Observations of Stably Stratified Shear-Driven Atmospheric Turbulence at Low and High Richardson Numbers

Abstract

Abstract Stably stratified shear-driven turbulence is analyzed using the gradient Richardson number, Ri, as the stability parameter. The method overcomes the statistical problems associated with the widely used Monin–Obukhov stability parameter. The results of the Ri-based scaling confirm the presence of three regimes: the weakly and the very stable regimes and the transition in between them. In the weakly stable regime, fluxes scale in proportion with variance, while in the very stable regime, stress and scalar fluxes behave differently. At large Ri, the velocity field becomes highly anisotropic and the turbulent potential energy becomes approximately equal to half of the turbulent kinetic energy. It appears that even in the strongly stable regime, beyond what is known as the critical gradient Richardson number, turbulent motions are present.