Boundary-Layer Meteorology 25th Anniversary Volume, 1970–1995: Invited Reviews and Selected Contributions to Recognise Ted Munn’s Contribution as Editor over the Past 25 Years

413 Pages·1996·15.91 MB·English

by  Peter Taylor

BOUNDARY -LAYER METEOROLOGY
25TH ANNIVERSARY VOLUME, 1970-1995
Invited Reviews and Selected Contributions
to Recognise Ted Munn' s Contribution as Editor
over the Past 25 Years
Edited by
J.R. GARRATT
CSIRO, Division ofA tmospheric Research,
Melbourne, Australia
and
P.A. TAYLOR
Department ofE arth and Atmospheric Science,
York University, Toronto, Canaoo
Reprinted from Bound£lry-Layer Meteorology
Volume 78 Nos. 1-4, 1996
SPRlNGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.Y.
A C.l.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-4740-3 ISBN 978-94-017-0944-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-0944-6
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1996
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial
P. TAYLOR, M. THOMAS, E. TRUHLAR and D. WHELPDALE /
R.E. (Ted) Munn - Founding Editor; A Mini-Biography 3-8
J. R. GARRATT, G. D. HESS, W. L. PHYSICK and P. BOUGEAULT / The
Atmospheric Boundary Layer - Advances in Knowledge and
Application 9-37
A. P. VAN ULDEN and J. WIERINGA / Atmospheric Boundary Layer
Research at Cabauw 39-69
J. C. WYNGAARD and L. J. PELTIER / Experimental Micrometeorology in
an Era of Turbulence Simulation 71-86
L. MAHRT / The Bulk Aerodynamic Formulation over Heterogeneous
Surfaces 87-119
S. D. SMITH, K. B. KATSAROS, W. A. OOST and P. G. MESTAYER /
The Impact of the Hexos Programme 121-141
X. -M. CAI and D. G. STEYN / The Von Karman Constant Determined by
Large Eddy Simulation 143-164
A. BECKER, H. KRAUS and C. M. EWENZ / Frontal Substructures Within
the Planetary Boundary Layer 165-190
J. D. WILSON and B. L. SA WFORD / Review of Lagrangian Stochastic
Models for Trajectories in the Turbulent Atmosphere 191-210
Book Review
R. Geiger, R. H. Aron and P. Todhunter, The Climate Near the
Ground (R.E. MUNN) 211-212
ULF HaGSTROM / Review of Some Basic Characteristics of the Atmos-
ph eric Surface Layer 215-246
STUART D. SMITH, CHRISTOPHER W. FAIRALL, GERALD L.
GEERNAERT and LUTZ HASSE / Air-Sea Fluxes: 25 Years of
Progress 247-290
JOHN L. WALMSLEY and PETER A. TAYLOR / Boundary-Layer Flow
over Topography: Impacts of the Askervein Study 291-320
J.M. WILCZAK, E.E. GOSSARD, W.D. NEFF and W.L. EBERHARD /
Ground-Based Remote Sensing of the Atmospheric Boundary
Layer: 25 Years of Progress 321-349
M.R. RAUPACH, J,J. FINNIGAN and Y. BRUNET / Coherent Eddies and
Turbulence in Vegetation Canopies: The Mixing-Layer Analogy 351-382
OLEG V. PERESTENKO and LEV KH. INGEL I On an Instability
Mechanism in a Stably Stratified Atmospheric Layer over a
Moistened Surface 383-398
THOMAS K. FLESCH I The Footprint for Flux Measurements, from
Backward Lagrangian Stochastic Models 399-404
SVEN-ERIK GRYNING and EKATERINA BATCHVAROVA I A Model
for the Height of the Internal Boundary Layer over an Area with an
Irregular Coastline 405-413
Author Index 415
Subject Index 417
EDITORIAL
Boundary-Layer Meteorology (the journal not the subject!) started in 1970. This
Anniversary Volume, in two double issues, is to celebrate the first twenty-five years
of publication under Ted Munn's editorship, as a "Festschrift" in Ted's honour, and
to mark the occasion of his retirement as Editor-in-Chief.
As the new Co-Editors, we have much to thank Ted for. Under his founding
editorship the journal has developed a well-established international reputation,
a steady supply of good quality submissions and an active and knowledgeable
editorial board. We hope we can follow his lead, although as the careful editorial
reader will note we are not always following his (or Francois Frenkiel's) advice
(Boundary-Layer Meteorology 50, ix-x) on publication in our own journal. In our
defence we should point out that where one of us appears as an author on an article
- as in the present volume - then the other deals with the review in exactly the
same way as for other submissions. We try to be no less, and no more, critical of
each other's work than we are of papers in general.
