EXPERIMENTAL MICROMETEOROLOGY IN AN ERA OF TURBULENCE SIMULATION

Micrometeorologists have traditionally used the framework of the ensem ble mean, fluctuating decomposition in studying turbulence spectra, Re ynolds-flux budgets, surface-exchange relations, and the universal fun ctions of Monin-Obukhov similarity within the ''constant-flux'' layer. More recently, the growth in supercomputers and computational fluid d ynamics has stimulated micrometeorological applications of large-eddy simulation (LES). LES uses a different framework, one based on the res olvable, subgrid-scale decomposition. This framework shift seems to ha ve weakened the vital and historically strong coupling between experim ental and computational work in micrometeorology. A challenge for expe rimentalists today is to address problems posed in the language of the resolvable, subgrid-scale decomposition. We illustrate by discussing measurement strategies for resolvable-scale turbulence fields and for local surface-exchange coefficients.