Identification

Title

Climatology of the planetary boundary layer over the continental United States and Europe

Abstract

Although boundary layer processes are important in climate, weather and air quality, boundary layer climatology has received little attention, partly for lack of observational data sets. We analyze boundary layer climatology over Europe and the continental U.S. using a measure of boundary layer height based on the bulk Richardson number. Seasonal and diurnal variations during 1981-2005 are estimated from radiosonde observations, a reanalysis that assimilates observations, and two contemporary climate models that do not. Data limitations in vertical profiles introduce height uncertainties that can exceed 50% for shallow boundary layers (<1 km) but are generally <20% for deeper boundary layers. Climatological heights are typically <1 km during daytime and <0.5 km at night over both regions. Seasonal patterns for daytime and nighttime differ; daytime heights are larger in summer than winter, but nighttime heights are larger in winter. The four data sets show similar patterns of spatial and seasonal variability but with biases that vary spatially, seasonally, and diurnally. Compared with radiosonde observations, the reanalysis and the climate models produce deeper layers due to difficulty simulating stable conditions. The higher-time-resolution reanalysis reveals the diurnal cycle in height, with maxima in the afternoon, and with amplitudes that vary seasonally (larger in summer) and regionally (larger over western U.S. and southern Europe). The lower-time-resolution radiosonde data and climate model simulations capture diurnal variations better over Europe than over the U.S., due to differences in local sampling times.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7fb53q5

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-09-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact