title: Molecular velocity distributions and generalized scale invariance in the turbulent atmosphere.
abstract: Airborne observations of ozone, temperature and the spectral actinic photon flux for ozone in the Arctic lower stratosphere April-September 1997 and January-March 2000 allow a connection to be made between the rate of production of translationally hot atoms and molecules via ozone photodissociation and the intermittency of temperature. Seen in the context of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics literature results from molecular dynamics simulations, the observed correlation between the molecular scale production of translationally hot atoms and molecules and the macroscopic fluid mechanical intermittency of temperature may imply a departure from Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions of molecular velocities, with consequences for chemistry, radiative line shapes and turbulence in the atmosphere, arising from overpopulated high velocity tails of the probability distribution functions (PDFs).
authors.affiliation: NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305-3328, USA.
authors.forename: Adrian F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Tuck
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hovde
authors.forename: Erik C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Ru-Shan
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: T Paul
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Swartz
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001110:Arctic Regions; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D010126:Ozone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D010777:Photochemistry; D011336:Probability; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010126:Ozone