ATLAS

About

Our vision is to observe, model, and simulate atmospheric turbulent processes through a rich database of high-resolution field data enabled by novel nano-scale measurement technologies. The goal of this research agenda is to enable the development of a spectrum of reduced-order models for turbulence representation optimally suited for the plethora of science and engineering problems facing society today and in the foreseeable future.

People

Faculty

Kelly Y. Huang

Kalsi Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
CV

Graduate Students

Filippo Pesenti

MS Student

Visiting Scholars

Milo

Professor in String Theory

Dusty

PhD Candidate in Materials Science

Papers

K. Y. Huang, T. J. Hintz, E. Kit, and H. J. S. Fernando, “An equilibrium radius of fog droplets in turbulent environments" (in prep).

T.J. Hintz, K. Y. Huang, S. W. Hoch, J. Ruiz-Plancarte, and H. J. S. Fernando, "A mechanism for coastal fog genesis at evening transition", Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (under review).

K. Y. Huang, M. K. Fu, C. Byers, G. G. Katul, and A. D. Bragg, Logarithmic scaling of higher-order temperature moments in the atmospheric surface layer, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow (2023).

K. Y. Huang, G. G. Katul, T. J. Hintz, J. Ruiz-Plancarte, and H. J. S. Fernando, Fog intermittency and criticality, Atmosphere (2023).

H.J.S. Fernando, S. Wang, K. Y. Huang, and E. Creegan, Fog-laden density staircases in marine atmospheric boundary layer, Environmental Fluid Mechanics (2023).

K. Y. Huang and G. G. Katul, Profiles of high-order moments of longitudinal velocity explained by the random sweeping decorrelation hypothesis, Physical Review Fluids (2022).

K. Y. Huang, G. G. Katul, and M. Hultmark, Velocity and temperature dissimilarity in the surface layer uncovered by the telegraph approximation, Boundary-Layer Meteorology (2021).

K. Y. Huang, C. E. Brunner, M. K. Fu, K. Kokmanian, T. Morrison, A. O. Perelet, M. Calaf, E. Pardyjak, and M. Hultmark, Investigation of the atmospheric surface layer using a novel high-resolution sensor array, Experiments in Fluids (2021).

Projects

Obtaining novel field measurements

Experimentally probing turbulent transport in the atmospheric surface layer (ASL) remains a challenge due to the lack of adequate tools to capture the wide range of scales. The smallest time and length scales in the atmosphere (~ 0.1 ms and ~1 mm) are often too fast or too small to be fully resolved by conventional field instruments (e.g. sonic anemometers that sample at ~20 Hz with a sensing length of 10 cm), resulting in significant attenuation of the turbulent fluctuations and especially their fluxes near the ground. To address this, we develop high-resolution, low-cost, and compact nanoscale sensing platforms that quantify velocity, temperature, humidity, and their turbulent fluxes at unprecedented scales.

Modeling/parametrizing turbulent processes

Our living spaces span a slew of ecosystems and terrains, making canonical turbulent behavior the exception rather than the norm. These complexities are hard to capture in numerical or experimental studies, prompting a need for high-resolution measurements in the ASL to validate and improve model parametrizations by grounding them to the physics of the real-world. Using novel nano-scale field sensors, we aim to obtain an expansive database of near-surface turbulent measurements over various landforms, sites, and thermal stabilities to validate and improve model parametrizations.

Innovative experimental facility

Many processes that occur in the ASL, meteorological or biological, rely on countless variables and their nonlinear interactions with each other. Hence, there is a need for controlled experiments that isolate individual processes in complex ASL phenomena. However, traditional wind tunnels typically yield low Reynolds numbers and thus turbulence that is not representative of the atmosphere. To better mimic atmospheric turbulent features, we develop a new environmental flow facility that uses an active grid with individually controlled paddles to impart coherent structures in time and space that echo relevant field observations.

Positions

We have an opening for one postdoctoral researcher at the moment (see ad below for details), and always welcome enthusiastic undergraduate researchers. If you are interested in joining our group, please reach out to Kelly at yhuang68(at)uh.edu!

Postdoctoral Researcher

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