Noth on the Wind Velocity Profile in the Non-Adiabatic Atmosphere

Abstract

The equation, which represents the variation of wind with height in a nonadiabatic atmosphere in terms of the heat flux, Reynolds' stress and the roughness parameter, is theoretically derived under the following three assumptions: (i) energy supplied from the mean flow to the turbulence due to the wind shear is balanced both by the dissipated energy due to the molecular viscosity and by the work done against the gravity; (ii) the life time of the largest turbulent element in a non-adiabatic atmosphere is just the same as that in an adiabatic atmosphere; (iii) the vertical eddy flux of a property (momentum, heat or vapour) is independent of the height.
The theoretical results obtained here are compared with Deacon's observational ones, and they are in good accordance. Moreover, the different points of our result from other authors' theoretical ones are discussed, the important role of the energy dissipation by molecula motion being emphasized.