at what all these terms in equation 11 represent.

Storage of TKE Figure 8 shows a simulation of TKE over a two day period. We can see a dramatic
increase/decrease of TKE within each diurnal cycle. Height is normalized with depth of mixed layer.

Figure 8: Modeled space/time variations of e. [6].

Variations of this term is also presented by figure 13 (bottom-right). We can see that TKE varies
by about two orders of magnitude, mostly somewhere between night and day.

9
Figure 9: Normalized terms in the TKE budget equation. The shaded areas presents variation of particular terms at day. Height
variable is normalized with depth of mixed layer (left figure). Right two pictures show TKE terms in cloud situation. [6].

Bouyancy term This term has two functions:

1. Production
The most important is temperature flux w0 Θ0 . This flux must be positive in the case of production
of TKE. As we have already seen, this is possible only in statically unstable atmosphere. Near
the ground term 2 of equation 11 may be very large, corresponding to a large generation rate
of turbulence whenever surface is warmer than the air. For sunny days over land or cold air
advection over warmer surface this term can be large in contrast to cloudy days. Simbolically
this term is presented in Fig. 9. This figure clearly shows that term 2 is most important at the
ground where the temperature difference (air/ground) is the greater.

2. Consumption
In statically stable conditions, an air parcel displaced verticall by turbulence would experience
a bouyancy force pushing it back towards starting point. Statically conditions therby tends to
consume TKE, and are associated with negative values of temperature flux w0 Θ0 . Such conditions
are present in the stable boudary layer at night. There are some special cases where a region of
statically stable layer could be somewhere in the cloud layer. This is presented on right picture
in Fig. 9.

Because this term is so important on days of free convection, it is often used to normalize all the
other terms in TKE equation, like the left picture in Fig. 9.

Mechanical Shear This term has two parts. First presents momentum flux and second presents
vertical shear of horizontal ’mean’ velocity. But important is interaction between this two parts. Even
though a negative sign preceds 2nd term on RHS of equation 11 , the momentum flux is usually of
opposite sign from the mean shear, resulting in production of turbulence. So in the contrast to 1st term
(RHS), this term is more like production term. In Fig. 9 we can see very large values of this term at
the surface (surface layer). The reason for this is in maximum shear at the surface. Wind speed varies
little with height in the mixed layer of boundary layer above the surface layer, thats why small values
of 2nd term (RHS) above surface layer. A smaller maximum of shear production sometimes occurs at
the top of the mixed layer, because of the increase of shear in entrainment zone.
Very important is relative contribution of the bouyancy term (1st term RHS) and shear term (2nd
term RHS) to the TKE budget. This can be used to classify the nature of convection (see figure 10).
There are two options:

1. Free convection =⇒ |bouyancy| > |shear| and

2. Forced convection =⇒ |bouyancy| < |shear|.

10
 Magnitudes of the shear production term in the surface layer are obviously greatest on a windy
day, and are small on a calm day. At night over land or anytime the ground is colder than the air, the
shear term is often the only term that generates turbulence. Both, shear and bouyance can produce
turbulence. The difference is that shear generation produces turbulence primarily in the horizontal
direction, while bouyant generation produces turbulence primarily in the vertical.

Figure 10: Approximate regions of free and forced convection. [6].

Turbulent Transport In this term the quatity w0 e represents the vertical turbulent flux of TKE.
As for other terms, the change in flux with height is more important than the magnitude of flux. This
term represents the divergence flux term. That means that if more flux gets into the layer than leaves
the layer, the magnitude of TKE increase. This is very similar to continuity equation.
At any one height within mixed layer, this term acts as either production or loss, depending on
either there is flux convergence or divergence. But when this term is integrated over the depth of mixed
layer, it becomes identically zero (the left picture at Fig. 9). So overall this term neither creates nor
destroys TKE, it just moves or redistributes TKE from one location to another.
Figure 11 shows vertical profile of w0 e for daytime (convective case). This picture presents that
maximum of the flux is at z/zi ∈[0.3, 0.5], where zi is the depth of mixed layer. This means that below
this maximum there is a net divergence or loss of TKE, and above there is the opposite situation. This
is also confirmed in 9. The net effect is that some of the TKE produced near the ground is transported
up to the top half of the mixed layer before it is dissipated.

Figure 11: Normalized vertical flux of turbulent kinetic energy. Left flux presented in the whole mixed layer and right flux presented
in the surface layer. zi represents the mixed layer depth, L represents the Monin-Obukhov length (scaling parameter for surface
layer) and (w∗ , u∗ ) represent (free convection scaling velocity, friction velocity) parameter with units of m/s. [6].

11
 Figure 12: Normalized Doppler-radar derived deviation of perturbation pressure. [6].

Pressure Corelation Static pressure fluctuations are difficult to measure in the atmosphere. The
magnitudes of these fluctuations are very small, being on the order of 0.05 mb in the convective
surface layer to 0.01 mb or less in mixed layer. For comparing, the standard pressure on sea level is
p0 = 1013.25 mb. As a result, correlations (flux) such as w0 p0 calculated from experimetal data often
contain more noise than signal. We can estimate this flux from TKE equation but the result is not
very representative (huge variations). This is also confirmed by the Fig. 12. This figure shows that
pressure variation rapidly increase with height and at the top of mixed layer are realy quite large.

Figure 13: Top two pictures represent range of normalized dissipation rate (ε) during the day and night. Bottom left picture
represents variation of dissipation rate with time. Bottom right picture represents variation of TKE in the surface layer with time.
h represents depth of boundary layer. [6].

