Multimedia Gallery
Simulation showing wind flow in and above virtual forest
This image is from a high-resolution wind model that calculated the speed and direction of wind flow in and above a virtual forest and the effects of the forest itself on the wind. In this sub-section of the forest, treetops are visualized as a green sheet, and leaves fill the space between the treetops and the ground (green floor) but are not illustrated. The white streamlines inside the forest canopy illustrate the direction of wind flow; side walls illustrate humidity (moist is white, dry blue); and the back wall shows the pattern of air temperature (hot is red, cold blue).
More about this image
This simulation illustrated a special pattern of wind in the forest called momentum ejection. It is caused by wind being pushed from above into the canopy, which in turn pushes moist and warm air upward, outside of the canopy and into the atmosphere above. Momentum ejections are the major way in which moisture and heat, released from the leaves into the canopy air, are mixed with the atmosphere above the forest. Using this computer model, Gil Bohrer at The Ohio State University discovered that the structure of the forest and the location of gaps within it changed the locations and strength at which these momentum ejections happened.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants DEB 0453665, DEB 0918869 and DEB 0911461.] (Date of image: unknown)
Credit: Gil Bohrer, The Ohio State University
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