280322 VU Grenzschichtmeteorologie (2024S)

The boundary layer (BL) is the layer of the atmosphere nearest to the ground, about 1 km deep. The surface layer (SL), less than 100 m deep, is right above ground. The course begins by describing qualitatively the surface energy balance and the dynamics of atmospheric turbulence, together with their impact on the observed features of the BL and SL. The central topic of the course is the quantitative description of the properties of the SL and BL with scaling laws obtained from dimensional analysis. Finally, the representation of the SL and BL in numerical weather prediction and climate models is discussed. Every few weeks, a hands-on exercise (Python) is proposed. Exercises deal with the analysis of actual measurements and simulation data, or with the implementation of simple theoretical models.