An Analysis of the Wintertime Diurnal Wind Variation and Turbulent Characteristics over Yongpyong Alpine Slope

A 3D sonic anemometer has been installed at Yongpyong alpine slope since Oct. 23th 2014 to observe the slope winds and to analyze turbulent characteristics with the change in surface cover (grass and snow) and the synoptic wind strength. Eddy covariance method has been applied to calculate the turbulent quantity after coordinate transformation of a planar-fit rotation. We have carefully selected 3 good episodes in the winter season (23 October 2014 to 28 February 2015) for each category (9 days in total), such as grass and snow covers in case of weak synoptic wind condition, and grass cover of strong synoptic wind. The diurnal variations of the slope winds were well developed like the upslope wind in the daytime and downslope wind in the nighttime for both surface covers (grass and snow) in the weak synoptic forcing, when accordingly both heat and momentum fluxes significantly increased in the daytime and decreased in the nighttime. Meanwhile, diurnal variation of heat flux was not present on the snow cover probably in associated with significant fraction of sunlight reflection due to high albedo especially during the daytime in comparison to those on the grass cover. In the strong synoptic regime, the most dominant feature at Yongpyong, only the southeasterly downslope winds were steadily generated irrespective of day and night with significant increases in momentum flux and turbulent kinetic energy as well, which could suggest that local circulations are suppressed by the synoptic scale forcing. In spite of only one season analysis applied to the limited domain, this kind of an observation-based study will provide the basis for understanding of the local wind circulation in the complex mountain domain such as Gangwon in Korea.