Some Mathematical & Conceptual Tools: Part 1. Statistics

Abstract

Turbulence is an intrinsic part of the atmospheric boundary layer that must be quantified in order to study it. The randomness of turbulence makes deterministic description difficult. Instead, we are forced to retreat to the use of statistics, where we are limited to average or expected measures of turbulence. In this chapter we review some basic statistical methods and show how measurements of turbulence can be put into a statistical framework. Usually, this involves separating the turbulent from the nonturbulent parts of the flow, followed by averaging to provide the statistical descriptor.