The Measurement of Atmospheric Stability from 30 to Approximately 90 KM

Abstract

Three years of wind and temperature data determined from grenade experiments at six sites are used in the calculation of the Richardson number Ri. The results show that, for a critical Richardson number of 1, there is quite often a turbulent region around 85 km at all latitudes. Furthermore, the winter polar mesospheric data indicate a more intense turbulence that do the summer data. There also appears a region of marginal stability (Ri about = 1) at or slightly above the stratopause which is more often present during the winter season than in the summer. Latitudinal and seasonal distributions of Richardson number, wind shears and estimates of heating rates due to viscous dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy are given.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1972
Accession Number
AD0748540

Entities

People

  • A. C. Faire
  • E. A. Murphy
  • S. P. Zimmerman

Organizations

  • Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Dissipation
  • Energy
  • Equatorial Regions
  • Heating
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Latitude
  • Regions
  • Richardson Number
  • Solar Heating
  • Turbulence
  • Turbulent Flow
  • Wind
  • Wind Shear

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Hydrologic Risk Analysis and Mitigation.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.