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Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations

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dc.contributor Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
dc.contributor Cho, John Y. N.
dc.contributor Cho, John Y. N.
dc.contributor Newell, Reginald E.
dc.creator Cho, John Y. N.
dc.creator Newell, Reginald E.
dc.creator Anderson, Bruce E.
dc.creator Barrick, John D. W.
dc.creator Thornhill, K. Lee
dc.date 2017-08-18T14:51:10Z
dc.date 2017-08-18T14:51:10Z
dc.date 2003-08
dc.date 2002-12
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T18:10:23Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T18:10:23Z
dc.identifier 0148-0227
dc.identifier 2156-2202
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110975
dc.identifier Cho, John Y. N. et al. “Characterizations of Tropospheric Turbulence and Stability Layers from Aircraft Observations.” Journal of Geophysical Research 108, D20 (October 2003): 5 © 2003 American Geophysical Union
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/279024
dc.description [1] Velocity, temperature, and specific humidity data collected by aircraft at 20-Hz resolution are analyzed for stability and turbulence parameters. Over 100 vertical profiles (mostly over the ocean) with a total of over 300 km in vertical airspace sampled are used. The compiled statistics show that anisotropy in the velocity fluctuations prevail down to the smallest spatial separations measured. A partitioning of convective versus dynamical instability indicates that in the free troposphere, the ratio of shear-produced turbulence to convectively produced turbulence increases from roughly 2:1 for weak turbulence (ϵ < 10⁻⁴ m² s⁻³) to perhaps 3:1 for strong turbulence (ϵ > 10⁻⁴ m² s⁻³). For the boundary layer, this ratio is close to 1:1 for weak turbulence and roughly 2:1 for strong turbulence. There is also a correlation between the strength of the vertical shear in horizontal winds and the turbulence intensity. In the free troposphere the turbulence intensity is independent of the degree of static stability, whereas in the boundary layer the turbulence intensity increases with a fall in static stability. Vertical humidity gradients correlate with static stability for strong humidity gradients, which supports the basic notion that stable layers impede vertical mixing of trace gases and aerosols. Vertical shear correlates with vertical humidity gradient, so it appears that the effect of differential advection creating tracer gradients dominates the effect of differential advection destroying tracer gradients through shear-induced turbulence.
dc.description United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NCC1-415)
dc.description United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG1-2306)
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language en_US
dc.publisher American Geophysical Union (AGU)
dc.relation http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002820
dc.relation Journal of Geophysical Research
dc.rights Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
dc.source Cho
dc.title Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations
dc.type Article
dc.type http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle


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