Atmospheric turbulence decay during the solar total eclipse of 11 August 1999

The studies of turbulence decay were based in the past on measurements carried out in neutrally stratified wind tunnels and, more recently, on Large Eddy Simulation runs. In this paper the atmospheric turbulence decay process during the solar total eclipse of 11 August 1999 is examined. Thus a rapid transition from Convective Boundary Layer turbulence to Neutral or slightly Stable one is considered. An uvw propeller anemometer and a fast response temperature sensor located in Northern France on top of a 9 m mast recorded the turbulence observations. The measurement results, in terms of turbulent kinetic energy decay with time, were found to be in good agreement with those prescribed by a theoretical model of turbulence decay recently proposed by Goulart et al. (2003). In particular, it was found that the exponent of the power law describing the decay process has the value –2.