Abstract
During the Atlantic Expedition 1965 and the Atlantic Tradewind Experiment (ATEX) 1969, shipborne aerological measurements were obtained in order to investigate the thermodynamical and kinematic structure of the planetary boundary layer in low latitudes. Under suppressed convection, the subdivision of this layer into five sub-regions was found to be a rather permanent feature. Enhanced cumulus convection effects a smoothing of the thermodynamical discontinuities and leads sometimes to a destruction of the trade inversion.
Due to the surface pressure distribution and the thermal wind distribution in the lower atmosphere, the actual wind speed and direction are nearly constant with height below cloud base. In the cloud layer up to the inversion, the wind speed generally decreases and the air flow tends to become more zonal.
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Augstein, E., Schmidt, H. & Ostapoff, F. The vertical structure of the atmospheric planetary boundary layer in undisturbed trade winds over the Atlantic Ocean. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 6, 129–150 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232480
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00232480