Flow Over Hills with Variable Roughness

Author: Allen, Thomas

Source: Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Volume 121, Number 3, December 2006 , pp. 475-490(16)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

The effect of variable roughness length upon the flow characteristics over hills is investigated. The changes considered herein cover a range of flow configurations such as the change from a forested (rough) valley with a moderately smooth hilltop to a grassy valley (smooth) with a “spiky” (rough) mountain top. The effect of moving the roughness with respect to the hill is also considered. Although many of the flow features change when the position of the roughness change is varied with respect to the hill these changes have very little impact upon the global properties used within orographic drag parametrization schemes.

Keywords: Flow over hills; Topography; Variable roughness

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10546-006-9086-0

Affiliations: 1: Email: thomas.allen@metoffice.gov.uk

Publication date: 2006-12-01