Observations and applications of the horizontal perturbation wind field within convective structures of the marine atmospheric surface layer

Studies involving radar remote sensing or modeling of the ocean/Marine Atmospheric Surface Layer (MASL) interface demand a thorough description of how coherent convective structures couple the two mediums together. The current analysis provides this information for the small-scale variability caused by boundary-layer convection. NCAR Electra 50 m above mean sea level (MSL) turbulence data from Project FIRE (First ISSCP [International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program] Regional Experiment) are conditionally sampled and composited to produce horizontal planviews of the typical perturbation horizontal wind field within these convective updrafts and downdrafts. Applications of these observational results, as well as similarly derived flux data from Sikora and Young (1993), to the above mentioned studies, are then discussed.