Dissipation This term presents the last term in equation 8. This term presents the so-called viscous
dissipation and it is defined as:
∂w0 2
) ε = µ( (12)
∂z
Where we considered only the vertical component and µ presents kinematic viscosity. It is obvious
that this term is always positive therefore this term always causing a decrease in the TKE budget.

12
In addition, it becomes larger in magnitude as the eddy size become smaller (w0 strongly vary with
height). This means that destruction of turbulent motions is greatest for the smallest size eddies.
Figure 13 (top-left and top-right) represents typical profiles of dissipation. Daytime dissipation
rates are often largest near the surface and then become relatively constant with height in the mixed
layer. Above the mixed layer the dissipation rate rapidly decrease to near zero. At night (there is no
mixed layer) dissipation decrease very rapidly with height so the same is for TKE. Because turbulence
is not conserved, the greatest TKE values and greatest dissipation rates are frequently found where
TKE production is the largest. This is near the surface.
Time variation of dissipation rate is in close relationship between TKE production rate and intensity
of turbulence. This is shown in Fig. 13 (bottom-right). At night where only shear can produce
turbulence, the dissipation rate is small because the associated TKE is small (Fig. 13 bottom-right).
After sunrise, bouyant production greatly increases the turbulence intensity resulting in the associeted
increase in dissipation seen in Fig. 13 bottom.

7.2 TKE budget as a function of eddy size

The TKE equation 11 can also be written in spectral form. This means that we can examine terms
of TKE budget equation as a function of wavelength or eddy size. The most important terms of TKE
budget equation, bouyant term and shear term are presented in Fig. 14. One additional term appears
in the spectral form of the TKE budget equation. This is the so-called transfer of energy across the
spectrum required to balance the production and dissipation. In Fig. 14 this is presented as T r(f )
where f is frequancy. For a more detailed explanation see picture caption.
First we remember spectrum from Fig. 5. In this spectrum we can see that eddies at large spatial
scales (small frequancy, large time scale) are usually the most intense. This represents the largest
eddies with the time scale in the range 10 to 100 hours. The smaller eddies at small spatial scales
(large frequancy, small time scall) are very weak. This means that large eddy motions can create
eddy-size wind shear regions, which can generate smaller eddies. So the transfer of energy is from large
size eddies (large wavelength) to small size eddies (small wavelength).
This can be easily seen in Fig. 14 where we have shear and bouyant production at the large
size eddies and dissipation at the small sizes. What that means is that energy is produced at the
large spatial scales and dissipated at small ones. Somewhere in between there is the so-called inertial
subrange, where the rate of production is equal to the rate of dissipation. In this area there is no
net convergence or divergence of energy but there is a large amount of energy flowing through that
domain. This is very nicely shown in Fig. 14 (a) at maximum values of T r(f ).

Figure 14: Example of spectral energy budget terms in surface layer. Shown in (b) are the shear and bouyant production and
the dissipation terms as function of frequency (f). The T r(f ) curve (a) was obtained by integrating blue curve from (b). T r(f )
represents the transfer of energy in f space required to balance the production and dissipation. The symbol f is frequency and κ is
wave number. [6].

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8 Conclusion
Turbulence is a very important phenomenon that affects all atmospheric processes, but it is more
important near the surface. Turbulence represents the irregularity or randomness of the flow. The
existence of spectral gap in turbulence spectrum is essential for the separation of mean from turbulent
part of the flow. For this purpose, a method of Reynolds averaging is used. Turbulence affects the
mean (non-turbulent) part of the flow through a specific mechanism called eddy flux. The most
unique measure for turbulence is kinetic energy of turbulent part of the flow. We have seen that this
variable depends on a variety of mechanisms. The most important are certainly bouyant production
or consumption and shear production of TKE. Both of these vary significantly in time and in space
(especially in height). The third very important term is dissipation. This term provides the reduction
of turbulence with time which is the primary purpose of turbulence. This causes that the energy is
dissipated from large vortices to small one.
In meteorology TKE is very useful for parametrization of sub-grid processes. The smaller-scale
motions, namely trubulence, are not modeled directly. Rather, the effects of those subgrid scales
on the larger scales are approximated. These smaller-size motions are said to be parametrized by
subgrid-scale stochastic approximations or models.
But this variable is also of primary importance in other areas of science. For example in car industry
where the aerodynamic shape of the car is an important parameter. Low values of TKE represents a
better aerodynamic properties.

References
[1] Frank S. Lombargo Peter R. Lang. Atmospheric turbulence, meteorological modeling and aerody-
namics. Nova Science Publishers, 2010.

[2] Turbulence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence, 27-4-2012.

[3] Abstract smoke photograph, turbulence. http://www.101prints.com/buy-prints/

Abstract-smoke-photograph,-Turbulence, 27-4-2012.

[4] Clear-Air-Turbulence (CAT). http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=

clear-air-turbulence1, 27-4-2012.

[5] Turbulence forecasting. http://www.turbulenceforecast.com/, 27-4-2012.

[6] Roland B.Stull. An Introduction to Boundary Layer Meteorology, volume 13. Springer, 1988.

[7] The planetary boundary layer. http://www.envi.hufs.ac.kr/gwlee/session7/session7.html,

27-4-2012.

[8] Roger Daley. Atmospheric Data Analysis. Cambridge university press, 1996.

[9] James R. Holton. An introduction to dynamic meteorology. Elsevier Academic Press, fourth edition
edition, 2004.

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