REVIEW OF NONLOCAL MIXING IN TURBULENT ATMOSPHERES - TRANSILIENT TURBULENCE THEORY

Some of the larger eddies in a turbulent region can be coherent structures that turbulently advect air parcels across large vertical distances before smaller eddies mix the parcels with the environment. Such a process is nonlocal rather than diffusive. Transilient turbulence theory, named after a Latin word meaning ''jump over'', provides a framework for considering the ensemble-averaged effect of many eddies of different sizes on the net nonlocal mixing in the vertical. Nonlocal turbulence statistics can then be examinated, and nonlocal first-order closure can he formulated.