Open AccessSome inferences on turbulence generation by gravity waves
Author(s) -
Zink Florian,
Vincent Robert A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2003jd003992
Subject(s) - turbulence , physics , gravity wave , wave turbulence , gravitational wave , monte carlo method , mechanics , computational physics , wavenumber , k epsilon turbulence model , hydrostatic equilibrium , geophysics , meteorology , optics , astrophysics , astronomy , statistics , mathematics
We analyze data from 17 high‐resolution thermosonde observations during a campaign near Adelaide, Australia, in 1998. We are able to explain the observed turbulence fractions by extending the turbulence model of Hines [1991], which explains turbulence by instabilities due to freely propagating independent gravity waves, from the hydrostatic wave regime toward lower frequencies. In a Monte Carlo simulation we show that the dependency of the observed gravity wave spectrum on vertical wave number is also consistent with the distribution of turbulent layer thickness as observed by the high‐resolution thermosondes.