scholarly journals The West Coast Thermal Trough: Mesoscale Evolution and Sensitivity to Terrain and Surface Fluxes

2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (8) ◽  
pp. 2869-2896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Brewer ◽  
Clifford F. Mass ◽  
Brian E. Potter
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Energy Equation ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
The West ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Thermodynamic Energy

Abstract Despite the significant impacts of the West Coast thermal trough (WCTT) on West Coast weather and climate, questions remain regarding its mesoscale structure, origin, and dynamics. Of particular interest is the relative importance of terrain forcing, advection, and surface heating on WCTT formation and evolution. To explore such questions, the 13–16 May 2007 WCTT event was examined using observations and simulations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. An analysis of the thermodynamic energy equation for these simulations was completed, as well as sensitivity experiments in which terrain or surface fluxes were removed or modified. For the May 2007 event, vertical advection of potential temperature is the primary driver of local warming and WCTT formation west of the Cascades. The downslope flow that drives this warming is forced by easterly flow associated with high pressure over British Columbia, Canada. When the terrain is removed from the model, the WCTT does not form and high pressure builds over the northwest United States. When the WCTT forms on the east side of the Cascades, diabatic heating dominates over the other terms in the thermodynamic energy equation, with warm advection playing a small role. If surface heat fluxes are neglected, an area of low pressure remains east of the Cascades, though it is substantially attenuated.

The Role of WISHE in the Rapid Intensification of Tropical Cyclones

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 3139-3160
Author(s):  
Chieh-Jen Cheng ◽  
Chun-Chieh Wu
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Rapid Intensification ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Peak Intensity ◽  
Before And After

Abstract This study examines the role of surface heat fluxes, particularly in relation to the wind-induced surface heat exchange (WISHE) mechanism, in the rapid intensification (RI) of tropical cyclones (TCs). Sensitivity experiments with capped surface fluxes and thus reduced WISHE exhibit delayed RI and weaker peak intensity, while WISHE could affect the evolutions of TCs both before and after the onset of RI. Before RI, more WISHE leads to faster increase of equivalent potential temperature in the lower levels, resulting in more active and stronger convection. In addition, TCs in experiments with more WISHE reach a certain strength earlier, before the onset of RI. During the RI period, more surface heat fluxes could provide convective instability in the lower levels, and cause a consequent development in the convective activity. More efficient intensification in a TC is found with higher surface heat fluxes and larger inertial stability, leading to a stronger peak intensity, more significant and deeper warm core in TC center, and the axisymmetrization of convection in the higher levels. In both stages, different levels of WISHE alter the thermodynamic environment and convective-scale processes. In all, this study supports the crucial role of WISHE in affecting TC intensification rate for TCs with RI.

scholarly journals Large-Eddy Simulation and Single-Column Modeling of Thermally Stratified Wind Turbine Arrays for Fully Developed, Stationary Atmospheric Conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1144-1162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Sescu ◽  
Charles Meneveau
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Stratification ◽  
Layer Structure ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Shear Stresses ◽  
Column Model ◽  
Large Eddy ◽  
Single Column ◽  
Single Column Model

AbstractEffects of atmospheric thermal stratification on the asymptotic behavior of very large wind farms are studied using large-eddy simulations (LES) and a single-column model for vertical distributions of horizontally averaged field variables. To facilitate comparisons between LES and column modeling based on Monin–Obukhov similarity theory, the LES are performed under idealized conditions of statistical stationarity in time and fully developed conditions in space. A suite of simulations are performed for different thermal stratification levels and the results are used to evaluate horizontally averaged vertical profiles of velocity, potential temperature, vertical turbulent momentum, and heat flux. Both LES and the model show that the stratification significantly affects the atmospheric boundary layer structure, its height, and the surface fluxes. However, the effects of the wind farm on surface heat fluxes are found to be relatively small in both LES and the single-column model. The surface fluxes are the result of two opposing trends: an increase of mixing in wakes and a decrease in mixing in the region below the turbines due to reduced momentum fluxes there for neutral and unstable cases, or relatively unchanged shear stresses below the turbines in the stable cases. For the considered cases, the balance of these trends yields a slight increase in surface flux magnitude for the stable and near-neutral unstable cases, and a very small decrease in flux magnitude for the strongly unstable cases. Moreover, thermal stratification is found to have a negligible effect on the roughness scale as deduced from the single-column model, consistent with the expectations of separation of scale.