It is only 6 years since the appearance of the Volume 50 anniversary issue and
many of the review papers published therein are still fresh. For this reason we have
not sought to provide a comprehensive set of review articles but have solicited or
selected a mix of review and research articles, a number of which also try to look
ahead to the challenges of the next quarter century. With all of these papers, many
of the authors will be well-known to BLM readers, and quite a few are closely
associated with the journal editorial team itself. The papers, we believe, cover a
wide spectrum of interests; for example, field experiments (Askervein, HEXOS,
Cabauw) and their impacts; numerical modelling (large-eddy simulation of the
surface layer, frontal structures); analyses and critical discussions of old favourites
(the von Karman constant, bulk aerodynamic formulation; vegetation canopies);
and reviews, or previews (ABL progress, micrometeorology and turbulence simu
lation, Lagrangian descriptions, remote sensing). And finally, we all have a golden
opportunity of seeing Ted Munn's editorship in the context of his broader career
activities - there is a short, but we hope informative, biography of him starting on
the next page.
JOHN GARRAIT AND PETER TAYLOR
Boundary-Layer Meteorology 78: 1, 1996.
R. E. (TED) MUNN - FOUNDING EDITOR; A MINI-BIOGRAPHY
PETER TAYLOR 1, MORLEY THOMAS2, ED TRUHLAR3 and DOUG WHELPDALE4
1D epartment of Earth and Atmospheric Science, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada;
2CMOSIAES Historian, AES, 4905 Dufferin Street, Downsview, Ontario, Canada; 31350 Glen
Rutley Circle, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; 4Atmospheric Environment Service, 4905 Dufferin
Street, Downsview, Ontario, Canada
(Received in finalfonn 13 October, 1995)
Abstract. Ted Munn founded Boundary-Layer Meteorology in 1970 and served as Editor for 75
volumes over a 25 year period, This short article briefly reviews Ted's scientific career with the
Atmospheric Environment Service (of Canada), the International Institute for Applied Systems Anal
ysis in Austria and with the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto, and as
editor of this journal.
1. Foreword
Editing a journal such as Boundary-Layer Meteorology might seem to be a fairly
simple, straightforward task, but, as with many other "part-time" jobs, it is not
as easy, and often far more time-consuming than it appears. Ted Munn was the
editor of Boundary-Layer Meteorology since its foundation in 1969-1970 until
his recent decision to step down - at age 75. Ted managed to combine journal
editorship with his many other duties (as Senior Scientist with the Atmospheric
Environment Service of Canada in the early 1970s, as Deputy Director of IIASA in
Laxenburg, Austria from 1985 to 1989, and now as an Associate with the Institute
for Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto), by setting aside the early
morning hours, from 5 to 7.30 a.m. for editing and proofreading. A parallel goal
during these early morning hours was, and still is, to read, in strict sequence and
from cover to cover, the Times newspaper, flown daily from London. Despite his
good intentions, the reading is usually a few days and occasionally a few weeks
late, but still provides excellent and timely resource material for his graduate course
on environmental change.
Ted's "system" for running BLM, from his University of Toronto office, con
sisted of a filing cabinet, several packs of file cards and some sturdy rubber bands.
Although well versed in modem computer-based approaches, as we can learn from
a light-hearted addendum to his curriculum vitae indicating attendance at five
wordprocessing courses, Ted's simple, manual system was ideal for an editor-in
chief with legible hand-writing, and who ran all editorial aspects of the journal
more or less single handedly. Maintaining the system, dealing with manuscripts
received, referee reports and other, always concise, correspondence were some
how squeezed into any gaps in the remainder of his day. The net effect was a well
organised, efficient, editorial operation.
Boundary-Layer Meteorology 78: 3-8, 1996.
© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
4 PETER TAYLOR ET AL.
Figure 1. Photo of Ted Munn taken at Kluwer Academic Publishers in Dordrecht during a 1995 visit
to recognise his 25 years as Editor-in-Chief.
2. Some Biographical Details
This article forms part of a special issue of Boundary-Layer Meteorology to cele
brate Ted's 25 years as Editor-in-Chief and to thank him for his contribution to our
field. We will here provide a brief, and certainly incomplete, biographical sketch
for readers who may not be familiar with his career.
Robert Edward Munn was born July 26th, 1919 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Cana
da. His family soon moved to Ontario and he went to school in St. Catharines,
in the Niagara peninsula. He graduated in 1941 from McMaster University (in
Hamilton, Ontario and one of Canada's oldest and most respected colleges) with
a BA in Mathematics. He soon joined the Meteorological Division of the Cana
dian Department of Transport, forerunner of the Atmospheric Environment Ser
vice (AES). At that time in Canada meteorologists were recruited from university
physics and mathematics programmes and then trained as weather forecasters in
"short courses". Ted enrolled in Short Course #3, followed by postings to flying
and training schools at Dunnville, Ontario and Rivers, Manitoba. In 1942 Ted
enrolled in Advanced Course #3 - which also contributed to his University of
R. E. (TED) MUNN - FOUNDING EDIWR 5
Toronto M.A. degree (1946), before being posted as a forecaster (Meteorologist,
Grade 1) to Gander, Newfoundland. This, of course, was during World War II
when forecasting was far different from today, where global data and NWP model
guidance are readily available. Ted's duties included forecasting for trans-Atlantic
aircraft ferry operations and North Atlantic operational patrols. A colleague from
that period (Gordon McKay) reported that Ted's literary interests were apparent at
that time since, in Gander, "Ted was never seen without a copy of the New Yorker
in his pocket". Ted also claimed to be a connoisseur of Gander's "home-brew" but
another contemporary (John Knox) comments that "the beer was good, but hardly
that good".
