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Turbulence measurements over the sea by a tethered‐balloon technique
Author(s) -
Thompson N.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49709841804
Subject(s) - turbulence , buoyancy , heat flux , atmospheric sciences , humidity , flux (metallurgy) , balloon , mechanics , boundary layer , environmental science , wind speed , momentum (technical analysis) , meteorology , clear air turbulence , planetary boundary layer , physics , turbulence kinetic energy , materials science , heat transfer , cardiology , finance , economics , metallurgy , medicine
Turbulent fluctuations of wind, temperature and humidity at heights up to a few hundred metres have been measured over the open sea by instruments supported by a tethered balloon. Wave‐induced motion of the ship from which the balloon was flown produced unwanted contributions to the measured turbulence, but in light or moderate winds it has been possible to make allowances for these effects and to obtain useful estimates for vertical fluxes of heat and moisture: the calculated momentum fluxes in contrast appear less reliable and to obtain satisfactory values will require stabilization of the tethering point of the balloon cable. Some observations made in generally unstable conditions near OWS ‘J’ yield a value of (1.8 ± 0.7) × 10 −3 for C E in the bulk aerodynamic formulation for evaporation (E = ρC E (q 0 − q 10 )(U 10 − U 0 )) and suggest that compared to the vertical moisture flux the heat flux may often have an insignificant rǒle in determining the buoyancy flux and hence the turbulence structure in the bulk of the boundary layer.