A Sturm-Liouville problem arising in the atmospheric boundary-layer dynamics (Q2006967)

In the paper, an approach is described that combines a Liouville transformation \[ s=\xi(z)=\int_0^z\frac{1}{K(s)}\mathrm{d}s,\qquad s\in[0,\infty) \] of the governing equations \begin{align*} f(u(z)-u_g(z))&=(Kv'(z))',\\ f(v(z)-v_g(z))&=-(Ku'(z))' \end{align*} for atmospheric Ekman flows with a substitution \[ \Phi(s)=-\frac{\Psi(s)}{u_g+iv_g},\qquad s>0 \] to reduce the problem to a Riccati ordinary differential equation \[ h'(s)+h^2(s)=i\alpha(s),\qquad s>0. \] To start with the Riccati equation, the authors are able to work backwards and identify classes of height-dependent eddy viscosities for which explicit calculations are possible. This approach of reduction is applied to a Riccati equation. In the last part of the paper, a simple example of the application of the method is illustrated.