Abstract
Infrasound measurements are used to detect seismic waves and a large effort is devoted to eliminating the turbulence-related infrasound signal, usually considered as noise. Here we take a complementary approach, investigating whether infrasound can provide information on atmospheric turbulence. Microphone measurements of infrasound from an experimental campaign in Hungary in 2013 are used, together with data from a nearby sonic anemometer and a sodar. The comparison of infrasound integrated spectral energy to turbulent kinetic energy from the sonic provides a good match when turbulence is present near the ground. Moreover, on stable nights when the surface layer is strongly stratified and with turbulence absent, microphones sometimes recorded infrasound when the sodar showed a low-level jet above the surface inversion, indicating that microphones may be used as detectors of elevated turbulence.
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Acknowledgments
Partially funded by the Hungarian Scientific Research Foundation (OTKA, Project Nos. K83909 and NN109679), and the Spanish Science Ministry Grant CGL2012-37416-C04-01, supplemented with FEDER funds. The Sodar participant was supported by the projects HURO/0802/083 and AF REGENERG, as well as by the European Social Fund (TMOP-4.2.1.B-11/2/KMR-2011-0001, Research of Critical Infrastructure Defense) with the assistance of the European Union, and the co-financing of the European Social Fund. The authors acknowledge the following participants during the Pannonian Atmospheric Boundary Layer Experiment at Szeged (PABLS-2013): András Zénó Gyöngyösi, Gyula Horváth, Zsolt Bottyán, Zoltan Bozoki, István Aszalos, Szabolcs Rózsa, Árpád Bordás, Zoltan Istenes, Gemma Simó and Burkhard Wrenger. The anonymous reviewer is also acknowledged for the valuable comments that have contributed to the final version of the article.
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Cuxart, J., Tatrai, D., Weidinger, T. et al. Infrasound as a Detector of Local and Remote Turbulence. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 159, 185–192 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-015-0100-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-015-0100-2