Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations
[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 tha...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110975 |
| _version_ | 1826189526782967808 |
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| author | Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. Anderson, Bruce E. Barrick, John D. W. Thornhill, K. Lee |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. Anderson, Bruce E. Barrick, John D. W. Thornhill, K. Lee |
| author_sort | Cho, John Y. N. |
| collection | MIT |
| 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:16:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110975 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:16:14Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1109752022-09-23T12:03:24Z Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. Anderson, Bruce E. Barrick, John D. W. Thornhill, K. Lee Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cho, John Y. N. Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. [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. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NCC1-415) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG1-2306) 2017-08-18T14:51:10Z 2017-08-18T14:51:10Z 2003-08 2002-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0148-0227 2156-2202 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110975 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 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002820 Journal of Geophysical Research 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. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) Cho |
| spellingShingle | Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. Anderson, Bruce E. Barrick, John D. W. Thornhill, K. Lee Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title | Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title_full | Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title_fullStr | Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title_short | Characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| title_sort | characterizations of tropospheric turbulence and stability layers from aircraft observations |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110975 |
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