A Radiometeorological Study, Part III. A New Turbulence Parameter

Abstract

The co ncep t of t he rm al stabili ty is utili zed to d eri ve expressions for t he radio refractivity of an a ir p a rcel und ergoing adiabatic compression or expansion. These expression s a re of exponen t ia l form witll scale heights of 12.5 km for t he dry adiabatic process and 7.0 km for the wet adiabatic process . The adiabatic curves for N are determined solely from conditions at the earth's surface. A new tu rb ulence p arameter, II , is d eri ved as t he di ffe rence of the en vironmen tal r efractive index struc t ure a nd t he adiabatic curves for a n a ir parcel li fted from t he s urface to 3 km. This parameter yields co rrelations wi t h three hou rl y median fi eld strength data t hat a rc not statistically differen t f rolTI those obtain ed with the much simpler para meter , toN. The co rrelations obtained wi th the eq ui valen t g radient are not statistically differen t from zero.