TURBULENCE THEORY APPLIED TO LARGE-SCALE ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA

Abstract

An outline is given of a preliminary attempt to apply the methods which have proved serviceable in the treatment of small-scale turbulence to the wider problem of large-scale turbulence in the atmosphere. In particular, application is made of theoretical results giving the form of the correlation function for velocity fluctuations in the inertial range according to the theory of Kolmogoroff. It appears that some of these results may be valid over a considerably greater range of eddy sizes than might at first have been anticipated. Some attempt is also made to apply these methods to the determination of the cprrelation functions for larger-scale fluctuations of pressure and temperature in the atmosphere. Actual data taken at the earth's surface and in the free atmosphere are used to test the validity of these deductions.