Model Study of Waves Generated by Convection with Direct Validation via Satellite

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1617-1631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison W. Grimsdell ◽  
M. Joan Alexander ◽  
Peter T. May ◽  
Lars Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Wave Pattern ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Cloud Resolving Model

Abstract Atmospheric gravity waves have a major effect on atmospheric circulation, structure, and stability on a global scale. Gravity waves can be generated by convection, but in many cases it is difficult to link convection directly to a specific wave event. In this research, the authors examine an event on 12 January 2003 when convective waves were clearly generated by a period of extremely intense rainfall in the region of Darwin, Australia, during the early morning. The waves were observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on board the Aqua satellite, and a dry version of a nonlinear, three-dimensional mesoscale cloud-resolving model is used to generate a comparable wave field. The model is forced by a spatially and temporally varying heating field obtained from a scanning radar located north of Darwin at Gunn Point. With typical cloud-resolving model studies it is generally not possible to compare the model results feature-for-feature with observations since although the model precipitation and small-scale heating may be similar to observations, they will occur at different locations and times. In this case the comparison is possible since the model is forced by the observed heating pattern. It is shown that the model output wave pattern corresponds well to the wave pattern observed by the AIRS instrument at the time of the AIRS overpass.

scholarly journals RECREATIONAL SURFING ON HAWAIIAN REEFS

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Walker ◽  
Robert Q. Palmer ◽  
Joseph K. Kukea
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Zone ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Hydraulic Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Model Study

Recreational surfing has been studied in Hawaii to develop criteria for the preservation, enhancement and design of surf sites. The criteria will aid in planning compatible uses of the coastal zone. Surfing characteristics and wave transformations were studied in the field and related to ocean bottom features at prime surf sites. A small scale, three dimensional, hydraulic model study was conducted to determine the effect that a given bottom feature had upon the surfing wave. A concept of a multiple-purpose surfing shoal to be compatible with several varied interests in the coastal zone was hypothesized from field, analytic, and model studies.

scholarly journals A Linear Theory of Three-Dimensional Land–Sea Breezes

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1890-1909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingfang Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Earth’S Rotation ◽  
Earth's Rotation ◽  
Motion Patterns ◽  
Sea Breezes ◽  
Differential Heating ◽  
Downwind Side

Abstract Land–sea breezes (LSBs) induced by diurnal differential heating are examined using a three-dimensional linear model employing fast Fourier transform with emphasis on the complex coastline shape and geometry, the earth’s rotation, and background wind effects. It has been demonstrated that the low-level vertical motion associated with LSB can be significantly enhanced over a bay (peninsula) because of convergence of perturbations induced by differential heating along a seaward concave (convex) coastline. The dependence of surface winds and vertical motion patterns and their evolutions on the coastline geometries such as the width and the aspect ratio of the bay, the earth’s rotation, and the background winds are investigated. The LSB induced by an isolated tropical island is characterized by onshore flow and ascent over the island in the afternoon to early evening, with a reversal of direction from midnight to early morning. The diurnal heating–induced vertical motion is greatly enhanced over the island and weakened offshore because of the convergence and divergence of perturbations. In the presence of background flow, stronger diurnal perturbations are found at the downwind side of the island, which can extend far downstream associated with inertia–gravity waves.

scholarly journals MOVABLE-BED MODEL STUDIES OF PERCHED BEACH CONCEPT

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
C.B. Chatham
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Normal Wave ◽  
Beach Erosion ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Final Design ◽  
Storm Wave ◽  
Wave Conditions ◽  
Movable Bed

Hydraulic model studies were conducted to aid in ascertaining the technical feasibility and optimum design factors of the perched beach concept. Among these were two-dimensional, movable-bed studies to determine an estimate of the amount of sand which would be lost seaward over the submerged toe structure by normal and storm wave action, the optimum elevation of the submerged toe structure, and the length of a stone blanket required to reduce seaward migration of sand to a minimum. The model beach was subjected to test waves until equilibrium was reached for a wide range of wave conditions for both the existing beach and the perched beach. Test results indicate that (a) little or no beachfill material will be lost seaward of the toe structure for normal wave conditions but the larger storm waves may cause erosion of the perched beach, (b) the installation of a stone blanket shoreward of the toe structure will reduce the amount of beach erosion, (c) if the beach fill is extended a sufficient distance seaward, the toe structure serves no useful purpose, and (d) a three-dimensional movable-bed model study is feasible and is necessary to determine the final design features of a perched beach.

scholarly journals A model study on the influence of overshooting convection on TTL water vapour

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 9833-9849 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. E. Hassim ◽  
T. P. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Cloud Resolving Model ◽  
Passive Tracers

