ACINN Graduate Seminar - SS 2026

2026-04-29 at 12:00 (on-line and on-site) in the seminar room

Turbulence Anisotropy in Anabatic Flows: Large-Eddy Simulations over Idealized Mountain Ridges

Andreas Rauchöcker

ACINN, University of Innsbruck

 

Anabatic winds are thermally-driven flows that develop over heated mountain slopes. These upslope winds develop when the air near the slope rises due to the along-slope component of the buoyancy force, driven by the horizontal temperature contrast between the heated slope-adjacent air and the cooler ambient air at the same elevation. Due to the temperature difference, a horizontal pressure gradient forces the air to rise along the slope. Anabatic flows have a distinct vertical structure, with a near-surface wind maximum and a jet-like profile.
According to Prandtl’s analytical model and data from numerical simulations, the strength and depth of the anabatic flow layer are sensitive to the slope angle. The slope angle has also been suspected as a potential driver of turbulence anisotropy based on measurement results. The impact of the slope angle on turbulence anisotropy, however, has not been investigated in numerical simulations so far. To address this gap, we used the Cloud Model 1 (CM1) to conduct high-resolution large-eddy simulations of anabatic flows above idealized ridges to evaluate the influence of ridge height, slope angle and slope curvature on turbulence anisotropy. Additional sensitivity tests investigated the impact of different background stratification and surface forcings on both the structure of the slope flow and turbulence anisotropy.

 

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