A diagnostic study of waves on the tropopause

Tomikawa, Y., Sato, K. and Shepherd, T. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6631-9968 (2006) A diagnostic study of waves on the tropopause. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 63 (12). pp. 3315-3332. ISSN 1520-0469 doi: 10.1175/JAS3800.1

Abstract/Summary

The spatial structure and phase velocity of tropopause disturbances localized around the subpolar jet in the Southern Hemisphere are investigated using 6-hourly European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis data covering 15 yr (1979–93). The phase velocity and phase structure of the tropopause disturbances are in good agreement with those of an edge wave vertically trapped at the tropopause. However, the vertical distribution of the ratio of potential to kinetic energy exhibits maxima above and below the tropopause and a minimum around the tropopause, in contradiction to edge wave theory for which the ratio is unity throughout the troposphere and stratosphere. This difference in vertical structure between the observed tropopause disturbances and edge wave theory is attributed to the effects of a finite-depth tropopause together with the next-order corrections in Rossby number to quasigeostrophic dynamics

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/31826
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	American Meteorological Society
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