Energy transfer in the tropical subcloud layer measured with DC-6 aircraft during GATE

Herbert Riehl; Gary Greenhut; Bradford R. Bean

doi:10.3402/tellusa.v30i6.10397

Energy transfer in the tropical subcloud layer measured with DC-6 aircraft during GATE

Tellus

Volume 30 (1978): Issue 6

By: Herbert Riehl, Gary Greenhut and Bradford R. Bean

Open Access

|Jan 1978

Abstract

Turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture measured during the GARP Tropical Atlantic Experiment of 1974 (GATE) are analyzed with respect to magnitude, distribution with height, intercorrelation and relation to synoptic weather systems. Sensible heat transport on the average is small, whereas latent heat transport is large and nearly always directed upward. In and near convective cloud masses both fluxes become very large compared to clear air, especially sensible heat transfer. A qualitative model of cold and warm downdrafts is presented. There are not only warm, moist updrafts, but also warm, dry downdrafts sinking against buoyancy so that sensible heat fluxes up and down nearly cancel. The role of enhanced fluxes in the general circulation is discussed.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v30i6.10397 | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 524 - 536

Submitted on: Nov 23, 1977

Published on: Jan 1, 1978

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 1978 Herbert Riehl, Gary Greenhut, Bradford R. Bean, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 30 (1978): Issue 6