My. Leclerc et al., OBSERVATIONS AND LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION MODELING OF FOOTPRINTS IN THE LOWER CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY-LAYER, JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 102(D8), 1997, pp. 9323-9334
Scalar source footprint predictions inside and above the unstable surf
ace layer are performed using a large-eddy simulation (LES) model. LES
footprint results were evaluated against a tracer field experiment at
one level and against other models beyond the 10 m measurement level
in the surface layer. This paper further reports on an extension of th
e range over which current footprint models can be used by presenting
LES calculations of flux mapping to the downwind region from the sourc
e location beyond the surface layer. Our LES flux mapping results show
a gradual decoupling with increasing distance from the surface. Our r
esults also indicate that the footprints, cumulative fluxes, and conce
ntration distributions calculated using LES in unstable conditions are
in general agreement with field observations and with those of other
models. The present work shows promise for the use of LES as a tool to
model more complex footprint cases such as those over heterogeneous s
urfaces.