Coastal Boundary Layer Characteristics of Wind, Turbulence, and Surface Roughness Parameter over the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, India

Abstract

The study discusses the features of wind, turbulence, and surface roughness parameter over the coastal boundary layer of the Peninsular Indian Station, Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). Every 5 min measurements from an ultrasonic anemometer at 3.3 m agl from May 2007 to December 2012 are used for this work. Symmetries in mesoscale turbulence, stress off-wind angle computations, structure of scalar wind, resultant wind direction, momentum flux (M), Obukhov length (L), frictional velocity (u*), w-component, turbulent heat flux (H), drag coefficient (CD), turbulent intensities, standard deviation of wind directions (σθ), wind steadiness factor-σθ relationship, bivariate normal distribution (BND) wind model, surface roughness parameter (z0), z0 and wind direction (θ) relationship, and variation of z0 with the Indian South West monsoon activity are discussed.