Spatiotemporal variability of turbulence kinetic energy budgets in the convective boundary layer over both simple and complex terrain

Herein, the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget equation is used to study the spatiotemporal variability in two types of terrain-complex [Columbia Basin Wind Energy Study (CBWES) site, northeastern Oregon] and flat [Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) site, west Texas]-using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model.

In each case, six nested domains [three domains each for mesoscale and large-eddy simulation (LES)] are used to downscale the horizontal grid spacing from similar to 10 km to similar to 10m using the WRF Model framework. The model output was used to calculate the values of the TKE budget terms in vertical and horizontal planes as well as the averages of grid cells contained in the four quadrants of the LES domain. The budget terms calculated along the planes and the mean profile of budget terms show larger spatial variability at the CBWES site than at the SWiFT site.