Turbulent transport at the thermal internal boundary-layer top: wavelet analysis of aircraft measurements

Aircraft measurements of turbulent fluxes ofscalars collected during the BEMA campaignat the Mediterranean Spanish coast havebeen analysed using wavelet techniques. The analysis aimsat characterising the boundary-layerstructure present during a period ofthe campaign with particular attention to therole of the Thermal Internal Boundary Layer (TIBL) in regulatingthe exchange processes with the overlyingfree atmosphere. The analysis of the dataobtained by flying through the turbulentlayer reveals the presence of characteristicstructures as the aircraft crossesthe TIBL top. These occur in a specific space and scale range. Comparisons of the result of the analysisobtained for different types of scalarsgive evidence that the region correspondingto the detected scales can be identifiedwith the entrainment zone of the TIBL