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Wind profile power law

About: Wind profile power law is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7312 publications have been published within this topic receiving 163770 citations. The topic is also known as: power law for wind shear.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of variability in wind speed on the calculated gas transfer velocities and the possibility of chemical enhancement of CO2 exchange at low wind speeds over the ocean is illustrated using a quadratic dependence of gas exchange on wind speed.
Abstract: Relationships between wind speed and gas transfer, combined with knowledge of the partial pressure difference of CO2 across the air-sea interface are frequently used to determine the CO2 flux between the ocean and the atmosphere. Little attention has been paid to the influence of variability in wind speed on the calculated gas transfer velocities and the possibility of chemical enhancement of CO2 exchange at low wind speeds over the ocean. The effect of these parameters is illustrated using a quadratic dependence of gas exchange on wind speed which is fit through gas transfer velocities over the ocean determined by the natural-14C disequilibrium and the bomb-14C inventory methods. Some of the variability between different data sets can be accounted for by the suggested mechanisms, but much of the variation appears due to other causes. Possible causes for the large difference between two frequently used relationships between gas transfer and wind speed are discussed. To determine fluxes of gases other than CO2 across the air-water interface, the relevant expressions for gas transfer, and the temperature and salinity dependence of the Schmidt number and solubility of several gases of environmental interest are included in an appendix.

4,187 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the data for the spectra of fully developed seas obtained for wind speeds from 20 to 40 knots as measured by anemometers on two weather ships.
Abstract: : The data for the spectra of fully developed seas obtained for wind speeds from 20 to 40 knots as measured by anemometers on two weather ships are used to test the similarity hypothesis and the idea that, when plotted in a certain dimensionless way, the power spectra for all fully developed seas should be of the same shape as proposed by Kitaigorodskii (1961). Over the important range of frequencies that define the total variance of the spectrum within a few percent, the transformed plots yield a non-dimensional spectral form that is nearly the same over this entire range of wind speeds within the present accuracies of the data. However, since slight variations of the wind speed have large effects on the location of this non-dimensional spectral form, inaccuracies in the determination of the wind speed at sea allow for some latitude in the final choice of the form of the spectrum. Also since the winds used to obtain the non-dimensional form were measured at a height greater than ten meters, the problem of relating the spectral form to a standard anemometer height arises. The variability introduced by this factor needs to be considered. The results, when errors in the wind speed, the sampling variability of the data, and the anemometer heights are considered, suggest a spectral form that is a compromise between the various proposed spectra and that has features similar to many of them.

2,190 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, wind and air-minus-sea temperatures are calculated in a form suitable for determining stress by any bulk aerodynamics model in which the drag coefficient can be represented by six or less coefficients of a second-degree polynomial in wind speed and stability.
Abstract: Over 35 million surface observations covering the world ocean from 1870–1976 have been processed for the purpose of calculating monthly normals and standard errors of the eastward and northward components of the wind stress and work done by the winds in the lower 10 m of the atmosphere. The fields are intended to serve as boundary conditions for models of the ocean circulation. Wind and air-minus-sea temperatures are calculated in a form suitable for determining stress by any bulk aerodynamics model in which the drag coefficient can be represented by six or less coefficients of a second-degree polynomial in wind speed and stability. The particular case of the wind speed and stability dependent drag coefficient discussed by Bunker is selected for analysis. January and July charts of wind stress, curl of the wind stress, mass transport stream-function, divergence of the Ekman transport and the rate of mechanical energy transfer are illustrated and discussed.

1,872 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the vertical distribution of horizontal mean wind in the lowest 8 metres over a reservoir (1·6 km × 1 km) has been measured using sensitive anemometers freely exposed from a fixed mast in water 16 m deep, the fetch being more than 1 km.
Abstract: The vertical distribution of horizontal mean wind in the lowest 8 metres over a reservoir (1·6 km × 1 km) has been measured using sensitive anemometers freely exposed from a fixed mast in water 16 m deep, the fetch being more than 1 km. The resulting profiles are closely logarithmic, the small differences being systematic and possibly due to the thermal instability which existed when the measurements were made. The usual law for wind profiles in neutral stability is where u is the wind speed at height z, k is von Karman's constant, log z (0) the intercept on the log z axis, and u* the so-called friction velocity defined by τ0 = pu, τ0 being the surface drag and rH the density of the air. To characterize the profiles u*/k, their slope, was plotted in relation to z (0), their intercept; this allowed a direct comparison with other profiles, in particular those recently measured in a laboratory channel by Sibul. The agreement was better than expected and indicated that z (0) was comparatively independent of fetch and stability but was largely determined by u*. The relation between u* and z (0) agreed roughly with the simplest non-dimensional relation between them, gz (0)/u = constant, so that one is led to a generalized wind profile for flow over a water surface which specifies the drag, given the wind at one known height. An approximate value of the constant is 12·5. This expression can be compared with earlier work. The better wind-profile observations show rough agreement; the experimental scatter is necessarily large since a water surface is aerodynamically much smoother than most land surfaces, precision anemometry in difficult circumstances being required to provide sufficiently precise values. Oceanographic measurements of the tilt of water surfaces are in fair agreement at high wind speeds but at low wind speeds the data are conflicting. The early results which imply that the drag-coefficient (u/u2) increases with decreasing wind speed in light winds are thought to be in error; some support for this belief comes from recent estimates of drag using a modified ageostrophic technique, which agree roughly among themselves and with the general expression.

1,792 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, analytical expressions which specify non-dimensionalized wind speed and potential temperature gradients as functions of stability are integrated with Swinhank's wind and temperature profiles measured at Kerang, Australia.
Abstract: Analytical expressions which specify non-dimensionalized wind speed and potential temperature gradients as functions of stability are integrated. The integrated equations are tested against Swinhank's wind and temperature profiles measured at Kerang, Australia. It is found that a representation suggested independently by Businger and by Dyer gives the best fit to temperature profiles and describes the wind profiles equally as well as a relation suggested by Panofsky et al.

1,713 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202357
2022142
202168
202088
201983
2018102