TY - JOUR
T1 - Diurnal and seasonal wind direction patterns within the Mountain-Valley Terrain near Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona.
AU - Balling, Robert
AU - Sutherland, J. L.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1988
Y1 - 1988
N2 - Surface and upper air wind measurements were taken over the past several years near Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona as a part of a multiyear visibility study in the region. Analyses of the wind direction data reveal the existence of two primary flow regimes throughout the diurnal cycle. At night, the wind directions show a propensity for southwesterly flow 180 m above the canyon floor; daytime surface winds are reversed with a strong northeasterly component. These two dominant surface patterns found throughout the year may be associated with return flow circulation from the expected wind pattern near the valley floor. However, a local wind pattern induced by temperature differences between bearby Lake Powell and the surrounding landscape may explain the observed patterns. During the summer season, a third regime apparently associated with afternoon convective mixing exhibits a secondary tendency for southwesterly winds. If the wind patterns recorded at the two Glen Canyon Dam sites are associated with return flow (as opposed to a lake induced circulation), the results from this investigation are similar to the wind fields from comparable observational and modeling studies.
AB - Surface and upper air wind measurements were taken over the past several years near Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona as a part of a multiyear visibility study in the region. Analyses of the wind direction data reveal the existence of two primary flow regimes throughout the diurnal cycle. At night, the wind directions show a propensity for southwesterly flow 180 m above the canyon floor; daytime surface winds are reversed with a strong northeasterly component. These two dominant surface patterns found throughout the year may be associated with return flow circulation from the expected wind pattern near the valley floor. However, a local wind pattern induced by temperature differences between bearby Lake Powell and the surrounding landscape may explain the observed patterns. During the summer season, a third regime apparently associated with afternoon convective mixing exhibits a secondary tendency for southwesterly winds. If the wind patterns recorded at the two Glen Canyon Dam sites are associated with return flow (as opposed to a lake induced circulation), the results from this investigation are similar to the wind fields from comparable observational and modeling studies.
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U2 - 10.1175/1520-0450(1988)027<0594:daswdp>2.0.co;2
DO - 10.1175/1520-0450(1988)027<0594:daswdp>2.0.co;2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0023744455
VL - 27
SP - 594
EP - 598
JO - Journal of Applied Meteorology
JF - Journal of Applied Meteorology
SN - 0894-8763
IS - 5 , May 1988
ER -