Gravitational Convection from a Boundary Source Hunter Rouse

Abstract

Elementary analyses of the mean patterns of free convection from a line source and a point source are presented without regard to the specific means by which the gravitational action is produced. The derived functional relationships are then verified and completed through use of velocity and temperature measurements above sources of heat, the generalized form of the results permitting characteristics of the mean flow to be determined over a considerable range of the primary variables. These results should enable meteorologists to evaluate the role of the basic convective process in the more complex movements of the atmosphere.