In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers have discovered that the turbulence in the thermosphere exhibits the same physical laws as the wind in the lower atmosphere.
In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers have discovered that the turbulence in the thermosphere exhibits the same physical laws as the wind in the lower atmosphere. Furthermore, wind in the thermosphere predominantly rotates in a cyclonic direction, in that it rotates counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
The findings reveal a new unified principle for the Earth’s varied environmental systems and potentially improve the forecast of both earth and space weather.
One time or another we’ve tuned in to see the latest weather forecast, and while they give us a good idea of our daily atmospheric conditions the research that goes into studying how Earth’s air moves around is dizzyingly complex.
“At the fundamental level, we study the interplay of kinetic energy in the atmosphere at different sizes and scales, that energy is mostly in the form of wind and turbulence. Over the decades, a massive amount of data has given us insight into how this energy flows and dissipates to affect the weather in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere” explains Professor Huixin Liu of Kyushu University’s Faculty of Science who led the study. “My research focuses on the movements in the upper atmosphere, specifically the thermosphere, where we explore the corresponding laws governing the dynamics and energy flow in the region.”
Read more at Kyushu University
Photo Credit: Jan-Mallander via Pixabay
