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Smedman et al. 1997
Smedman, A., Högström, U. and Bergström, H. (1997). The turbulence regime of a very stable marine airflow with quasi-frictional decoupling. Journal of Geophysical Research 102: doi: 10.1029/97JC01070. issn: 0148-0227.

Data from an air/sea interaction experiment over the Baltic Sea during conditions with very large land-sea surface temperature contrast have been analyzed. It is found that the measured shearing stress and sensible heat flux were strongly suppressed compared to what would be expected from current theory. Analysis of spectral behavior shows that a strong wind gradient imposed by the presence of a low-level jet at or below 100 m height during about 80% of the time is exerting strong influence on the turbulence regime by suppressing low-frequency fluctuations. The dissipation length scale was found to equal a new length scale LUT which has the vertical velocity standard deviation in the numerator and the sum of the wind gradient and the Brunt-V¿is¿l¿ frequency in the denominator. It was also found that the 10 m drag coefficient CD10 was a strong function of this scale, with small values of LUT giving almost zero CD10 values. Integrating the locally found wind gradient down to the surface resulted in roughness length values several orders of magnitude less than that valid for a dynamically smooth flow. With turbulence measurements at only one height, 10 m, no conclusive explanation of this anomaly could be given. Observed significant wave height during the experiment was, however, found to be a factor of 2.5 lower on the average than predicted by current theory.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union

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Abstract

Keywords
Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Turbulence
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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