Atmospheric Mesostructure and Clear Air Turbulence

Download or read book Atmospheric Mesostructure and Clear Air Turbulence written by Gary J. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mesoscale atmospheric structure in and around regions of clear air turbulence (CAT) is investigated. It is shown that the formation and dissipation of clear air turbulence at several different altitudes is closely related to changes in the atmospheric mesostructure. The turbulence is located in the region of two sloping boroclinic zones and can be attributed to Kelvin-Helmholtz instability resulting from strong wind directional oscillations between these two stable layers. The meteorological sounding data reveal that the lower stable layer and the layer of strong directional oscillations undergo significant upward vertical displacement. The change in turbulence activity can be directly correlated with this motion, and the breakdown of the turbulence and the double stability structure occur almost simultaneously. (Author).