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A general method for the linear stability analysis of stratified shear flows
Author(s) -
Mobbs S. D.,
Darby M. S.
Publication year - 1989
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.49711548808
Subject(s) - radiosonde , stability (learning theory) , instability , geology , stratified flow , meteorology , shear flow , stratified flows , flow (mathematics) , mathematics , computer science , mechanics , geometry , physics , turbulence , machine learning
A general method for testing the stability of a stratified, parallel shear flow is presented. The technique allows the routine determination of unstable modes from any high resolution radiosonde data and is a development of the procedure described by Lalas and Einaudi. Stability analyses of several idealized velocity profiles have been performed in order to validate the method. A particularly important feature is the ability to predict marginally unstable modes with more than one critical level; several examples are presented. An example using real radiosonde data is given.