Finite-Amplitude Behavior of a Single Baroclinic Wave with Multiple Vertical Modes: Effects of Thermal Damping
Open Access
- 1 January 1986
- journal article
- Published by American Meteorological Society in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Vol. 43 (1) , 58-71
- https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1986)043<0058:faboas>2.0.co;2
Abstract
The effects of thermal damping on the finite-amplitude behavior of a baroclinic wave are investigated using a quasi-geostrophic, β-plane model The model possesses high vertical resolution so that there are many vertical eddy modes, but both the wave field and the zonal-mean flow are truncated to a single horizontal mode; the wave-mean flow interaction is thus purely baroclinic. In addition to thermal dissipation, lower boundary Ekman friction is incorporated. The regime characteristics of the model are qualitatively fairly similar to those of the two-layer models previously studied. For sufficiently strong thermal damping, steady wave flows are obtained, while for weaker damping, nonsteady vacillating behavior is found. In the absence of damping the vacillations are relatively irregular and the minimum eddy amplitude relatively large, as has been found to be the case in the two-layer model with multiple horizontal wave modes. In the steady wave flows the mean flow is linearly neutral, and this ne... Abstract The effects of thermal damping on the finite-amplitude behavior of a baroclinic wave are investigated using a quasi-geostrophic, β-plane model The model possesses high vertical resolution so that there are many vertical eddy modes, but both the wave field and the zonal-mean flow are truncated to a single horizontal mode; the wave-mean flow interaction is thus purely baroclinic. In addition to thermal dissipation, lower boundary Ekman friction is incorporated. The regime characteristics of the model are qualitatively fairly similar to those of the two-layer models previously studied. For sufficiently strong thermal damping, steady wave flows are obtained, while for weaker damping, nonsteady vacillating behavior is found. In the absence of damping the vacillations are relatively irregular and the minimum eddy amplitude relatively large, as has been found to be the case in the two-layer model with multiple horizontal wave modes. In the steady wave flows the mean flow is linearly neutral, and this ne...Keywords
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