Temporal Scales of Convective Coherent Structures Derived from Sodar Data

The temporal variability of thermal turbulence and vertical velocity derived from sodar measurements during periods of atmospheric free convection is studied using both spectral and wavelet analysis. A promising approach to analyse atmospheric processes, an advanced high-resolution spectrum estimation technique is described. Variance spectra of meteorological and turbulent parameters are shown to have their specific comb shape at a low-frequency range. Spectra and wavelet transforms of the data obtained at different sites both indicate the existence of some representative predominant temporal scales in time variations of the convective boundary layer structure. The most evident temporal scales revealed are centered around 7-9 and 18-22 minutes.