Turbulence and gravity waves within an upper-level front

Abstract

High-resolution dropwindsonde and in-flight measurements collected by a research aircraft during the Severe Clear-Air Turbulence Colliding with Aircraft Traffic (SCATCAT) experiment and simulations from numerical models are analyzed for a clear-air turbulence event associated with an intense upper-level jet/frontal system. Spectral, wavelet, and structure function analyses performed with the 25-Hz in situ data are used to investigate the relationship between gravity waves and turbulence. Mesoscale dynamics are analyzed with the 20-km hydrostatic Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) model and a nested 1-km simulation with the nonhydrostatic Clark-Hall (CH) cloud-scale model. Turbulence occurred in associ..