Turbulence in breaking mountain waves and atmospheric rotors estimated from airborne and Doppler radar measurements.

Atmospheric turbulence generated in flow over mountainous terrain is studied using airborne and cloud radar measurements over the Medicine Bow Mountains in southeast Wyoming, USA. During the NASA Orographic Clouds Experiment (NASA06) in 2006, two complex mountain flow cases were documented by the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft carrying the Wyoming Cloud Radar. The structure of turbulence and its intensity across the mountain range are described using the variance of vertical velocity σw2 and the cube root of the energy dissipation rate (EDR).