PhD studentship topic 4 Atmospheric turbulence

Turbulence is one of the great unsolved problems of atmospheric science. Often regarded as a problem on the smaller scales unresolvable by numerical models, recent research has emphasised that the problem is not confined to small scales and that an understanding of turbulence is essential for effective modelling of the atmosphere. Because atmospheric turbulence is so hard to model, reliable and extensive measurements of it are a priority. However, most turbulence measurements so far have been made either in the surface layer (on towers or masts) or on platforms like aircraft or balloons which measure above the surface but have very limited coverage. There is a need for a long-term dataset of turbulent intensity at altitudes away from the Earth’s surface. We have developed a method to make these measurements using a radar wind profiler – an instrument using radio waves to measure atmospheric motions. Essentially, we look at the spread of Doppler shifts in radio waves scattered back from the atmosphere and use the amount of this spread as a measure of turbulence. This project will apply the new technique to an archive of wind profiler data gathered over th