ИСТИНА

Modern vision of stratified turbulence underlying turbulence closure and diffusion models and famous Monin-Obukhov (1954) similarity theory (MOST) is based on the paradigm attributed to Kolmogorov (1941). However, Kolmogorov considered non-stratified shear-generated turbulence characterised by the forward cascade of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) towards dissipation and the downgradient turbulent fluxes. His followers have extended the paradigm to stratified flows factually without proof. In unstable stratification, conventional theories do not distinguish the sheargenerated dynamically unstable eddies that break down to perform forward cascade of TKE from the buoyancy-generated chaotic plumes that merge to perform inverse cascade towards larger plumes and further towards self-organised convective winds. As a result, traditional theories offer erroneous picture of turbulence anisotropy and horizontal diffusion (Zilitinkevich 1973, 2010, 2013). In moderately stable stratifications typical of planetary boundary layers (PBLs), conventional theories serve as reasonable approximations. However overlooking the counter-gradient heat transfer makes them incapable to explain the maintenance of turbulence in supercritically stable stratifications typical of the atmosphere and hydrosphere elsewhere beyond PBLs. Turbulence closure theory accounting for the counter-gradient heat flux (Zilitinkevich et al, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013) explains this phenomenon as inherent to very-high-Reynolds-number flows and provides physically and empirically grounded tool for calculating turbulent energetics and transports in any stable stratification. This paper sketches basic features of non-conventional theory of stratified turbulence and first results demonstrating its adequacy.