Intermittency and Monin-Obukhov Scaling of Turbulence in the Marine Atmospheric Surface Layer Observed during CASPER-East

The Monin-Obukhov (MO) similarity theory continues to be the most widely used conceptual framework for the physical and quantitative characterization of turbulent earth-atmosphere and ocean-atmosphere exchange processes. Therefore, the MO theory is essential for the observation, theoretical analysis and prediction of turbulence, weather and climate, and for electromagnetic and electro-optical (EM/EO) propagation through the turbulent atmosphere.

Here we present and discuss turbulent fluxes estimated from fluctuations of 3D wind velocity, air temperature, and humidity measured with a fast-response, integrated, in-situ sensing system (IRGASON) mounted on the bow mast of the research vessel Hugh R. Sharp during the CASPER-East campaign conducted in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina in the fall of 2015. These turbulence measurements are supported by collocated radiometric observations of the sea surface temperature, by slow-response in-situ measurements of wind, temperature, and humidity, and by measurements collected on other platforms, including the Marine Air-Sea Flux System (MASFlux) and the Marine Atmospheric Profiling System (MAPS).

We will address the following questions: To what extent are the observed flux-gradient and flux-profile relationships consistent with the MO theory? How, and to what extent, do the observed fluxes vary with the length of the data segments from which the fluxes are estimated? What are the relative roles of measurement errors and atmospheric intermittency for the “scatter” of the flux estimates and of the retrieved MO similarity functions?