Abstract:Thermally-driven organized convection is the most prominent structural feature of the daytime convective boundary layer (CBL). Different from inertial-subrange turbulent eddies, organized convection is vertically coherent at the boundary layer scale, and can contributes to nonlocal vertical transport of mass and energy within the CBL. In this study, we investigate turbulent mixing of momentum in the CBL, with a focus on the role of organized convection in momentum transport. Based on modeled CBL with high resolution large-eddy simulations, organized convection and background turbulence are separated by using Fourier transform, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Empirical Mode Decomposition. The nonlocal and local fluxes associated with organized convection and background turbulence are calculated. It is found that nonlocal flux constitutes a significant portion of the total momentum flux, and dominates the transport of momentum in the mixed layer. The mechanism behind organized convective structures affect the transport of momentum is investigated based on momentum co-spectrum and phase-spectrum. Analyses reveal that convective cells generated under strong buoyancy forcing are inefficient at transporting momentum. In the near neutral environment with strong wind shear, convection organizes into horizontal roll vortices, which reduce the phase difference between vertical and horizontal streamwise perturbation velocities, thus improving the efficiency of momentum transport. This study suggests that planetary boundary layer schemes must include nonlocal momentum flux, whose parameterization should consider the influence of bulk CBL stability on momentum transport efficiency.