Dr. John D. Wilson

The Dugway Experiment (2005)

• An array of 18 three-dimensional sonic anemometers at an exceptionally uniform site (Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah) measured surface-layer velocity statistics. Nine sonics on a tower (heights up to 26 m), and the balance on a crosswind transect at height 3 m (10 m separations) and briefly lower.

• Particular thanks to
  • Dr. R. Clement (U. Edinburgh) and to E. Swiatek and B. Tanner (Campbell Scientific Inc.) for their exhaustive preparation of the instrument array
  • D. Storwold and J. Bowers (U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground) for infrastructure and support on site
  • Dr. J. Klewicki (U. Utah), who coordinated the efforts of a large team involving University of Utah, University of Edinburgh, University of Minnesota, University of Melbourne, Imperial College, London, and the University of Alberta.

• Some anemometers sampled a region of disturbed flow due to nearby instrument trailers and/or parking berm. This can be seen in the transect of normalized mean windspeed along the crosswind (y) direction at height 3 m. This figure based on N=62 records, each 30-min duration; selection criteria: friction velocity u_* >= 0.15 m s^-1, Obukhov length L <= - 2 m, mean wind direction within 30 degrees of north.

• Google view of the site

• Photo of the team (in the white hat, K. McNaughton, inlarge part instigator of the effort to examine scaling of velocity statistics at this site, chosen for its uniformity)

• Manuscripts:
  • J.D. Wilson, 2013: Statistics of wind speed difference between points with cross-wind separation. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 146, 149-160.
  • D. Charuchittipan and J.D. Wilson, 2009: Turbulent kinetic energy dissipation in the surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 132, 193-204.
  • J.D. Wilson, 2008: Monin-Obukhov functions for standard deviations of velocity. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 129, 353-369.
  • M. Metzger and H. Holmes, 2008: Time Scales in the Unstable Atmospheric Surface Layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol., Vol. 126, 29-50.
  • I. Marusic and N. Hutchins, 2008: Study of the Log-Layer Structure in Wall Turbulence Over a Very Large Range of Reynolds Number. Flow Turbulence Combust., Vol. 81, 115-130.
  • N. Hutchins and I. Marusic, 2007: Evidence of Very Long Meandering Features in the Logarithmic Region of Turbulent Boundary Layers. J. Fluid Mech., Vol. 579, 1-28.
  • K.G. McNaughton, R.J. Clement and J.B. Moncrieff, 2007: Scaling Properties of Velocity and Temperature Spectra Above the Surface Friction Layer in a Convective Atmospheric Boundary Layer. Nonlin. Processes Geophys., Vol. 14, 257-271.
  • M. Metzger, B. J. McKeon and H. Holmes, 2007: The Near-Neutral Atmospheric Surface Layer: Turbulence and Non-Stationarity. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, Vol. 365, 859-876.

Back to the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences home page.

Last Modified: 6 June, 2013