P4.24 Spectral Transfer of Temperature-Humidity Correlation for Inhomogeneous Turbulence for Ocean-Atmosphere-Land-Interaction

Wednesday, 7 April 1999
Sukaran Ram Patel, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Campina Grande, Brazil

nsfer term. The Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is one of the most powerful tools in describing the physical properties of the atmospheric boundary layer and now it is applied not only to the surface layer but also to well-mixed layer (Deardorft 1970), free convection layer (Wyngaard et al., 1971) and stable layer (Nieuwsdt 1984). Similarity relationship apply not only to the mean profiles or the meteorological parameters, but also to the statistical quantities and spectral behavior of turbulence (Kaimal et al., 1972). There are several studies of the similarity principle for horizontal homogeneous boundary layer but very few for horizontally inhomogeneous surface because of their obvious difficulties (Shao and Hacker 1990). To avoid these problems most field experiments have been performed in carefully chosen homogeneous conditions. But in fact the ocean-atmospheric-land-interactions occur in inhomogeneous surfaces. So, it is important to study the various aspects of the temperature-humidity correlation for ocean-atmosphere-land-interactions. In this study a correlation equation between temperature and humidity fluctuations is constructed and it is shown that even for a general inhomogeneous turbulence certain terms can be interpreted as a transfer term. In fact, several terms in the two-point spectral equation for homogeneous turbulence can be interpreted as spectral transfer terms. That is, they represent the net rate of energy transfer into a wavenumber region from all other wavenumbers. This is true for terms associated with both turbulence self-interaction (Batchelor 1953) and interaction between turbulence and mean gradients (Deissler 1961). However, it does not seem obvious that similar interpretation apply when the turbulence is not homogeneous. In particular one might question the interpretation for the terms associated with turbulence self interaction, since the condition of homogeneity is generally used in making the interpretation (Batchelor 1953). So, in this study a two-point correlation equation for temperature and humidity is constructed and using the method of Deissler (1981), it is shown that even for a general inhomogeneous turbulence certain terms in the two-point correlation spectrum equation can be interpreted as a tra
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