Observational evidence of local turbulence production due to gravity wave saturation in the summer mesosphere |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Social Work, College of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA;2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD;3. University of Minnesota Medical School, Twin Cities Campus, Twin Cities, MN;4. Maryland State Department of Education, Baltimore, MD;5. Distinguished Fellow, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC |
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| Abstract: | Five foil chaff and two falling sphere rockets flown during the MAC/SINE Campaign on 15 July 1987 at Andenes, Northern Norway (69°17′N). From these rocket measurements, turbulent energy dissipation rates, vertical wind shears and Richardson numbers as functions of height were derived in the range from 82 to 92km. Turbulent energy dissipation rates generally range from 1.4 × 10?5 to 2.0 × 10?2W/kg and are consistent with other experiments performed at the same latitude. Strong wind shears of the order of 50–90 m/s/km are observed at various heights. Good correspondence between turbulence intensity peaks, regions of strong wind shear and low Richardson number is found. Vertical wavenumber spectra of the five scalar winds measured by the foil chaff rockets indicate that there is an excellent agreement with the saturation hypothesis, suggesting that the turbulence intensity peaks measured in this salvo are linked directly to the saturation of gravity wave motions via dynamical instabilities. |
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