Spatial Structure Functions of Horizontal Winds in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere Using Taylor's Hypothesis Over MAARSY (69.30°N, 16.04°E)

Abstract Taylor's hypothesis is traditionally invoked to infer the spatial behavior of flow statistics when its measurements are limited to time series on fixed positions. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis for the estimation of second‐order structure functions in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, using 4 years of horizontal wind measurements from the Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System, in Northern Norway. Global and local advection velocities are used for the time‐to‐space conversion. We compare with those estimated using wind climatologies from aircraft observations, finding a good agreement for separations between approximately 10 and 1,000 km at 10.5 km altitude. This result enables us to test the 2D turbulence model of a combined energy and enstrophy subrange. It is shown that the spectral energy flux has minima at fixed heights. In contrast, the spectral enstrophy flux steadily decreases with altitude. Both features are consistent with previous modeling and observational studies.