Shallow Katabatic Flow in a Complex Valley: An Observational Case Study Leveraging Uncrewed Aircraft Systems

Sean C.C. Bailey; Suzanne Weaver Smith; Michael P. Sama; Loiy Al-Ghussain; Gijs de Boer

doi:10.1007/s10546-022-00783-w

Shallow Katabatic Flow in a Complex Valley: An Observational Case Study Leveraging Uncrewed Aircraft Systems

Sean C.C. Bailey, Suzanne Weaver Smith, Michael P. Sama, Loiy Al-Ghussain, Gijs de Boer

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Multiple fixed-wing and multirotor uncrewed aircraft systems were deployed to measure the early morning katabatic flow along a valley as part of the lower atmosphere profiling studies at elevation a remotely-piloted aircraft team experiment (LAPSE-RATE) campaign. The valley’s topography was that of a narrow canyon emerging into a broader shallow-sloped valley, allowing for an assessment of the suitability of one-dimensional approximations for the broad, flat part of the valley. The one-dimensional integral model predicts growth in the katabatic layer with downslope distance, which was not observed in the broader portions of the valley. Instead, observations revealed thinning of the katabatic layer at the valley centreline, coinciding with oscillatory behavior with a period between 30 and 60 min. These features were attributed to strong asymmetry and three-dimensional features initiating in the narrow part of the valley. These features produced initial conditions upstream of the broad slope flow that were not captured by the one-dimensional model.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	399-422
Number of pages	24
Journal	Boundary-Layer Meteorology
Volume	186
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-022-00783-w
State	Published - Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Funding

This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation through Award No. CBET-1351411 and by Award No. 1539070, Collaboration Leading Operational UAS Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (CLOUDMAP). Additional support was provided by the US National Science Foundation (AGS 1807199), US Department of Energy (DE-SC0018985), and the NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr. Julie Lundquist and her students Camden Plunkett and Patrick Murphy from University of Colorado Boulder who collected and provided the lidar data used in this study.

Funders	Funder number
Center for Selective C-H Functionalization, National Science Foundation
NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory
Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, National Science Foundation
Collaboration Leading Operational UAS Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	1539070, AGS 1807199, 1351411, 1807199
U.S. Department of Energy EPSCoR	DE-SC0018985
Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth	DE-SC0018985

Keywords

Cold-air drainage
Katabatic flow
Topographic impact
Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS)
Valley flows

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Atmospheric Science

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abstract = "Multiple fixed-wing and multirotor uncrewed aircraft systems were deployed to measure the early morning katabatic flow along a valley as part of the lower atmosphere profiling studies at elevation a remotely-piloted aircraft team experiment (LAPSE-RATE) campaign. The valley{\textquoteright}s topography was that of a narrow canyon emerging into a broader shallow-sloped valley, allowing for an assessment of the suitability of one-dimensional approximations for the broad, flat part of the valley. The one-dimensional integral model predicts growth in the katabatic layer with downslope distance, which was not observed in the broader portions of the valley. Instead, observations revealed thinning of the katabatic layer at the valley centreline, coinciding with oscillatory behavior with a period between 30 and 60 min. These features were attributed to strong asymmetry and three-dimensional features initiating in the narrow part of the valley. These features produced initial conditions upstream of the broad slope flow that were not captured by the one-dimensional model.",

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Shallow Katabatic Flow in a Complex Valley: An Observational Case Study Leveraging Uncrewed Aircraft Systems

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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