Arid Zone Research ›› 2022, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (4): 997-1005.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2022.04.01

• Weather and Applied Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Aerodynamic parameters of typical underlying surfaces in an aeolian region in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River

ZHANG Zhengcai1(),ZHANG Yan1,2,MA Pengfei3,PAN Kaijia1,2,ZHA Duo4,Yixi Lamu4,Renqing Sangbu4   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CAS, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Tibet Climate Center, Lhasa 850000, Tibet, China
    4. Shannan Meteorological Bureau, Shannan 856000, Tibet, China
  • Received:2021-10-28 Revised:2022-04-01 Online:2022-07-15 Published:2022-09-26

Abstract:

Aerodynamic parameters are an important research focus in the study of aeolian areas. Some of the most severe aeolian damage occurs along the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet. The floodplains and shifting sand dunes are the main surface types and source areas of wind-sand degradation in this region. The study of aerodynamic parameters is conducive to the assessment of aeolian damage and the forecasting of sandstorms. For this reason, we examined aeolian processes in three surface types: river floodplain vegetation area (vegetation coverage > 20%), disturbed river floodplain vegetation area (vegetation coverage < 20%), and sand dune area (without any vegetation). The wind speed profile method was used to calculate the frictional wind speed (u*) and aerodynamic roughness (z0). The results showed the following: (1) The wind speed reduction amplitude near the ground layer was in the following order: vegetation area > disturbed vegetation area > sand dune area, and the wind speed reduction near the ground layer in the vegetation area was nearly twice that of the sand dune. (2) Although the near-surface wind speed profiles of different underlying surfaces can be expressed as log-linear functions (uz = bln(z) + a), the fitting parameters are different. (3) The averaged values of u* in the vegetation area, disturbed vegetation area, and sand dunes are 0.73, 0.59, and 0.36 m·s-1, respectively, and the averaged values of z0 are 7.1 × 10-2, 3.7 × 10-2, and 4.7 × 10-4 m, respectively. The u* and z0 of the vegetation area are approximately 2 and 150 times those of the sand dunes, respectively. (4) The u* of the vegetation area, disturbed vegetation area, and sand dunes all increased with increasing averaged wind speed, and the increase in amplitude is in the following order: vegetation area > disturbed vegetation area > sand dunes. (5) The responses of z0 to the average wind speed in the vegetation zone and the sand dunes are clearly different. The z0 of the vegetation area increased slowly with the increase in wind speed. The value of z0 in the sand dunes area has a decreasing trend at low wind speeds but begins to increase when the wind speed increases to a threshold value of 6.5 m·s-1.

Key words: Yarlung Zangbo River, wind speed profile, friction velocity, aerodynamics, roughness length