Scaling Temperature Profiles

The temperature scaling was surprisingly successful.  Of the 400 temperature profiles flown during Coastal Waves 96, about 70% of them scaled well with the scaling described below. Flights  on June 7, 11, 12, 17, 19, 21, 26, and July 01 scaled well.  Flights on June 02, 23, and 29 were not as sucessfully scaled.  The same temperature profile form was seen on different days:  the flights that scaled well are plotted together here (lower right).  What I really want is dimensionless density profiles, but moisture is less reliable than temperature measurements, so I started by doing this component of density separately.

The vertical scaling was zi = inversion bottom defined as the altitude of the air temperature minimum.
This is different that the zi used for the scaled velocity profile!  Using zi = jet core (as was used for velocity) reduced the quality of the scaling.
The temperature was scaled with the difference in temperature beneath the inversion.  First the average temperature beneath the inversion was subtracted.  So plotted below is (T - Tavg)/delta_T.

In the table below are plots of scaled temperature vs z/zi for each flight (look for the flight's number in the subplot title).  The subplot title tells how many profiles were flown on that day.
 
Point Conception Point Sur Cape Mendicino Cape Blanco
June 19  June 02  June 07  July 01 
June 23  June 11  June 12 
June 29  June 17  June 26 
June 21 

The data on this page is unpublished. If it is used please cite the author Kathleen Edwards, the Center for Coastal Studies, and the Coastal Waves group at Scripps Insitution of Oceanography.

Please send comments or questions to me at kate@coast.ucsd.edu