Significance of the
Boundary Layer
Q: Why is it important to understand the
boundary layer?
- People send most of their lives in the boundary layer
- Daily weather forecasts of dew, fog, frost, max and min tempertature are
really boundary layer forecasts
- Pollution is often trapped in the boundary layer
- Fog occurs within the boundary layer
- Some aviation, shipping, and other commerce activities are conducted
within it.
- air mass generation
- Crops are grown in the boundary layer. Pollen is distributed by
boundary layer circulations.
- Cloud Condensation Nuclei are lofted into the air from the surface by
boundary layer processes.
- Virtually all water vapor that reaches the free atmosphere is first
transported through the boundary layer by turbulent and advective processes
- Thunderstorm and hurricane evolution are tied to the inflow of moist
boundary layer air
- Turbulent transport of momentum down through the boundary layer to the
surface is the most important momentum sink for the atmosphere.
- About 50% of the atmosphere's kinetic energy is dissipated in the boundary
layer.
- Turbulence and gustiness affects architecture in the design of structures.
- Wind turbines extract energy from boundary layer winds.
- Wind stress on sea surface is primary energy source for ocean currents
- and the list goes on.......