PROPOSAL TO THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Cover Page FOR CONSIDERATION BY NSF ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT

We are presenting the results of a stability analysis of a background wind shear in the presence of stablestratification and of height dependent coefficients of eddy viscosity and eddy thermal conduction. It is shownthat the vertical gradients of the eddy coefficients substantially affect the phase velocities, growth rates andvertical structure of the gravity wave and are responsible for the appearance of some counter-gradient heatfluxes and Reynolds stresses. It is suggested that these gradients may explain the observed counter-gradientfluxes in the stable atmospheric boundary layer.