ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-11-2111-2011 Boundary layer dynamics over London, UK, as observed using Doppler lidar during REPARTEE-II Barlow J. F. 1 Dunbar T. M. 1 Nemitz E. G. 2 Wood C. R. 1 Gallagher M. W. 3 Davies F. 4 7 O'Connor E. 1 6 Harrison R. M. 5 Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, P.O. Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Edinburgh), Bush Estate, Penicuik, EH26 0QB, UK School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK Room 315 Peel Building, University of Salford, The Crescent, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT, UK School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland currently at: School of Earth and Environment, Maths/Earth and Environment Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK 09 03 2011 11 5 2111 2125 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/2111/2011/acp-11-2111-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/2111/2011/acp-11-2111-2011.pdf

Urban boundary layers (UBLs) can be highly complex due to the heterogeneous roughness and heating of the surface, particularly at night. Due to a general lack of observations, it is not clear whether canonical models of boundary layer mixing are appropriate in modelling air quality in urban areas. This paper reports Doppler lidar observations of turbulence profiles in the centre of London, UK, as part of the second REPARTEE campaign in autumn 2007. Lidar-measured standard deviation of vertical velocity averaged over 30 min intervals generally compared well with in situ sonic anemometer measurements at 190 m on the BT telecommunications Tower. During calm, nocturnal periods, the lidar underestimated turbulent mixing due mainly to limited sampling rate. Mixing height derived from the turbulence, and aerosol layer height from the backscatter profiles, showed similar diurnal cycles ranging from c. 300 to 800 m, increasing to c. 200 to 850 m under clear skies. The aerosol layer height was sometimes significantly different to the mixing height, particularly at night under clear skies. For convective and neutral cases, the scaled turbulence profiles resembled canonical results; this was less clear for the stable case. Lidar observations clearly showed enhanced mixing beneath stratocumulus clouds reaching down on occasion to approximately half daytime boundary layer depth. On one occasion the nocturnal turbulent structure was consistent with a nocturnal jet, suggesting a stable layer. Given the general agreement between observations and canonical turbulence profiles, mixing timescales were calculated for passive scalars released at street level to reach the BT Tower using existing models of turbulent mixing. It was estimated to take c. 10 min to diffuse up to 190 m, rising to between 20 and 50 min at night, depending on stability. Determination of mixing timescales is important when comparing to physico-chemical processes acting on pollutant species measured simultaneously at both the ground and at the BT Tower during the campaign. From the 3 week autumnal data-set there is evidence for occasional stable layers in central London, effectively decoupling surface emissions from air aloft.

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