Abstract. Overshooting deep convection that penetrates into the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) is thought to have an important role in regulating the water vapour content of this region. Yet, the net effect of such convection and the dominant mechanisms remain unclear. This study uses two idealised three-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulations to examine the influence of overshooting convection on water vapour when it penetrates into two different TTL environments, one supersaturated and the other subsaturated with respect to ice. These simulations show that the overshooting convection plays a direct role in driving the ambient environment towards ice saturation through either net moistening (subsaturated TTL) or net dehydration (supersaturated TTL). Moreover, in these cases the extent of dehydration in supersaturated conditions is greater than the moistening in subsaturated conditions. With the aid of modelled passive tracers, the relative roles of transport, mixing and ice microphysics are assessed; ultimately, ice sublimation and scavenging processes play the most important role in defining the different TTL relative humidity tendencies. In addition, significant moistening in both cases is modelled well into the subsaturated tropical lower stratosphere (up to 450 K), even though the overshooting turrets only reach approximately 420 K. It is shown that this moistening is the result of jumping cirrus, which is induced by the localised upward transport and mixing of TTL air following the collapse of the overshooting turret.

On non-dissipative wave–mean interactions in the atmosphere or oceans

1998 ◽  
Vol 354 ◽  
pp. 301-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIVER BÜHLER ◽  
MICHAEL E. McINTYRE
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
The Body ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Boussinesq Model ◽  
Flow Changes

Idealized model examples of non-dissipative wave–mean interactions, using small-amplitude and slow-modulation approximations, are studied in order to re-examine the usual assumption that the only important interactions are dissipative. The results clarify and extend the body of wave–mean interaction theory on which our present understanding of, for instance, the global-scale atmospheric circulation depends (e.g. Holton et al. 1995). The waves considered are either gravity or inertia–gravity waves. The mean flows need not be zonally symmetric, but are approximately ‘balanced’ in a sense that non-trivially generalizes the standard concepts of geostrophic or higher-order balance at low Froude and/or Rossby number. Among the examples studied are cases in which irreversible mean-flow changes, capable of persisting after the gravity waves have propagated out of the domain of interest, take place without any need for wave dissipation. The irreversible mean-flow changes can be substantial in certain circumstances, such as Rossby-wave resonance, in which potential-vorticity contours are advected cumulatively. The examples studied in detail use shallow-water systems, but also provide a basis for generalizations to more realistic, stratified flow models. Independent checks on the analytical shallow-water results are obtained by using a different method based on particle-following averages in the sense of ‘generalized Lagrangian-mean theory’, and by verifying the theoretical predictions with nonlinear numerical simulations. The Lagrangian-mean method is seen to generalize easily to the three-dimensional stratified Boussinesq model, and to allow a partial generalization of the results to finite amplitude. This includes a finite-amplitude mean potential-vorticity theorem with a larger range of validity than had been hitherto recognized.

scholarly journals Generation of gravity waves from thermal tides in the Venus atmosphere

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norihiko Sugimoto ◽  
Yukiko Fujisawa ◽  
Hiroki Kashimura ◽  
Katsuyuki Noguchi ◽  
Takeshi Kuroda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Cloud Layer ◽  
Dimensional Structure ◽  
Wave Radiation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Thermal Tides ◽  
Venus Atmosphere

AbstractGravity waves play essential roles in the terrestrial atmosphere because they propagate far from source regions and transport momentum and energy globally. Gravity waves are also observed in the Venus atmosphere, but their characteristics have been poorly understood. Here we demonstrate activities of small-scale gravity waves using a high-resolution Venus general circulation model with less than 20 and 0.25 km in the horizontal and vertical grid intervals, respectively. We find spontaneous gravity wave radiation from nearly balanced flows. In the upper cloud layer (~70 km), the thermal tides in the super-rotation are primary sources of small-scale gravity waves in the low-latitudes. Baroclinic/barotropic waves are also essential sources in the mid- and high-latitudes. The small-scale gravity waves affect the three-dimensional structure of the super-rotation and contribute to material mixing through their breaking processes. They propagate vertically and transport momentum globally, which decelerates the super-rotation in the upper cloud layer (~70 km) and accelerates it above ~80 km.

Transport and Mixing in the Extratropical Tropopause Region in a High-Vertical-Resolution GCM. Part II: Relative Importance of Large-Scale and Small-Scale Dynamics

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1315-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuyuki Miyazaki ◽  
Shingo Watanabe ◽  
Yoshio Kawatani ◽  
Kaoru Sato ◽  
Yoshihiro Tomikawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Wave ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Tropopause Region ◽  
High Vertical Resolution ◽  
Transport And Mixing ◽  
Extratropical Tropopause

