Vertical wind shears, turbulence and non‐turbulence in the troposphere and stratosphere
- 1 October 1980
- journal article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 7 (10) , 749-752
- https://doi.org/10.1029/gl007i010p00749
Abstract
A theoretical calculation is made of σ(h), the standard deviation of vertical wind shears, in terms of the turbulence energy dissipation rate ε and Brunt‐Väisälä frequency ωB. This calculation provides a theoretical basis for the empirical power law relation σ(h) = A hm obtained by rocket and balloon wind soundings; it also provides a scaling of σ(h) with atmospheric conditions. The intervals h ranging from about 50m to 1000m are determined by buoyancy subrange turbulence, and smaller shear intervals are determined by inertial subrange turbulence. The theoretical σ(h) allows ε to be predicted from vertical wind soundings in the troposphere and stratosphere. The predicted value of ε in the troposphere agrees with the value obtained by Kung. However, the predicted stratospheric value of ε is larger than obtained by Lilly et al. from HICAT flights. This discrepancy in stratospheric ε is attributed to non‐turbulent, low frequency, short scale, quasi‐horizontal motions of the stratosphere; motions that contribute to vertical wind soundings but not to gust measurements by horizontal HICAT flights.This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Stochastic simulation of vertically nonhomogeneous gustsPublished by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) ,1976
- Stratospheric Mixing Estimated from High-Altitude Turbulence MeasurementsJournal of Applied Meteorology, 1974
- Small-scale wind shear definition for aerospace vehicle design.Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 1972
- Structure of Vertical Wind ProfilesRadio Science, 1969
- Waves and Turbulence in Stably Stratified FluidsRadio Science, 1969
- Power spectrum, structure function, vertical wind shear, and turbulence in troposphere and stratosphereArchiv für Meteorologie, Geophysik und Bioklimatologie Serie A, 1969
- Wind Shear for Small Thickness LayersJournal of Applied Meteorology, 1966
- LARGE-SCALE BALANCE OF KINETIC ENERGY IN THE ATMOSPHEREMonthly Weather Review, 1966
- The Spectrum of Nearly Inertial Turbulence in a Stably Stratified FluidJournal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 1964
- On the derivation of frequency distributions of vector wind shear values for small shear intervalsPure and Applied Geophysics, 1963