Title: Some recent research on atmospheric turbulence at GISS

I will talk about some of our turbulence modeling approaches and results.
(1) Development of second-order closure (SOC) modeling under stable
stratification:
Previous SOC models (Mellor and Yamada, etc.) yield a critical Richardson number
(measure of large scale buoyancy vs. shear)  beyond which turbulence dies,
Ri(cr)=0.2, while data extend to Ri=100. We enhanced Ri(cr) to 1 in 2002,
and in 2008 we made Ri(cr) disappear and the new model results match the data
for all Ri.
(2) New third-order closure (TOC) model, in which the fourth-order moments are
non-quasi-normal.  The approach is entirely new and the model results match the
data better than previous models.  I will discuss the new ideas behind these
developments.