Project description
Understanding atmospheric turbulence in complex terrain and its role in weather and climate
A major force behind Earth's weather and climate is the interaction between the Earth's surface and atmosphere through turbulence. Understanding atmospheric turbulence is therefore vitally important, as it plays an important role in atmospheric processes driving climate, weather systems and dispersion of air pollution. Existing turbulence models are, however, based on homogeneous flat terrain, and are inadequate in more complex terrain. The EU-funded Unicorn project seeks to overcome this obstacle by developing a ground-breaking turbulence theory that can correctly describe turbulence in complex terrain. It will do this by applying a novel approach to identify key factors affecting turbulence in this type of terrain. The goal is to revolutionise near-surface turbulence models, improving predictions across a variety of scientific fields.
Objective
Atmospheric turbulence exerts a dominant control on the exchange of heat, CO2, water vapor, pollutants and momentum between the surface and the atmosphere, and therefore drives phenomena as diverse as climate, storm systems, air pollution, and glacial melt. Existing turbulence theory was developed for horizontally homogenous flat terrain, and fails in more complex terrain. Thus, for the majority of our planetary surface no viable theory of turbulence is available, and approaches that are known to be inadequate are nevertheless applied. The time is ripe to close this fundamental knowledge gap and formulate a theory universally applicable in complex terrain.
Unicorn addresses this using a synergy of measurements, numerical modelling and theory to create a novel framework extending the existing theory of near-surface turbulence to complex terrain. Based on the ground-breaking hypothesis that including the directionality of turbulent exchange (anisotropy) can encode the boundary conditions, Unicorn will identify the key physical processes that cause anisotropy in complex terrain to differ from that over flat terrain. Thus Unicorn will systematically explore the parameter space of different sources of complexity, such as topography, flow conditions and heterogeneity, using unprecedented analysis of over sixty measurement datasets over flat and complex terrain coupled with machine learning approaches, sensitivity studies using state-of-the-art high resolution numerical simulations, and reduced order theoretical derivations. This synergistic approach incorporating the effects of complex terrain into a framework based on turbulence anisotropy will bring a much-needed breakthrough for understanding turbulence in complex terrain. Findings will revolutionize near-surface turbulence representation in numerical models, leading to better predictive capability in numerous societally and scientifically relevant topics, such as climate, extreme weather and air pollution.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planetary geology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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6020 Innsbruck
Austria
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