After the war, in 1948, Ted moved to the Public Weather Office in Halifax. There
he wrote his first published paper, a 1949 AES Technical Circular - "A survey of
the persistence of precipitation at Halifax". Among his other articles was one
which provided serious challenges for the typesetting and drafting personnel-"A
graphical method for forecasting ceiling and visibility as applied to Torbay airport,
Newfoundland". In 1956 he won a competition to become an air pollution research
meteorologist in Windsor, Ontario, where he was seconded to a project with the
Canada-US International Joint Commission. Windsor is just across the river from
Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor's air quality is strongly affected by emissions from
Detroit and the Ohio valley. Shortly afterwards, Ted commenced part-time studies
at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) under Gerry Gill, Don Portman and
Wendell Hewson. These led (in 1961) to his PhD thesis on intermediate-range
Lagrangian diffusion modelling, and perhaps with more impact, to the publication
of his first book, Descriptive Micrometeorology. This appeared in 1966 but had
its origins in a course at Ann Arbor where the instructor (Don Portman) had
complained bitterly about the lack of a suitable text. Descriptive micrometeorology
indeed filled a need for an English language text in this area as an alternative to
Sutton's rather theoretical treatment (Micrometeorology, McGraw-Hill, 1953) and
Geiger's classic climatological textbook (The Climate near the Ground, originally
published in German in 1927 with the English version of the 4th edition published
by Harvard University Press in 1966). Significant advances, especially the general
acceptance ofMonin-Obukhov similarity theory, had occurred after the publication
of Sutton's and Geiger's books, and Descriptive Micrometeorology-which actually
has far more numbers, equations and theory than the title might suggest - includes
a good introduction to these developments. It was certainly a timely publication
and served as the primary text for many university courses for several years.
In 1959 Ted moved to Toronto to head the new Micrometeorology section being
established by Transport Canada's Meteorological Branch. From this group he pub
lished extensively throughout the 1960s and 1970s, in the Quarterly Journal of the
Royal Meteorological Society, the Journal of Applied Meteorology, Atmospheric
Environment and elsewhere. His papers focused on air pollution, turbulence and
micro-and meso-scale meteorology, including lake-breeze studies and urban heat
island effects. He had good, productive colleagues during this period and solid
6 PETER TAYLOR ET AL.
technical support. John McLernon deserves a special mention. Ted was eager to
instrument and collect data from a network of tall towers in and around Toronto.
As well as being an excellent instrument maker, John "would climb anything" and
became a key member of Ted's section, inter alia installing an anemometer on the
very top of the world's tallest free-standing structure at the time (the CN tower in
Toronto). The group participated significantly in the International Field Year on the
Great Lakes, in dispersion studies at proposed nuclear reactor sites, an assessment
of the optical "seeing" of a proposed new telescope in the Canadian Rockies, back
ground meso-meteorological studies for the Toronto Zoo and many other national
and international activities. Apart from a year's "sabbatical" as a visiting professor
at the University of Stockholm in 1970-71, Ted remained with AES until 1977,
trying to avoid too much involvement with day-to-day management but exerting
considerable influence as Chief Scientist of the Air Quality Research Branch. In
particular we note a considerable broadening of the mandate and an expansion of
that branch under the guidance of Mike Kwizak (Director) and Ted Munn (Chief
Scientist) .
In 1977 Ted "retired" from AES (at age 58 and having given 35 years to
public service) and began a new career, initially on a Rockefeller Foundation
grant, with the University of Toronto's Institute for Environmental Studies. His
book, Biometeorological Methods, had appeared in 1970 and from that time he
became more and more concerned with Environmental Policy, Risk Assessment
and Sustainable Development. In these fields he was able to use his experience in
evaluating and synthesising scientific research results and in many instances served
as an interpreter of these results for the broader. non-scientific audience of policy
makers.
Ted was a Visitor at Chelsea College, London in 1979 and later served as Leader
of the Environmental Program and Deputy Director at the International Institute
for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria from 1985 to 1988.
This assigment was unusual in that Ted Munn had carefully avoided management
at AES. He is said to have treated it in a rather cavalier style but appears to have
been fascinated by the challenges involved in the integration of a diverse group
of researchers, from ten countries, working on a broad range of topics. Ted. and
his wife, Joyce are ardent music and art enthusiasts so the chance to spend a
few years in Vienna must also have had some appeal. Rumour has it that Joyce's
contributions to IIASA through her voluntary role as English teacher to the wives
of Eastern European researchers were at least as important as Ted's managemcnt
work in cementing East-West relations.
Since his return to the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of
Toronto Ted has been as active as ever, focusing on long-term global change and
global environmental issues. He claims to do little or no original research these
days but he certainly contributes frequently to interdisciplinary syntheses and
publishes frequently in joumals such as Science of the Total Environment, Atmo
spheric Environment and the International Journal of Environmental Monitoring