Horizontal velocity structure functions in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere: 1. Observations
Name
ChoLindborg-2001.pdf
Description
Main article
Size
1.44 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
dc6d887091f2e8a09903648aa2b340bd
Author(s)
Cho, John Y. N.
Lindborg, Erik
Date Issued
September 5, 2017
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Cho, John Y. N., and Lindborg, Erik. “Horizontal Velocity Structure Functions in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere: 1. Observations.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 106, D10 (May 2001): 10223–10232 © 2001 American Geophysical Union
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We compute horizontal velocity structure functions using quasiglobal data accumulated by specially equipped commercial aircraft on 7630 flights from August 1994 to December 1997. Using the ozone concentration measurements, we classify the results as tropospheric or stratospheric. We further divide the results into four absolute latitude bands. For separation distance r between 10 and 100 km, the lower stratospheric diagonal third-order structure functions are proportional to negative r. This implies a downscale energy cascade, and we estimate the mean energy dissipation rate to be 〈ε〉 ≈ 6 × 10⁻⁵ m² s−³. For r between 300 and 1500 km, a positive r³ dependence was visible for the polar stratospheric data. This may be the result of a two-dimensional (2D) turbulence downscale enstrophy cascade, and we estimate the average enstrophy flux to be Πω ≈ 2 × 10⁻¹⁵ s−³ and the energy spectral constant to be κ ≈ 2. The negative sign of these third-order functions at mesoscales in both the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere provide no support for an inverse energy cascade 2D turbulence. At scales above ∼100 km, the second-order structure functions increase with latitude in the troposphere and decrease with latitude in the stratosphere. The off-diagonal third-order functions in the stratosphere show a remarkably clean negative r² dependency from 10 to 1000 km in scale.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
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.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900814
