Large Eddy Simulations of Tall Vegetated Canopies: Heterogeneous Canopies (Gaps), Part 1

Salmaso, Giulia; Calaf, Marc

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Large Eddy Simulations of Tall Vegetated Canopies: Heterogeneous Canopies (Gaps), Part 1

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The simulations associated with this dataset form part of a broader investigation into the effects of heterogeneity in tall vegetated canopies, designed to emulate structural and aerodynamic characteristics of the Amazon rainforest. All cases are forced by a geostrophic wind of 9 m s⁻¹ under neutrally stratified conditions. The vegetated canopy configurations feature a vegetation cover with circular gaps composed of bare soil that are randomly distributed over the domain. The numerical value in each gap case name corresponds to the diameter of the gaps, D, expressed in meters after multiplication by a factor of 100. Thus: the configuration labeled “Gap_4_9mps” refers to gaps with D = 400 m, the configuration labeled “Gap_8_9mps” refers to gaps with D = 800 m, and the configuration labeled “Gap_12_9mps” refers to gaps with D = 1200 m. Across all configurations, the canopy height is fixed at hc = 39 m, and the vegetation is characterized by a vertically distributed leaf area density, with a Leaf Area Index (LAI) of 7.05. Simulations were conducted using a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) domain of size (Lx, Ly, Lz) = (2π, 2π, 1) km, where x, y, and z denote the streamwise, spanwise, and vertical directions. The computational grid consists of (Nx, Ny, Nz) = (256,256,256) points, yielding a spatial resolution of (Δx, Δy, Δz) = (24.5, 24.5, 3.9) m. An aerodynamic roughness length of z0 = 0.01 m is imposed at the surface. Time integration employs a fixed time step of Δt = 0.05 s. Simulations are spun up for 25 h, and data are sampled over the final 5 h of integration. To facilitate data access, a MATLAB script (main_load_snapshots.m) and a supporting function (load_snaps.m) are provided. These scripts load the binary files and organize them into 4D arrays for subsequent analysis.

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