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    On the Buoyancy Subrange in Stratified Turbulence
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Avsarkisov, Victor
    This study is motivated by the importance of the stratified turbulence in geophysical flows. We present a theoretical analysis of the buoyancy subrange based on the theory of strongly stratified turbulence. Some important turbulent scales and their relations are explored. Scaling constants of the buoyancy subrange scaling laws for both kinetic and potential energy spectra are derived and analyzed. It is found that these constants are functions of the horizontal Froude number Frh . For the potential energy spectrum, the scaling constant also depends on the turbulent flux coefficient of Γ .
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    Horizontal Wavenumber Spectra of Vertical Vorticity and Horizontal Divergence of Mesoscale Dynamics in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Using Multistatic Specular Meteor Radar Observations
    (Malden, Mass. : American Geophysical Union, 2022) Poblet, Facundo L.; Chau, Jorge L.; Conte, J. Federico; Avsarkisov, Victor; Vierinen, Juha; Charuvil Asokan, Harikrishnan
    Specular meteor radars (SMRs) have significantly contributed to the understanding of wind dynamics in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). We present a method to estimate horizontal correlations of vertical vorticity (Qzz) and horizontal divergence (P) in the MLT, using line-of-sight multistatic SMRs velocities, that consists of three steps. First, we estimate 2D, zonal, and meridional correlation functions of wind fluctuations (with periods less than 4 hr and vertical wavelengths smaller than 4 km) using the wind field correlation function inversion (WCFI) technique. Then, the WCFI's statistical estimates are converted into longitudinal and transverse components. The conversion relation is obtained by considering the rotation about the vertical direction of two velocity vectors, from an east-north-up system to a meteor-pair-dependent cylindrical system. Finally, following a procedure previously applied in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere to airborne wind measurements, the longitudinal and transverse spatial correlations are fitted, from which Qzz, P, and their spectra are directly estimated. The method is applied to a special Spread spectrum Interferometric Multistatic meteor radar Observing Network data set, obtained over northern Germany for seven days in November 2018. The results show that in a quasi-axisymmetric scenario, P was more than five times larger than Qzz for the horizontal wavelengths range given by ∼50–400 km, indicating a predominance of internal gravity waves over vortical modes of motion as a possible explanation for the MLT mesoscale dynamics during this campaign.