Turbulence dissipation rate has inter-annual variations and follows a lognormal distribution. The magnitudes of turbulence detected by radiosonde and radar are roughly comparable. Turbulence cannot predicted by instabilities well but trends to be vigorous under the instability condition. The propagating gravity waves in the lower atmosphere can enhance atmospheric instabilities, and the temporal variations of waves can roughly estimate the turbulence dissipation rate at different height.

Downward stratospheric intrusions are well known as an important source of tropospheric ozone. In the light of the present understanding, several unanswered questions remain regarding the use of VHF radars to identify stratospheric intrusions. Our study found that the radar-observed strong downdrafts preceding the rapid tropopause ascent are a strong diagnostic for possible intrusions. This will have important implications for air-quality monitoring and long-term estimation of troposphere ozone.

We present the first statistical results of vertical wind fluctuation spectra, which revealed a very shallow spectral structure, with mean slopes of −0.58 and −0.23 in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, respectively. No existing spectral theories can comprehensively explain the observed three-dimensional wind spectra, indicating that the spectral features of atmospheric fluctuations are far from fully understood.

The diurnal tide and its variability in the lower atmosphere over Chongyang (114.14ºE，29.53ºN) were studied based on the newly established Wuhan University VHF radar observations in the whole year of 2012. We find that the diurnal tide was the dominant tidal component and showed remarkable height and season variations, as well as dramatic short-term variability.