An analysis of vertical velocity spectra obtained in the bomex fair-weather, trade-wind boundary layer

Abstract

Spectra of vertical velocity fluctuations measured on board an aircraft flying over the sea along and across the wind during the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX) are stratified and composited according to estimates of the Monin-Obukhov stability length. This was done to test the hypothesis that a hierarchy of physical mechanisms, responding to wind shear and buoyancy, is active in the turbulent transfer processes of the oceanic subcloud layer. Despite the possibility that the data contain a heading-independent bias, it is concluded that a major change of eddy structure occurs over a narrow range of stability. This agrees well with an early theory on convection over land and observations of herring gull flight characteristics. The vertical variation of the spectral-composites compares favorably with other observations over land and sea. Physical models are suggested to explain the data. One of these models is in agreement with theoretical results concerning ringlike convection. The spectral data, which begin to lose confidence at about 10 km, suggest that a limiting size of eddies over the ocean is approximately twice the depth of the subcloud layer (in this case 600 m) regardless of the kind of eddy structure.