On an observation of turbulent waves on the tropopause surface

An analysis of aircraft measurements at a well defined tropopause inversion is presented. It is found that there is turbulence on the inversion which is closely correlated to some form of wave activity. The observations show that any aircraft flying at the level of a strong inversion may expect sudden changes in both temperature and horizontal and vertical wind due to wave motions on the interface, and that these changes can amount to the full temperature excursion through the surface (in this case 10°C); and the full shear (in this case 7 ms −1 ) in a horizontal distance of about 1 km.