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dc.contributor.authorFerrari, Raffaele
dc.contributor.authorCallies, Joern
dc.contributor.authorBuhler, Oliver
dc.date.accessioned2015-06-15T18:04:53Z
dc.date.available2015-06-15T18:04:53Z
dc.date.issued2014-12
dc.date.submitted2014-06
dc.identifier.issn0027-8424
dc.identifier.issn1091-6490
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97429
dc.description.abstractMidlatitude fluctuations of the atmospheric winds on scales of thousands of kilometers, the most energetic of such fluctuations, are strongly constrained by the Earth’s rotation and the atmosphere’s stratification. As a result of these constraints, the flow is quasi-2D and energy is trapped at large scales—nonlinear turbulent interactions transfer energy to larger scales, but not to smaller scales. Aircraft observations of wind and temperature near the tropopause indicate that fluctuations at horizontal scales smaller than about 500 km are more energetic than expected from these quasi-2D dynamics. We present an analysis of the observations that indicates that these smaller-scale motions are due to approximately linear inertia–gravity waves, contrary to recent claims that these scales are strongly turbulent. Specifically, the aircraft velocity and temperature measurements are separated into two components: one due to the quasi-2D dynamics and one due to linear inertia–gravity waves. Quasi-2D dynamics dominate at scales larger than 500 km; inertia–gravity waves dominate at scales smaller than 500 km.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUnited States. Office of Naval Research (Grant ONR-N-00014-09-1-0458)en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant NSF-CMG-1024198)en_US
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherNational Academy of Sciences (U.S.)en_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1410772111en_US
dc.rightsArticle 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.en_US
dc.sourceNational Academy of Sciences (U.S.)en_US
dc.titleTransition from geostrophic turbulence to inertia–gravity waves in the atmospheric energy spectrumen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.citationCallies, Jorn, Raffaele Ferrari, and Oliver Buhler. “Transition from Geostrophic Turbulence to Inertia–gravity Waves in the Atmospheric Energy Spectrum.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 48 (November 17, 2014): 17033–17038.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentJoint Program in Chemical Oceanographyen_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciencesen_US
dc.contributor.departmentWoods Hole Oceanographic Institutionen_US
dc.contributor.mitauthorCallies, Joernen_US
dc.contributor.mitauthorFerrari, Raffaeleen_US
dc.relation.journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesen_US
dc.eprint.versionFinal published versionen_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dspace.orderedauthorsCallies, Jorn; Ferrari, Raffaele; Buhler, Oliveren_US
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2278-2811
mit.licensePUBLISHER_POLICYen_US
mit.metadata.statusComplete


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