Propagation of Low-Level Circulation Features in the Vicinity of Mountain Ranges

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Abstract
The local influence of mountains upon large- and synoptic-scale low-level atmospheric circulations is investigated in this study. The sea-level pressure associated with low-frequency fluctuations exhibit phase propagation of monopolar structures around mountains in an anticyclonic sense, while the corresponding 500 mb height patterns are relatively stationary and evolve in a manner consistent with the concept of Rossby wave dispersion on a sphere. The sea-level pressure patterns in the high-pass filtered data exhibit characteristics of synoptic-scale baroclinic waves and are steered around mountain ranges in an anticyclonic sense, while the corresponding 500 mb height patterns propagate nearly parallel to the time-mean flow in the middle troposphere. It is hypothesized that the phase propagation of lower tropospheric circulation patterns is a reflection of the conservation of potential vorticity in flows over variable terrain. Most of the observations presented in this study are interpreted as th... Abstract The local influence of mountains upon large- and synoptic-scale low-level atmospheric circulations is investigated in this study. The sea-level pressure associated with low-frequency fluctuations exhibit phase propagation of monopolar structures around mountains in an anticyclonic sense, while the corresponding 500 mb height patterns are relatively stationary and evolve in a manner consistent with the concept of Rossby wave dispersion on a sphere. The sea-level pressure patterns in the high-pass filtered data exhibit characteristics of synoptic-scale baroclinic waves and are steered around mountain ranges in an anticyclonic sense, while the corresponding 500 mb height patterns propagate nearly parallel to the time-mean flow in the middle troposphere. It is hypothesized that the phase propagation of lower tropospheric circulation patterns is a reflection of the conservation of potential vorticity in flows over variable terrain. Most of the observations presented in this study are interpreted as th...

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