It is possible to make the analogy between water flow in the wide Mississippi River with its eddies and obstacles to turbulence in the free atmosphere at low and high altitudes. Even though these two phenomena are not interconnected, the mechanism of action is similar. The Mississippi River has two types of water flow: the currents and the general stream. The turbulence in the atmosphere, in turn, has lower and upper levels. It states that turbulence also has currents similar to the river that move in different directions and speeds compared to the general glow.
There is an evident connection between the Earth’s atmosphere and the natural processes that occur on the planet. The phase and amplitude of an optical wave traveling through the atmosphere can randomly fluctuate because atmospheric turbulence is a typical random non – homogeneous channel (Wang et al., 2021). There are currently two types of turbulence recognized in the atmosphere: Kolmogorov turbulence and non-Kolmogorov turbulence (Wang et al., 2021). According to the outcomes of atmospheric observations, the structure of atmospheric turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere is composed of non-Kolmogorov turbulence at upper levels and Kolmogorov turbulence at lower levels (Wang et al., 2021). This information shows that two layers in turbulence function according to different patterns.
The researchers use statistical data to explain turbulent motion because it is a random motion with an arbitrary function of time and space variables. It is essential to understand all of the structural parts of velocity to fully comprehend and characterize the statistical characteristics of a turbulent field (Wang et al., 2021). Nevertheless, a statistical theory of turbulence typically focuses on low-order moments, particularly second-order statistical aspects, since it is challenging to obtain accurately high-order moments both experimentally and theoretically (Wang et al., 2021). In particular, laminar and turbulent flow are the two flow conditions for viscous fluids (Wang et al., 2021). It should be stressed that the turbulence described above is velocity turbulence at this point. Turbulence, or atmospheric turbulence, can be defined as any physical number that changes randomly and unevenly (Wang et al., 2021). Examples include temperature turbulence, humidity turbulence, and refractive-index turbulence (Wang et al., 2021). Therefore, the division of the turbulence flow into two parts is its main characteristic.
The Mississippi River has characteristics such as effluent dynamics that reflect how water flows. The general stream of the river and the currents have different speeds, making the river dangerous for people. The Mississippi River’s water level typically increases in the springtime when the snow melts and the rain streams toward the river basin (Chen et al., 2022). The river flows five times more rapidly during this time than in midsummer (Chen et al., 2022). The currents are stronger and more dangerous due to the increasing water level. It also suggests a greater likelihood of flooding. The 2,350 miles of the Mississippi River mean it travels through various currents and canyons (Chen et al., 2022). As a result, it is not unexpected that some areas of the water are riskier than others. For instance, the streams are significantly more potent where the river shrinks (Chen et al., 2022). It shows the correlation between the size of the river basin and the speed of the stream.
In other words, the Mississippi River consists of two flows: the general stream and the currents that move at different speeds and in different directions. It makes the water flow similar to turbulence in the free atmosphere at different altitudes. This similarity allows assuming that the river flow and the atmospheric turbulence have a common essence even though they do not depend on each other.
References
Chen, Y, Lu Y, Yang, S, Mao, J, Gong, Y, Muhammad, WI, & Yin, S. (2022). Numerical investigation of flow structure and turbulence characteristic around a spur dike using large-eddy simulation. Water, 14(19): 3158. Web.
Wang F, Du, W, Yuan, Q, Liu, D, & Feng, S. (2021). A survey of the structure of atmospheric turbulence in atmosphere and related turbulent effects. Atmosphere, 12(12): 1608. Web.