Abstract
Atmospheric turbulence measurements, including temperature and humidity fluctuations, were made from the R/V Acania off the coast of California in June, 1979. The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the scaling properties of the humidity structure function parameter (C q 2) and temperaturehumidity cospectrum structure parameter (C Tq) in the marine surface layer. The bulk parameterization method was used to obtain Monin-Obukhov Similarity (MOS) scaling parameters u *, T *, q *and L. Assuming a neutral stability humidity drag coefficient c qn = 1.3 × 10-3the dimensionless humidity structure function parameter C q 2Z2/3/q* 2was found to be 18% lower than the corresponding temperature function obtained by Wyngaard et al. (1971). Furthermore, the measurements indicate that the temperature-humidity fluctuations are highly coherent well into the inertial subrange. The results have direct application to turbulent scattering of waves propagating in the atmosphere (particularly microwaves) and methods of estimating air-sea surface fluxes.
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Fairall, C.W., Schacher, G.E. & Davidson, K.L. Measurements of the humidity structure function parameters, C q 2and C Tq , over the ocean. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 19, 81–92 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120312
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120312