Gustiness and Coherent Structure of Strong Winds and Their Role in Dust Emission and Entrainment

After the passage of a cold front, spring in northern China, the outbreak of strong wind is often accompanied by dust emissions. Through analyses of data in the atmospheric boundary layer during a typical case, it is revealed there are rather regular gust wave packets superimposed on the basic strong wind flow. The gust-wind wave packets have a period equal to around 3 6 rains and possess coherent structure. As the vertical transport of momentum is decomposed into separate parts by （a） basic flow, （b） gust-wind, and （c） turbulence, they are all in a downwards direction at the lower levels of the atmospheric boundary layer during strong wind periods. However, （a） is the largest, while （b） and （c） are comparable. All these are very different from the case of normal weather. Besides, the friction velocity at the ground surface is also much larger than that of normal weather and should be corrected by taking the contributions of the basic flow and gust-wind into account.The strong basic flow with descending motion is very favorable for soil erosion and sand/dust emissions, but suppresses the entrainment of dust particles by keeping them within the bottom levels of the atmospheric boundary layer. Owing to the coherent structure of gust-wind, dust particles can effectively overcome the systematic descending air motion and penetrate into the middle and upper levels of the atmospheric boundary layer, and then propagate further and diffuse into the troposphere where ascending air motion prevails.

Some Characteristics of the Surface Boundary Layer of a Strong Cold Air Process over Southern China

In southern China, cold air is a common weather process during the winter season; it can cause strong wind, sharp temperature decreases, and even the snow or freezing rain events. However, the features of the atmospheric boundary layer during cold air passage are not clearly understood due to the lack of comprehensive observation data, especially regarding turbulence. In this study, four-layer gradient meteorological observation data and one-layer, 10-Hz ultrasonic anemometer-thermometer monitoring data from the northern side of Poyang Lake were employed to study the main features of the surface boundary layer during a strong cold-air passage over southern China. The results show that, with the passage of a cold air front, the wind speed exhibits low-frequency variations and that the wind systematically descends. During the strong wind period, the wind speed increases with height in the surface layer. Regular gust packets are superimposed on the basic strong wind flow. Before the passage of cold air, the wind gusts exhibit a coherent structure. The wind and turbulent momentum fluxes are small, although the gusty wind momentum flux is slightly larger than the turbulent momentum flux. However, during the invasion of cold air, both the gusty wind and turbulent momentum fluxes increase rapidly with wind speed, and the turbulent momentum flux is larger than the gusty wind momentum flux during the strong wind period. After the cold air invasion, this structure almost disappears.