Although the integral quantities of atmospheric turbulence are conveniently measured using sonic anemometers, obtaining relevant finescale variables such as the kinetic energy dissipation using conventional hot-film/wire techniques remains a challenge because of two main difficulties. The first difficulty is the mean wind variability, which causes violation of the requirement that mean winds have a specific alignment with the hot-film/wire probe. To circumvent this problem, a combination of collocated sonic and hot-film anemometers, with the former measuring mean winds and aligning the latter in the appropriate wind direction via an automated platform, is successfully designed and implemented. The second difficulty is the necessity of frequent and onerous calibrations akin to hot-film anemometry that lead to logistical difficulties during outdoor (field) measurements. This is addressed by employing sonic measurements to calibrate the hot films in the same combination, with the output (velocity) to input (voltage) transfer function for the hot film derived using a neural network (NN) model. The NN is trained using low-pass-filtered hot-film and sonic data taken in situ. This new hot-film calibration procedure is compared with the standard calibration method based on an external calibrator. It is inferred that the sonic-based NN method offers great potential as an alternative to laborious standard calibration techniques, particularly in the laboratory and in stable atmospheric boundary layer settings. The NN approximation technique is found to be superior to the conventionally used polynomial fitting methods when used in conjunction with unevenly spaced calibration velocity data generated by sonic anemometers.

A record of a tsunami event riding on the usual tide signal was recorded by a floating‐type tidal gauge installed in the port of Yafo, Israel. The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Aegean Sea on 9 July 1956. This paper presents a retrieval of tsunami waves from the record. At the first stage of the study an attempt had been undertaken to reproduce the 1956 tsunami assuming a coseismic nature of its generation source. Although these simulations resulted in tsunami waves with their amplitude close to that obtained from the record measured at Yafo, they did not contain significant spectral energy components with periods of ∼15 min as appear in the spectra of 1956 tide‐gauge records. When landslide movement, triggered by the main shock and/or by the largest aftershock, is suggested as a source of these tsunami waves, the spectra of the resulted marigram obtained in the proximity to Yafo contain harmonics with frequencies very close to those measured. This corroborates the landslide nature of the tsunamigenic source responsible for generation of higher‐frequency (relative to the tidal waves) energy components. The peak periods determined via spectral analysis of the recent tide‐gauge records (1 year and longer) in the absence of tsunami events vary from 50 to 60 min. Similar periods have been revealed in a special numerical study dealing with longwave propagation toward the coast of Israel, thus confirming that their origin is related to continental shelf resonance. These resonance periods differ significantly from those found for the 1956 tsunami.

Turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is usually measured using sonic anemometers (sonics), but coarse spatial ( ${\sim}10$ cm) and temporal ( ${\sim}32$ Hz) resolutions of sonics preclude direct measurement of fine-scale parameters such as the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}$ . Instead, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}$ is estimated using techniques based on Kolmogorov theory. Fine-scale measurements of ABL turbulence down to Kolmogorov scale were made with a sonic and hot-film anemometer dyad (a ‘combo’ probe) during the field campaigns of the Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) programme. The hot-film probe was located on a gimbal within the sonic probe volume, and was automated to rotate in the horizontal plane to align with the mean flow measured by sonic. This procedure not only helped satisfy the requirement of hot-film alignment with the mean flow, but also allowedin situcalibration of hot-film probes. This paper analyses a period of nocturnal flow that was similar to a stratified parallel shear flow. The combo-probe measurements showed an interesting phenomenon – the occurrence of strong bursts, characterized by short-term increase of velocity fluctuations and simultaneous increase of TKE dissipation rate by orders of magnitude. These bursts were indicative of unusual turbulence activity at finer ( ${\sim}0.1$ –0.4 m) scales that are not captured by sonics since the smallest scales resolved by the latter are greater than 0.6 m. With bursting present, the spectra exhibited bumps at scales intermediate to inertial and dissipation subranges, resembling a bottleneck phenomenon. Its manifestation, although unequivocally related to bursts, may not convincingly fit into the framework of previous bottleneck-effect theories that allude to either viscous effects or buoyancy effects modifying the local energy cascade via non-local effects. The origins of burst are yet to be identified. Stratified ABL with bursts exhibits non-Kolmogorov behaviour, and hence should be modelled with caution.

In a number of studies concerning the lateral heating of a vertical rectangular enclosure containing a stably stratified brine solution, diverse flow regimes have been observed for different values of the buoyancy ratio. In this Brief Communication, certain intervals of the buoyancy ratio have been revealed to possess multiple steady flows. The presence of the multiple solutions was demonstrated to be underlain by complex bifurcation phenomena including numerous limit points and the symmetry‐breaking bifurcation. The results appear to be insightful for the understanding of various findings of previous works.

The flow in a turbulent mixing layer resulting from two parallel different velocity streams, that were brought together downstream of a jagged partition was investigated experimentally. The trailing edge of the partition had a short triangular ‘chevron’ shape that could also oscillate up and down at a prescribed frequency, because it was hinged to the stationary part of the partition to form a flap (fliperon). The results obtained from this excitation were compared to the traditional results obtained by oscillating a two-dimensional fliperon. Detailed measurements of the mean flow and the coherent structures, in the periodically excited and spatially developing mixing layer, and its random constituents were carried out using hot-wire anemometry and stereo particle image velocimetry.The prescribed spanwise wavelength of the chevron trailing edge generated coherent streamwise vortices while the periodic oscillation of this fliperon locked in-phase the large spanwise Kelvin–Helmholtz (K-H) rolls, therefore enabling the study of the inter- action between the two. The two-dimensional periodic excitation increases the strength of the spanwise rolls by increasing their size and their circulation, which depends on the input amplitude and frequency. The streamwise vortices generated by the jagged trailing edge distort and bend the primary K-H rolls. The present investigation endeavours to study the distortions of each mode as a consequence of their mutual interaction. Even the mean flow provides evidence for the local bulging of the large spanwise rolls because the integral width (the momentum thickness, θ), undulates along the span. The lateral location of the centre of the ensuing mixing layer (the location where the mean velocity is the arithmetic average of the two streams,y₀), also suggests that these vortices are bent. Phase-locked and ensemble-averaged measurements provide more detailed information about the bending and bulging of the large eddies that ensue downstream of the oscillating chevron fliperon. The experiments were carried out at low speeds, but at sufficiently high Reynolds number to ensure naturally turbulent flow.