Intercomparison of Aircraft Measurements of the Turbulence Properties of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer

D P Rogers and P M Norris
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
La Jolla, CA 92093-0230
Tel 619534 6412
C A Friehe and B W Berger
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Irvine, CA 92717
D W Johnson, G M Martin and J P Taylor
MRF
Meteorological Office
DRA Farnborough
Hants, England, GU14 6TD

ABSTRACT



In the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) the UKMO Meteorological Research Flight's C-130 aircraft and the NCAR Electra aircraft made extensive, coordinated measurements of the turbulence, microphysical and radiative structure of the cloud-topped marine boundary layer. The aircraft were used to provide, on occasion, simultaneous measurements at different heights within the boundary layer, horizontally separated simultaneous measurements, and temporally separated measurements within a single airmass. Thus direct intercomparison of the mean and turbulence measurements obtained by these platforms is an essential component of the analysis of these data.

Here we compare the standard meteorological parameters; temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction, vertical velocity, liquid water, and the total water and derive the variances of these parameters and the covariances related to the fluxes of heat, moisture and momentum.



|Home | FIRE I | FIRE II | FIRE III | FIRE IV CRYSTAL