Abstract
During the Atlantic Expedition 1965 and the Atlantic Tradewind Experiment (ATEX) 1969, shipborne aerological measurements were obtained in order to investigate the thermodynamical and kinematic structure of the planetary boundary layer in low latitudes. Under suppressed convection, the subdivision of this layer into five sub-regions was found to be a rather permanent feature. Enhanced cumulus convection effects a smoothing of the thermodynamical discontinuities and leads sometimes to a destruction of the trade inversion.
Due to the surface pressure distribution and the thermal wind distribution in the lower atmosphere, the actual wind speed and direction are nearly constant with height below cloud base. In the cloud layer up to the inversion, the wind speed generally decreases and the air flow tends to become more zonal.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aspliden, C. I.: 1971, On Energy Distribution in the Tropical Troposphere, Ph. D. Dissertation, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 1–232.
Augstein, E.: 1972, Mass and Heat Budget Estimations of the Atlantic SE Trade Wind Flow at the Equator, ‘Meteor’-Forschungsergebnisse, B, No. 8, Bornträger Verlag, Berlin, 31–41.
Augstein, E., Riehl, H., Ostapoff, F., and Wagner, V.: 1973, Mass and Energy Transports in an Undisturbed Atlantic Trade Wind Flow, Mon. Weather Rev. 101, 101–111.
Ball, F.K.: 1960, Control of Inversion Height by Surface Heating, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 86, 483–494.
Betts, A. K.: 1973, Non-Precipitating Cumulus Convection and its Parameterization, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 99, 178–196.
Brocks, K., 1970: Reisebericht der Atlantischen Expedition 1965 (IQSY) mit dem Forschungsschiff “Meteor”, ‘Meteor’ Forschungs Ergebnisse, A, No. 8, Bornträger Verlag, Berlin, 18–42.
Brocks, K.: 1972, Die Atlantische Expedition 1969 (GARP) mit dem Atlantischen Passatexperiment (APEX), Meteor-Forschungs Ergebnisse, A, No. 9, 1–30.
Brümmer, B. and Augstein, E.: 1973, Large-Scale Dynamic Relations in the Lower Layers of the Atlantic Trade Winds During ATEX, Paper presented at Technical Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, May 14–17, 1973, Key Biscayne, Florida.
Brummer, B., Ostapoff, F., and Schmidt, H.: 1973, Upperair Soundings During ATEX, NOAA Publication, Miami, Florida.
Brummer, B., Augstein, E., and Riehl, H.: 1974, On the Low Level Wind Structure in the Atlantic Trade Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. (accepted for publ.).
Bunker, A. F., Haurwitz, B., Malkus, J. S., and Stommel, H.: 1950, ‘Vertical distribution of Tempe- rature and Humidity over the Caribbean Sea’, Papers in Phys. Oceanogr. and Meteorol., Mass. Inst. Tech. and Woods Hole Oceanogr. Inst., No. 11, pp. 1–82.
Charnock, H., Francis, J. R. D., and Sheppard, P. A.: 1956, An Investigation of Wind Structure in the Trades: Anegada 1953, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Series A, 249, 179–234.
Deardorff, J. W.: 1972, Numerical Investigation of Neutral and Unstable Planetary Boundary Layers, J. Atmos. Sci. 29, 91–115.
De Souza, R. L.: 1972, A Study of Atmospheric Flow over a Tropical Island, Ph. D. Dissertation, The Florida State University, Dept, of Meteorology, 1–204.
Estoque, M. A.: 1971, The Planetary Boundary Layer over Christmas Island, Mon. Weather Rev. 99, 193–201.
Ficker, H. von: 1936a, Bemerkungen über den Warmeumsatz innerhalb der Passatzirkulation, Verlag Akad. Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany.
Ficker, H. von: 1936b, Die Passatinversion, Veroffentlichungen des Meteorologischen Institutes de Universitat Berlin, 1–33.
Frisch, A. S. and Businger, J. A.: 1973, A Study of Convective Elements in the Atmospheric Surface Layer, Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 3, 301–328.
Garstang, M. 1972: A Review of Hurricane and Tropical Meteorology, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc.53, 612–630.
Hess, S. L.: 1959, Introduction to Theoretical Meteorology, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 362 pp.
Holland, J. Z. and Rasmusson, E. M.: 1973, Measurements of Atmospheric Mass, Energy and Momentum Budgets over a 500-kilometer Square of Tropical Ocean, Mon. Weather Rev. 101, 11–55.
Malkus, J. S.: 1958, ‘On the Structure of the Trade Wind Moist Layer’, Paper in Phys. Oceanogr. and Meteorol., Mass. Inst. Tech. and Woods Hole Oceanogr. Inst., No. 13, 1–48.
Neiburger, M., Johnson, D. S., and Chien, C. W.: 1961, ‘Studies of the Structure of the Atmosphere over the Eastern Pacific Ocean in Summer, I’, The inversion over the Eastern North Pacific Ocean, Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley, 94 pp.
Nitta, T. and Esbensen, S.: 1973, Heat and Moisture Budget Analysis Using BOMEX Data, Mon. Weather Rev. (submitted).
Reger, J.: 1927, Der Südostpassat, Beiträge zur Physik der freien Atmosphäre 13, 59–63.
Reger, J.: 1939, Der statische Aufbau der Luft über dem Sudatlantischen Ozean, Wiss. Ergebn. dtsch. Atl. Exped. ‘Meteor’ 1925–27 16, 1–63.
Riehl, H.: 1954, Tropical Meteorology, McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, 392 pp.
Riehl, H., Yeh C., Malkus, J. S., and LaSeur, N. E.: 1951, The North-East Trade of the Pacific Ocean, Quart. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 77, 598–626.
Tennekes, H.: 1973, A Model for the Dynamics of the Inversion above a Convective Boundary Layer, J. Atmos. Sci. 30, 558–567.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Augstein, E., Schmidt, H. & Ostapoff, F. The vertical structure of the atmospheric planetary boundary layer in undisturbed trade winds over the Atlantic Ocean. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 6, 129–150 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232480
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232480