Abstract
An atmospheric surface-layer experiment was conducted in order to obtain simultaneous measurements of the spatial structure function and the Eulerian temporal structure function of the atmospheric turbulent velocity field. Comparisons of these two statistical descriptions in the inertial subrange were then made by use of Taylor's frozen field hypothesis, and analysis of the difference between them was performed. Space-time correlations of longitudinal velocity were also defined and measured.
The spatial structure function was determined by the use of hot-wire anemometers placed at a height of 9.2 m, one lying downstream of the other with relative separations ranging from 0.03 to 0.5 m. Measurements up to a height of 33 m were also made of the mean vertical profiles of temperature and velocity, from which the characteristics of the stratified layer were computed according to Monin-Obukhov theory.
It is seen that the spatial structure function as determined by Taylor's hypothesis from the measured temporal structure function is always smaller than the directly measured spatial structure function, and that the observed difference may not be accounted for by the error analysis. This discrepancy is analysed in terms of the ratio of the ‘factors of proportionality’ which appear in the structure function definitions, or, equivalently, in terms of a convection velocity. This convection velocity may then be compared to the mean celerity of the turbulence which is obtained from the space-time correlation measurements.
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Wacongne, S., Babiano, A. Space-time turbulent characteristics in the atmospheric surface layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 24, 429–450 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120732
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00120732