Turbulent/Synoptic Separation and Coherent Structures in the Atmospheric Surface Layer for a Range of Surface Roughness

Three sites with different surface roughness were selected to explore the turbulent/synoptic separation and self-similar wall-attached coherent structures in the atmospheric surface layer. At each site, the facility permits synchronous multi-point measurements of three-dimensional wind velocity and temperature at different heights, as well as synchronous measurements via the global positioning system among the three sites. A filter based on the linear coherent spectrum between two sites (separated by 500 m) is adopted to separate turbulent and synoptic signals. After the separation, the two-point correlations of the filtered turbulent streamwise velocity component reveal that increasing surface roughness leads to less coherence in both the wall-normal and streamwise directions. The present results with unstable stratification and different surface roughness also demonstrate good agreement with the self-similar range of the wall-attached turbulence reported in Baars et al. (J Fluid Mech 823:R2, 2017). The aspect ratio of coherent structures (defined as the ratio of streamwise wavelength to the wall-normal offset) for the streamwise and spanwise velocity components and temperature increases with increasing surface roughness.