Abstract The relative roles of atmospheric motions on various scales, from mesoscale to planetary scale, in transport and mixing in the extratropical tropopause region are investigated using a high-vertical-resolution general circulation model (GCM). The GCM with a vertical resolution of about 300 m explicitly represents the propagation and breaking of gravity waves and the induced transport and mixing. A downward control calculation shows that the Eliassen–Palm (E-P) flux of the gravity waves diverges and induces a mean equatorward flow in the extratropical tropopause region, which differs from the mean poleward flow induced by the convergence of large-scale E-P fluxes. The diffusion coefficients estimated from the eddy potential vorticity flux in tropopause-based coordinates reveal that isentropic motions diffuse air between 20 K below and 10 K above the tropopause from late autumn to early spring, while vertical mixing is strongly suppressed at around 10–15 K above the tropopause throughout the year. The isentropic mixing is mainly caused by planetary- and synoptic-scale motions, while small-scale motions with a horizontal scale of less than a few thousand kilometers largely affect the three-dimensional mixing just above the tropopause. Analysis of the gravity wave energy and atmospheric instability implies that the small-scale dynamics associated with the dissipation and saturation of gravity waves is a significant cause of the three-dimensional mixing just above the tropopause. A rapid increase in the static stability in the tropopause inversion layer is considered to play an important role in controlling the gravity wave activity around the tropopause.

scholarly journals A model study on the influence of overshooting convection on TTL water vapour

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 16969-17007
Author(s):  
M. E. E. Hassim ◽  
T. P. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Cloud Resolving Model ◽  
Passive Tracers

Abstract. Overshooting deep convection that penetrates into the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) is thought to have an important role in regulating the water vapour content of this region. Yet, the net effect of such convection and the dominant mechanisms remain unclear. This study uses two idealised three-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulations to examine the influence of overshooting convection on water vapour when it penetrates into two different TTL environments, one supersaturated and the other subsaturated with respect to ice. These simulations show that the overshooting convection plays a direct role in driving the ambient environment towards ice saturation through either net moistening (subsaturated TTL) or net dehydration (supersaturated TTL). Moreover, in these cases the extent of dehydration in supersaturated conditions is greater than the moistening in subsaturated conditions. With the aid of modelled passive tracers, the relative roles of transport, mixing and ice microphysics are assessed; ultimately, ice sublimation and scavenging processes play the most important role in defining the different TTL relative humidity tendencies. In addition, significant moistening in both cases is modelled well into the subsaturated tropical lower stratosphere (up to 450 K), even though the overshooting turrets only reach approximately 420 K. It is shown that this moistening is the result of jumping cirrus, which is induced by the localised upward transport and mixing of TTL air following the collapse of the overshooting turret.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Structure from Motion Technique for Measurement of Bed Morphology in Physical Model Studies

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 998
Author(s):  
Sanat Kumar Karmacharya ◽  
Nils Ruther ◽  
Ujjwal Shrestha ◽  
Meg Bahadur Bishwakarma
Keyword(s):  
Physical Model ◽  
Structure From Motion ◽  
Point Cloud ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Skilled Personnel ◽  
Dense Point ◽  
Point Data

The selection of instrumentation for data acquisition in physical model studies depends on type and resolution of data to be recorded, time frame of the model study, available instrumentation alternatives, availability of skilled personnel and overall budget of the model study. The available instrumentation for recording bed levels or three-dimensional information on geometry of a physical model range from simple manual gauges to sophisticated laser or acoustic sensors. In this study, Structure from Motion (SfM) technique was applied, on three physical model studies of different scales and study objectives, as a cheap, quicker, easy to use and satisfactorily precise alternative for recording 3D point data in form of colour coded dense point cloud representing the model geometry especially the river bed levels in the model. The accuracy of 3D point cloud generated with SfM technique were also assessed by comparing with data obtained from manual measurement using conventional surveying technique in the models and the results were found to be very promising.

scholarly journals Testing Lagrangian Theories of Internal Wave Spectra. Part I: Varying the Amplitude and Wavenumbers

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1077-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. Klaassen
Keyword(s):  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Wave Spectra ◽  
Wave Fields ◽  
Turbulent Eddies ◽  
Stretching Deformation ◽  
Hydrostatic Balance ◽  
Field Approaches

Abstract A growing body of literature has been built on the premise that kinematic advection produced by linear superpositions of sinusoidal Lagrangian gravity waves confined to lower vertical wavenumbers can provide an explanation for quasi-universal Eulerian spectral tails commonly found in the oceans and the atmosphere. Recently, Hines has established criteria delineating the circumstances in which Eulerian and Lagrangian spectra differ. For conditions in which Hines claims Lagrangian linearity and the production of quasi-universal Eulerian m−3 spectra, a kinematic advection model based on ensembles of seven nonstanding Lagrangian waves reveals the presence of gross violations of continuity and adiabaticity as well as severe departures from hydrostatic balance. Similar infractions are found for other seven-wave ensembles having a broad range of amplitudes and wavenumbers typical of saturated wave fields in the middle atmosphere. Furthermore, m−3 spectra are found only as the Lagrangian wave field approaches a singular state. The singularities in the Lagrangian to Eulerian transformation are induced by stretching deformation fields that form during the superposition of sinusoidal waves with nonparallel wave vectors. Such deformation fields are known to be unstable with respect to three-dimensional vortices. The results strongly suggest that saturated middle atmosphere wave fields are frequently accompanied by small-scale turbulent eddies.

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