The response of a uniform horizontal temperature gradient to heating

Ambaum, M. H. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6824-8083 and Athanasiadis, P. J. (2007) The response of a uniform horizontal temperature gradient to heating. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 64 (10). pp. 3708-3716. ISSN 1520-0469 doi: 10.1175/JAS4038.1

Abstract/Summary

The response of a uniform horizontal temperature gradient to prescribed fixed heating is calculated in the context of an extended version of surface quasigeostrophic dynamics. It is found that for zero mean surface flow and weak cross-gradient structure the prescribed heating induces a mean temperature anomaly proportional to the spatial Hilbert transform of the heating. The interior potential vorticity generated by the heating enhances this surface response. The time-varying part is independent of the heating and satisfies the usual linearized surface quasigeostrophic dynamics. It is shown that the surface temperature tendency is a spatial Hilbert transform of the temperature anomaly itself. It then follows that the temperature anomaly is periodically modulated with a frequency proportional to the vertical wind shear. A strong local bound on wave energy is also found. Reanalysis diagnostics are presented that indicate consistency with key findings from this theory.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/844
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	instability; tropopause; atmosphere; waves
Publisher	American Meteorological Society
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