Some experience of electronics is desirable but not essential. There is an opportunity for a Ph.D. student to participate in an experimental to study gravity waves, mixing and filamentation in the tropopause region. The main goal of the experiment is to observe the manner in which gravity waves cause turbulence and to determine if the associated mixing has significant consequences for the vertical distribution of ozone and water vapour in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The experiment will also address the role of lateral filamentation and the interaction of this with turbulent mixing. Other experimental objectives are to study the variability of gravity wave activity with respect to meteorological patterns and fundamental aspects of gravity wave spectra.
Fronts are regions of the atmosphere where air masses meet and slide over one another.
They contain distinctive air flows, or conveyor belts, where air streams ascend and descend in a complex three-dimensional pattern. Within this pattern are motions on smaller scales, which lead to mixing of air with distinctive chemical and physical properties. Fronts play a central role here, with tropopause folds bringing ozone-rich stratospheric air deep into the troposphere and warm and cold fronts bringing boundary layer air up. This project will study the effects of small-scale dynamics and turbulence on the transport and mixing of air in fronts. An important tool for studying transport and mixing in the atmosphere is the UK MST radar, located near Aberystwyth.