Asymptotic Similarity in Neutral Barotropic Planetary Boundary Layers

Abstract

New similarity expressions for turbulent Ekman layers have recently appeared, the theoretical foundation of which is analyzed in this paper. It is shown that the flow in Ekman layers has to be solved by singular perturbation methods. The similarity laws given by Gill and Csanady are, in first approximation, independent of the surface Rossby number if it is sufficiently large.