A SIMILARITY-THEORY MODEL FOR WIND-PROFILE AND RESISTANCE LAW IN STABLY STRATIFIED PLANETARY BOUNDARY-LAYERS

A similarity-theory model for the vertical profile of wind velocity co mponents and for the shearing stress at the surface in stably stratifi ed barotropic planetary boundary layers (SBLs) is derived with due reg ard for the imposed static stability at the outer edge of the SBL and inertial oscillations within the SBL. It is the neglection of the abov e effects that is suspected to cause poor performance of earlier SBL m odels. A multi-limit equation for the SBL depth should be used to clos e the problem in the steady state. The resulting model is designed for use in climate and meso-scale modelling and wind engineering applicat ions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.