Abstract
Every problem involving atmospheric turbulence and diffusion requires, for its solution, some estimate of an outer time or space scale of the flow, and this need is more keenly felt the larger the physical scale of the problem involved. Meteorologists have argued since Richardson's studies that the outer scale of atmospheric turbulence is effectively infinite and it can therefore be chosen for experimental convenience or to match a numerical grid. Experimental evidence bearing on this problem is reviewed, including historical and recent diffusion experiments, the spreading of large clouds of various kinds in the troposphere and recent aircraft measurements of power spectra. It is concluded that the outer scale of tropospheric turbulence is finite, but very large, on the order of the time scale of the planetary rotation.
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