On the Detection of a Phase-Frequency Nexus in Intermittent Turbulence

Abstract

It has been hypothesized by Dutton et al. (1969) that intermittent turbulence should show a frequency-phase organization. Because of inherent difficulties in measuring phase, confirmation of this effect has been difficult to obtain with real data. An analysis is presented here which, through the examination of the sample distribution of spectral ordinate estimates, permits the detection of such a phenomenon. Wind data from a 118 m tower in an urban environment are used to test the analysis, and the results seem to confirm the Dutton et al. hypothesis.