Can the atmospheric kinetic energy spectrum be explained by two-dimensional turbulence?

Abstract

The statistical features of turbulence can be studied either through spectral quantities, such as the kinetic energy spectrum, or through structure functions, which are statistical moments of the difference between velocities at two points separated by a variable distance. In this paper structure function relations for two-dimensional turbulence are derived and compared with calculations based on wind data from 5754 airplane flights, reported in the MOZAIC data set. For the third-order structure function two relations are derived, showing that this function is generally positive in the two-dimensional case, contrary to the three-dimensional case. In the energy inertial range the third-order structure function grows linearly with separation distance and in the enstrophy inertial range it grows cubically with separation distance. A Fourier analysis shows that the linear growth is a reflection of a constant negative spectral energy flux, and the cubic growth is a reflection of a constant positive spectral enstrophy flux. Various relations between second-order structure functions and spectral quantities are also derived. The measured second-order structure functions can be divided into two different types of terms, one of the form r2/3, giving a k−5/3-range and another, including a logarithmic dependence, giving a k−3-range in the energy spectrum. The structure functions agree better with the two-dimensional isotropic relation for larger separations than for smaller separations. The flatness factor is found to grow very fast for separations of the order of some kilometres. The third-order structure function is accurately measured in the interval [30, 300] km and is found to be positive. The average enstrophy flux is measured as Πω≈1.8×10−13 s−3 and the constant in the k−3-law is measured as [Kscr ]≈0.19. It is argued that the k−3-range can be explained by two-dimensional turbulence and can be interpreted as an enstrophy inertial range, while the k−5/3-range can probably not be explained by two-dimensional turbulence and should not be interpreted as a two-dimensional energy inertial range.

Nonlinear Superposition of Direct and Inverse Cascades in Two-Dimensional Turbulence Forced at Large and Small Scales

“…Using these hypotheses, a careful analysis along the lines of [10,28,30] justifies in the range ℓ ≪ r ≪ L, the expansion…”

The definition of ‘truth’ for Numerical Weather Prediction error statistics

“…Fortunately, for many atmospheric conditions (Gage, 1979;Nastrom and Gage, 1985;Lindborg, 1999;Wikle et al, 1999;Cho and Lindborg, 2001;Lindborg and Cho, 2001;Lenschow and Sun, 2007;Riley and Lindborg, 2008) there is a robust scaling of turbulence in the horizontal plane that connects the resolved scales of the NWP models to the subgrid scale turbulence statistics. More work is required to extend these results to other atmospheric conditions, such as the night-time residual layer and stable boundary layers.…”

“…An example is shown in Figure 1 for the Global Forecast System (GFS) model at 250 hPa pressure altitude and a latitude band of 40 • -50 • N over CONUS, which provides the best match to the high-density ACARS aircraft data over the same domain (note that past results (Lindborg, 1999) are based on unknown averaging domains which have similar scaling laws). There is excellent agreement between the predictions of the effective square filter with L = 150 km and the GFS average structure function, even though the GFS grid is not exactly square.…”

Impact of Medium Randomness on Radar Detection Accuracy With Plane E-Wave Polarization

“…Random medium condition in Equation (3) assumes that the randomness intensity, B, is low enough such that the medium has a quite small number of particles, which leads to having large separations, ρ, among particles. In [22], it was demonstrated that D agrees better with the two-dimensional isotropic relation for wider ρ among particles than for narrower ρ. It was deduced that a random medium can be assumed as a two-dimensional turbulence in the enstrophy inertial range.…”