Requirements for large-eddy simulation of surface wind gusts in a mountain valley

During the passage of a front, data from a light-weight cup anemometer and wind vane, sited in a steep-walled glacial valley of the Mt Cook region of the Southern Alps of New Zealand, were analysed to derive a power spectrum of the wind velocity for periods between 0.5 and 16 min. The energy spectrum roughly followed a -5/3 power law over the range of periods from 0.5–4 min — as might be expected in the case of an inertial subrange of eddies. However, any inertial subrange clearly does not extend to periods longer than this. We suggest that the observed eddies were generated in a turbulent wake associated with flow separation at the ridge crests, and large eddies are shed at periods of 4–8 min or more.