Stability of non-parallel and parallel basic flows in the semi-geostrophic model in isentropic coordinates

2014 ◽  
Vol 141 (690) ◽  
pp. 1624-1633
Author(s):  
Shuzhan Ren
Keyword(s):  
Isentropic Coordinates

Local Finite-Amplitude Wave Activity as a Diagnostic for Rossby Wave Packets

2018 ◽  
Vol 146 (12) ◽  
pp. 4099-4114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Ghinassi ◽  
Georgios Fragkoulidis ◽  
Volkmar Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Wave Packets ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Amplitude Wave ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Finite Amplitude Wave Activity ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

AbstractUpper-tropospheric Rossby wave packets (RWPs) are important dynamical features, because they are often associated with weather systems and sometimes act as precursors to high-impact weather. The present work introduces a novel diagnostic to identify RWPs and to quantify their amplitude. It is based on the local finite-amplitude wave activity (LWA) of Huang and Nakamura, which is generalized to the primitive equations in isentropic coordinates. The new diagnostic is applied to a specific episode containing large-amplitude RWPs and compared with a more traditional diagnostic based on the envelope of the meridional wind. In this case, LWA provides a more coherent picture of the RWPs and their zonal propagation. This difference in performance is demonstrated more explicitly in the framework of an idealized barotropic model simulation, where LWA is able to follow an RWP into its fully nonlinear stage, including cutoff formation and wave breaking, while the envelope diagnostic yields reduced amplitudes in such situations.

scholarly journals Quantifying tracer transport in the tropical lower stratosphere using WACCM

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 13245-13283 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Abalos ◽  
W. J. Randel ◽  
D. E. Kinnison ◽  
E. Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Latitudinal Gradients ◽  
Explicit Calculation ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Tracer Transport ◽  
Annual Cycles ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Eddy Transport ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

Abstract. The zonal mean transport of ozone and carbon monoxide (CO) near the tropical tropopause is investigated using the Whole-Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 4 (WACCM4). The variability in temperature, ozone and CO in the model shows good agreement with satellite and balloon observations. Modeled temperature and tracers exhibit large and closely coupled annual cycles in the tropical lower stratosphere, as in the observations. The thermodynamic and tracer budgets in the model are analyzed based on the Transformed Eulerian Mean (TEM) framework on log-pressure coordinates and also using the isentropic formulation. Results show that the coupled seasonal cycles are mainly forced by tropical upwelling over altitudes with large vertical tracer gradients, in agreement with previous observational studies. The model also allows explicit calculation of eddy transport terms, which make an important contribution to ozone tendencies in the tropical lower stratosphere. The character of the eddy fluxes changes with altitude. At higher levels (~2 km above the cold point tropopause), isentropic eddy transport occurs during winter and spring in each hemisphere in the sub-tropics, associated with transient Rossby waves acting on strong background latitudinal gradients. At lower altitudes, close to the tropical tropopause, there is a maximum in horizontal eddy transport during boreal summer associated with the Asian monsoon anticyclone. Sub-seasonal variability in ozone and CO, tied to fluctuations in temperature, is primarily driven by transient tropical upwelling. In isentropic coordinates, the overall tracer budgets are similar to the log-pressure results, highlighting cross-isentropic mean advection as the main term in the balance. However, in isentropic coordinates the tracer variability is largely reduced on both seasonal and sub-seasonal timescales, because the tracer and temperature fluctuations are highly correlated (as a response to upwelling).

scholarly journals Role of vertical and horizontal mixing in the tape recorder signal near the tropical tropopause

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 4337-4353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne A. Glanville ◽  
Thomas Birner
Keyword(s):  
Transport Model ◽  
Vertical Mixing ◽  
Vertical Transport ◽  
Tape Recorder ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Vertical Advection ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Horizontal Mixing ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

Abstract. Nearly all air enters the stratosphere through the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). The TTL therefore exerts a control on stratospheric chemistry and climate. The hemispheric meridional overturning (Brewer–Dobson) circulation spreads this TTL influence upward and poleward. Stratospheric water vapor concentrations are set near the tropical tropopause and are nearly conserved in the lowermost stratosphere. The resulting upward propagating tracer transport signal of seasonally varying entry concentrations is known as the tape recorder signal. Here, we study the roles of vertical and horizontal mixing in shaping the tape recorder signal in the tropical lowermost stratosphere, focusing on the 80 hPa level. We analyze the tape recorder signal using data from satellite observations, a reanalysis, and a chemistry–climate model (CCM). By modifying past methods, we are able to capture the seasonal cycle of effective vertical transport velocity in the tropical lowermost stratosphere. Effective vertical transport velocities are found to be multiple times stronger than residual vertical velocities for the reanalysis and the CCM. We also study the tape recorder signal in an idealized 1-D transport model. By performing a parameter sweep, we test a range of different strengths of transport contributions by vertical advection, vertical mixing, and horizontal mixing. By introducing seasonality into the transport strengths, we find that the most successful simulation of the observed tape recorder signal requires vertical mixing at 80 hPa that is multiple times stronger compared to previous estimates in the literature. Vertical mixing is especially important during boreal summer when vertical advection is weak. Simulating the reanalysis tape recorder requires excessive amounts of vertical mixing compared to observations but also to the CCM, which hints at the role of spurious dispersion due to data assimilation. Contrasting the results between pressure and isentropic coordinates allows for further insights into quasi-adiabatic vertical mixing, e.g., associated with overshooting convection or breaking gravity waves. Horizontal mixing, which takes place primarily along isentropes due to Rossby wave breaking, is captured more consistently in isentropic coordinates. Overall, our study emphasizes the role of vertical mixing in lowermost tropical stratospheric transport, which appears to be as important as vertical advection by the residual mass circulation. This questions the perception of the tape recorder as a manifestation of slow upward transport as opposed to a phenomenon influenced by quick and intense transport through mixing, at least near the tape head. However, due to the limitations of the observational dataset used and the simplicity of the applied transport model, further work is required to more clearly specify the role of vertical mixing in lowermost stratospheric transport in the tropics.

