Structure of Air Density Irregularities in the Stratosphere from Spacecraft Observations of Stellar Scintillation:2.Characteristic Scales,Structure Characteristics,and Kinetic Energy Dissipation

摘要

This work is the second part of the studies of hte fine structure of air density irregularities at heights of 25 to 70 km on the basis of star observations through the Earth's atmosphere from space The results presented refer to the region between 40 S and 50 N The observations of occultations of stare with different positions with respect to te observer's orbit plane allowed one to study the isotropic and anisotropic components of the the spatial spectra of air density flucturations with a spatial resoluton of uo to a few decimeters.The basic notions of the Kolmogorov turbulence in combinationwith an ensemble of saturated internal waves formed the basis for a model to retrieve the paramenters of the three-dimensional specta of air density irregulartities in the stratosphere These problems are discussed in the first part of this work Three -Dimensional Spectum Model and Retriveal of Its Paramenters pubilshed also in this issue of the journal Te spatial resolution achieved in retrieving hte paramentrs allowed one to determine the height behaviors of the Kolmogorov scale(27-67km) and the buoyancy scale (27-53km) Between these scales there is a gap whose width increases monotonically dwith height The values obtained for the structure characteriaitcs of the anisotroopic of the anisotropic comjponent are in good gareement with the predictions based on the assumption that the regime of saturated interdnal waves exists The structure characteristics of relative-temperature and air-density flucutations ofr the isotropic compoundt increase almost exponentially with height within the entire height range The values of the rate of kinetic-energy dissipation are calulated from the measued Values of the Komogorov acale the height dependence of hte rate of sommothing temperature irregularities is estimated from the combined measurements of the saales and struc ture characterisitics.