scholarly journals The importance of friction in mountain wave drag amplification by Scorer parameter resonance

2012 ◽  
Vol 138 (666) ◽  
pp. 1325-1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. C. Teixeira ◽  
J. L. Argaín ◽  
P. M. A. Miranda
2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (8) ◽  
pp. 2599-2613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald B. Smith ◽  
Christopher G. Kruse

Abstract We propose a simplified scheme to predict mountain wave drag over complex terrain using only the regional-average low-level wind components U and V. The scheme is tuned and tested on data from the South Island of New Zealand, a rough and highly anisotropic terrain. The effect of terrain anisotropy is captured with a hydrostatically computed, 2 × 2 positive-definite wave drag matrix. The wave drag vector is the product of the wind vector and the drag matrix. The nonlinearity in wave generation is captured using a Gaussian terrain smoothing inversely proportional to wind speed. Wind speeds of |U| = 10, 20, and 30 m s−1 give smoothing scales of L = 54, 27, and 18 km, respectively. This smoothing treatment of nonlinearity is consistent with recent aircraft data and high-resolution numerical modeling of waves over New Zealand, indicating that the momentum flux spectra shift to shorter waves during high-drag conditions. The drag matrix model is tested against a 3-month time series of realistic full-physics wave-resolving flow calculations. Correlation coefficients approach 0.9 for both zonal and meridional drag components.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 3093-3106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher G. Kruse

AbstractMountain ranges are regional features on Earth, as are the regions of mountain-wave drag (MWD) exerted by dissipating atmospheric gravity waves generated by flow over them. However, these regional drags have significant global- or zonal-mean impacts on Earth’s atmospheric general circulation (e.g., slowing of the polar night jet). The objective of this work is to understand the regional to global evolution of these impacts. The approach is to track the evolution of MWD-generated potential vorticity (PV) over the winter using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). Within an ensemble of winter-long runs with and without MWD, lower-stratospheric PV is generated over mountains and advected downstream, generating large-scale PV banners. These PV banners are diffused but survive this diffusion and are reinforced over downstream mountain ranges, accumulating into zonal-mean or global features within WACCM. A simple 2D model representing sources, advection, and diffusion of “passive PV” recreates the salient features in the WACCM results, suggesting the winter-long evolution of MWD-generated PV can be crudely understood in terms of horizontal advection and diffusion within a global vortex. In the Northern Hemisphere, cyclonic, equatorward PV banners accumulate zonally into a single zonally symmetric positive PV anomaly. The anticyclonic, poleward PV banners also accumulate into a zonally symmetric feature, but then diffuse over the North Pole into a negative PV polar cap. In the Southern Hemisphere, the same processes are at work, though the different geographic configuration of mountain ranges leads to different patterns of impacts.


1993 ◽  
Vol 119 (509) ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
BRANKO GRISOGONO ◽  
SARA C PRYOR ◽  
ROBERT E KEISLAR
Keyword(s):  

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 5081-5100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher G. Kruse ◽  
Ronald B. Smith ◽  
Stephen D. Eckermann

Abstract The vertical propagation and attenuation of mountain waves launched by New Zealand terrain during the Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) field campaign are investigated. New Zealand mountain waves were frequently attenuated in a lower-stratospheric weak wind layer between z = 15 and 25 km. This layer is termed a “valve layer,” as conditions within this layer (primarily minimum wind speed) control mountain wave momentum flux through it, analogous to a valve controlling mass flux through a pipe. This valve layer is a climatological feature in the wintertime midlatitude lower stratosphere above the subtropical jet. Mountain wave dynamics within this valve layer are studied using realistic Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model simulations that were extensively validated against research aircraft, radiosonde, and satellite observations. Locally, wave attenuation is horizontally and vertically inhomogeneous, evidenced by numerous regions with wave-induced low Richardson numbers and potential vorticity generation. WRF-simulated gravity wave drag (GWD) is peaked in the valve layer, and momentum flux transmitted through this layer is well approximated by a cubic function of minimum ambient wind speed within it, consistent with linear saturation theory. Valve-layer GWD within the well-validated WRF simulations was 3–6 times larger than that parameterized within MERRA. Previous research suggests increasing parameterized orographic GWD (performed in MERRA2) decreases the stratospheric polar vortex strength by altering planetary wave propagation and drag. The results reported here suggest carefully increasing orographic GWD is warranted, which may help to ameliorate the common cold-pole problem in chemistry–climate models.


2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Sharman ◽  
J. D. Doyle ◽  
M. A. Shapiro

AbstractThis study presents digital flight data recorder (DFDR) analyses and high-resolution numerical simulations relevant to a severe clear-air turbulence (CAT) encounter over western Greenland by a Boeing 777 aircraft at 10-km elevation at 1305 UTC 25 May 2010. The environmental flow was dominated by an extratropical cyclone to the southeast of the Greenland tip, resulting in easterly flow at all levels. The results of the analyses indicate that the CAT encounter was related to mountain-wave breaking on the western lee (downslope) of the Greenland plateau. The simulations were not of especially high resolution (5-km horizontal grid spacing) by today’s standards, yet the simulation results do produce large-amplitude lee waves and overturning in good agreement with the encounter location as indicated by the DFDR. The success of this and other simulations in reproducing mountain-wave turbulence (MWT) events suggests that operational implementation of high-resolution nonhydrostatic simulation models, possibly an ensemble of models, over MWT-prone areas could produce more reliable forecasts of MWT than are currently available using gravity-wave-drag or MWT-postprocessing algorithms derived from global weather prediction models of relatively coarse scale.


2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 1040-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. C. Teixeira ◽  
Pedro M. A. Miranda ◽  
Maria Antónia Valente

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