scholarly journals Wave Forcing of Zonal Mean Angular Momentum in Various Coordinate Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 2221-2229
Author(s):  
Joseph Egger ◽  
Klaus-Peter Hoinka
Keyword(s):  
Angular Momentum ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Coordinate Systems ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Flux Divergence ◽  
Standard Case ◽  
Wave Forcing ◽  
Momentum Budget ◽  
Flow Part ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

Abstract The wave forcing of the atmospheric mean flow in isentropic coordinates has been investigated intensively in the past with the divergence of the Eliassen–Palm flux playing a dominating role. These concepts are reviewed briefly and it is pointed out that angular momentum is attractive in this context because the wave driving can be written in the form of a flux divergence. This helps to evaluate the wave forcing in other coordinate systems with a different separation of waves and mean flow. The following coordinates are chosen: (λ, φ, z), (λ, φ, θ), and (λ, θ, z). To be consistent, only one type of zonal averaging should be used. Mass-weighted averaging is applied in the isentropic standard case and simple averaging is applied in the others. The wave driving is presented for all three systems. It has to balance essentially the mean-flow part of the “Coriolis term” in the angular momentum budget in (φ, z) and (θ, z) coordinates but not in the (φ, θ) system where the form drag is a mean-flow term and, therefore, the forcing pattern differs from what has been published so far.

Quasigeostrophic Potential Vorticity in Isentropic Coordinates

1993 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Berrisford ◽  
J. C. Marshall ◽  
A. A. White
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

scholarly journals The Spontaneous Imbalance of an Atmospheric Vortex at High Rossby Number

2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 2498-2521 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Schecter
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Formal Theory ◽  
Resonant Absorption ◽  
Critical Layer ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
Rossby Number ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Surface Drag ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

Abstract This paper discusses recent progress toward understanding the instability of a monotonic vortex at high Rossby number, due to the radiation of spiral inertia–gravity (IG) waves. The outward-propagating IG waves are excited by inner undulations of potential vorticity that consist of one or more vortex Rossby waves. An individual vortex Rossby wave and its IG wave emission have angular pseudomomenta of opposite sign, positive and negative, respectively. The Rossby wave therefore grows in response to producing radiation. Such growth is potentially suppressed by the resonant absorption of angular pseudomomentum in a critical layer, where the angular phase velocity of the Rossby wave matches the angular velocity of the mean flow. Suppression requires a sufficiently steep radial gradient of potential vorticity in the critical layer. Both linear and nonlinear steepness requirements are reviewed. The formal theory of radiation-driven instability, or “spontaneous imbalance,” is generalized in isentropic coordinates to baroclinic vortices that possess active critical layers. Furthermore, the rate of angular momentum loss by IG wave radiation is reexamined in the hurricane parameter regime. Numerical results suggest that the negative radiation torque on a hurricane has a smaller impact than surface drag, despite recent estimates of its large magnitude.

A Supercell Storm Simulation Using a Nonhydrostatic Cloud-Resolving Model Based on a Hybrid Isentropic-Sigma Vertical Coordinate

2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
pp. 1204-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Toy
Keyword(s):  
Mass Flux ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Implicit Time ◽  
Vertical Coordinate ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Supercell Storm ◽  
Coordinate Model ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

Abstract A three-dimensional simulation of a supercell storm is performed with a nonhydrostatic model based on a hybrid isentropic-sigma vertical coordinate. The coordinate is a terrain-following, height-based coordinate near the surface that smoothly transitions to potential temperature with height. Using isentropic coordinates provides the advantage of having zero cross-coordinate vertical mass flux for adiabatic flow, which virtually eliminates the numerical error in the vertical transport. The model uses an adaptive grid algorithm by which the coordinate surfaces may deviate from their target isentropes to maintain a sufficiently smooth mesh, while allowing the turbulence and vertical motion associated with convection to develop. The storm simulated by the hybrid-coordinate model compares well with simulations by Eulerian-coordinate models, but with the key difference being that the cross-coordinate mass flux is significantly smaller in much of the domain with the hybrid-coordinate model. A semi-implicit time-differencing scheme for numerically stabilizing vertically propagating acoustic modes in isentropic coordinates is also presented in the paper.

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