Identification

Title

Comparison of eddy dissipation rate estimated from operational radiosonde and commercial aircraft observations in the United States

Abstract

The one-third power of the energy dissipation rate (EDR), a primary aviation turbulence metric, is calculated using high vertical-resolution radiosonde data (HVRRD) and compared with flight-EDR observed from commercial airlines. Comparisons are made along the main flight routes over the United States and at z = 20-45 kft for 6 years (2012-2017). The horizontal distributions of moderate-or-greater (MOG) ratio of HVRRD-EDR show large values over the Rocky Mountains, consistent with those of flight-EDR. Vertically, the MOG ratios of HVRRD-EDR show local peaks at z = 20-23 kft and 41-44 kft, while those of flight-EDR at z = 23-26 kft and 35-41 kft. Temporally, HVRRD-EDR has maximum MOG values in JJA and minimum values in DJF at z = 20-30 kft, which is opposite to the flight-EDR. At z = 30-40 kft, HVRRD-EDR shows nearly no seasonal variation but flight-EDR has large values in MAM and small values in JJA. At z = 40-45 kft, HVRRD-EDR (flight-EDR) shows large values in MAM and small values in SON (DJF). Discrepancies in spatiotemporal distributions between the two data sets likely stem from: (a) turbulence observed from the two data sets cannot be the same event, (b) the limitation of HVRRD-EDR in capturing shear-instability under statically stable condition (i.e., Kelvin-Helmholtz instability) which probably accounts for most flight-EDR events at upper levels, and (c) limitation in aircraft measurements response to fluctuations at smaller scales than the aircraft size.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7gq72tz

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-10-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact