An analytical model of mountain wave drag for wind profiles with shear and curvature

Teixeira, M. A. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1205-3233, Miranda, P. M. A. and Valente, M. A. (2004) An analytical model of mountain wave drag for wind profiles with shear and curvature. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 61 (9). pp. 1040-1054. ISSN 1520-0469 doi: 10.1175/1520-0469(2004)061<1040:AAMOMW>2.0.CO;2

Abstract/Summary

An analytical model is developed to predict the surface drag exerted by internal gravity waves on an isolated axisymmetric mountain over which there is a stratified flow with a velocity profile that varies relatively slowly with height. The model is linear with respect to the perturbations induced by the mountain, and solves the Taylor–Goldstein equation with variable coefficients using a Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) approximation, formally valid for high Richardson numbers, Ri. The WKB solution is extended to a higher order than in previous studies, enabling a rigorous treatment of the effects of shear and curvature of the wind profile on the surface drag. In the hydrostatic approximation, closed formulas for the drag are derived for generic wind profiles, where the relative magnitude of the corrections to the leading-order drag (valid for a constant wind profile) does not depend on the detailed shape of the orography. The drag is found to vary proportionally to Ri21, decreasing as Ri decreases for a wind that varies linearly with height, and increasing as Ri decreases for a wind that rotates with height maintaining its magnitude. In these two cases the surface drag is predicted to be aligned with the surface wind. When one of the wind components varies linearly with height and the other is constant, the surface drag is misaligned with the surface wind, especially for relatively small Ri. All these results are shown to be in fairly good agreement with numerical simulations of mesoscale nonhydrostatic models, for high and even moderate values of Ri.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/29254
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology No Reading authors. Back catalogue items
Publisher	American Meteorological Society
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item