OUTER SCALES OF TEMPERATURE TURBULENCE AND DYNAMIC TURBULENCE FROM THE DATA OF ACOUSTIC SOUNDING OF THE ATMOSPHERE

摘要

The outer scale of turbulence plays an important role in the theory of atmospheric turbulence. It specifies the low-frequency boundary of the inertial subrange of fluctuation spectra of the atmospheric meteorological parameters, is used to construct models of the atmospheric turbulence and to estimate the excess turbulent attenuation of waves in the atmosphere. Outer scales of the wind velocity, temperature, humidity, and ozone concentration were previously determined, in particular, from direct airborne measurements of the spectral power density of these parameters, and their dependences on the altitude above the underlying surface, its properties, and type of the atmospheric stratification were demonstrated. For optical radiation propagating in the surface layer, the outer scale of temperature turbulence was determined from measurements of the variance of phase fluctuations of optical waves propagating along the near-ground paths. Unlike the optical waves, the acoustic wave propagation in the atmospheric boundary layer is influenced simultaneously by the temperature fluctuations caused by thermal convection and by the velocity fluctuations (dynamic turbulence caused by the wind shear). Their relative contributions depend on the ratio of the outer scales of the dynamic turbulence and temperature turbulence. In the present work, a method of simultaneous acoustic sounding of the outer scales of dynamic turbulence and temperature turbulence is suggested, and combined influence of these parameters on the acoustic wave propagation is estimated. Temporal dynamics of vertical profiles of the outer scales of dynamic turbulence and temperature turbulence is analyzed. The efficiency of the suggested method is confirmed by the results of comparison with the data of laser sensing of these parameters and their theoretical estimates, which demonstrate their good agreement.