Asymmetries in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection

We report high-resolution local temperature measurements in the upper and the lower boundary layer of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard (RB) convection. The measurements were undertaken in air (Pr = 0.71) at constant aspect ratio Gamma = 1.13 and variable Rayleigh number 5 x 10(5) < Ra < 10(12). The primary purpose of the work is to preserve a comprehensive data set of the temperature field against which various phenomenological theories and numerical simulations can be tested. In our talk we show the mean temperature profiles v(h)(z) at the heating and v(c)(z) at the cooling plate. We demonstrate, that the corresponding profiles do not collapse even at low Rayleigh numbers and that the measured bulk temperature v(b) strongly deviates from the mean between the heating and the cooling plate v(b,t). Normalizing all temperatures to the difference between the plates, the deviation remains constant for all Ra > 2 x 10(11).