Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-79/3/ii/a/solution

Let be the vertical turbulent buoyancy flux, positive for heating from below. Its dimensions are length squared per time cubed. The stress velocity and height therefore admit a new dimensionless group . Define the signed Obukhov length
Stable cooling has ; unstable heating has . Monin-Obukhov similarity theory expresses the mean shear as
The similarity hypothesis assumes approximately steady, horizontally homogeneous, constant-stress and constant-flux conditions, with the observation level outside the inner sublayer but below the outer-layer scales. Dimensional analysis fixes the arguments and prefactor, not the entire function . A measured or modeled turbulence closure supplies its form.

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