Abstract
It has been attempted to observe the subsynoptic scale turbulent kinetic energy with high resolution upper-air wind profiles. After filtering out the characteristic large-scale profile, the remaining disturbance part of the observed profile is deemed subsynoptic scale in nature. It is then subject to a direct harmonic analysis for the portion of the atmosphere above 5, 000m in height to examine the distribution of variances over harmonic numbers.
It is suggested that the major portion of the subsynoptic scale turbulent energy seems to be contained in the variances from the harmonic analysis of the isolated component of the wind profiles. Examination of obtained variance spectra indicates that they can be grouped in a number of characteristic types according to the concentration of kinetic energy in certain harmonic number ranges. It is suggested that this is related to the flow of kinetic energy from large to small scales or vice versa through subsynoptic scale ranges. Those subsynoptic scale components of kinetic energy in the upper and mid troposphere are also examined in relation to the Richardson number.
