Turbulent Vertical Transport due to Thin Intermittent Mixing Layers in the Stratosphere and Other Stable Fluids

Pollution effects in the stratosphere and the ocean are exacerbated by buoyant stability. Turbulence in such media is confined to thin layers. To estimate vertical transport by such turbulence, one can view the situation as nature's way of simulating the finite-difference diffusion equation. This analogy finally yields a diffusivity parameter which is valid for this extremely inhomogeneous case.