scholarly journals Diagnosing Natural Variability of North Atlantic Water Masses in HadCM3

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1925-1941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Haines ◽  
Chris Old
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Layer ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Mode Waters ◽  
Winter Mixed Layer

Abstract A study of thermally driven water mass transformations over 100 yr in the ocean component of the Third Hadley Centre Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere General Circulation Model (HadCM3) is presented. The processes of surface-forced transformations, subduction and mixing, both above and below the winter mixed layer base, are quantified. Subtropical Mode Waters are formed by surface heat fluxes and subducted at more or less the same rate. However, Labrador Seawater and Nordic Seawater classes (the other main subduction classes) are primarily formed by mixing within the mixed layer with very little formation directly from surface heat fluxes. The Subpolar Mode Water classes are dominated by net obduction of water back into the mixed layer from below. Subtropical Mode Water (18°C) variability shows a cycle of formation by surface fluxes, subduction ∼2 yr later, followed by mixing with warmer waters below the winter mixed layer base during the next 3 yr, and finally obduction back into the mixed layer at 21°C, ∼5 yr after the original formation. Surface transformation of Subpolar Mode Waters, ∼12°C, are led by surface transformations of warmer waters by up to 5 yr as water is transferred from the subtropical gyre. They are also led by obduction variability from below the mixed layer, by ∼2 yr. The variability of obduction in Subpolar Mode Waters also appears to be preceded, by 3–5 yr, by variability in subduction of Labrador Sea Waters at ∼6°C. This supports a mechanism in which southward-propagating Labrador seawater anomalies below the subpolar gyre can influence the upper water circulation and obduction into the mixed layer.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Moist Static Energy in a Simulated Tropical Cyclone

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 319
Author(s):  
Lijun Yu ◽  
Shuhui Wu ◽  
Zhanhong Ma
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclone ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Moist Static Energy ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Static Energy ◽  
Radial Outflow

The characteristics of moist static energy (MSE) and its budget in a simulated tropical cyclone (TC) are examined in this study. Results demonstrate that MSE in a TC system is enhanced as the storm strengthens, primarily because of two mechanisms: upward transfer of surface heat fluxes and subsequent warming of the upper troposphere. An inspection of the interchangeable approximation between MSE and equivalent potential temperature (θe) suggests that although MSE is capable of capturing overall structures of θe, some important features will still be distorted, specifically the low-MSE pool outside the eyewall. In this low-MSE region, from the budget analysis, the discharge of MSE in the boundary layer may even surpass the recharge of MSE from the ocean. Unlike the volume-averaged MSE, the mass-weighted MSE in a fixed volume following the TC shows no apparent increase as the TC intensifies, because the atmosphere becomes continually thinner accompanying the warming of the storm. By calculating a mass-weighted volume MSE budget, the TC system is found to export MSE throughout its lifetime, since the radial outflow overwhelms the radial inflow. Moreover, the more intensified the TC is, the more export of MSE there tends to be. The input of MSE by surface heat fluxes is roughly balanced by the combined effects of radiation and lateral export, wherein a great majority of the imported MSE is reduced by radiation, while the export of MSE from the TC system to the environment accounts for only a small portion.

scholarly journals Intraseasonal Land–Atmosphere Coupling in the West African Monsoon

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (24) ◽  
pp. 6636-6648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
West African Monsoon ◽  
West African ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
The West ◽  
African Monsoon ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Via its impact on surface fluxes, subseasonal variability in soil moisture has the potential to feed back on regional atmospheric circulations, and thereby rainfall. An understanding of this feedback mechanism in the climate system has been hindered by the lack of observations at an appropriate scale. In this study, passive microwave data at 10.65 GHz from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite are used to identify soil moisture variability during the West African monsoon. A simple model of surface sensible heat flux is developed from these data and is used, alongside atmospheric analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), to provide a new interpretation of monsoon variability on time scales of the order of 15 days. During active monsoon periods, the data indicate extensive areas of wet soil in the Sahel. The impact of the resulting weak surface heat fluxes is consistent in space and time with low-level variations in atmospheric heating and vorticity, as depicted in the ECMWF analyses. The surface-induced vorticity structure is similar to previously documented intraseasonal variations in the monsoon flow, notably a westward-propagating vortex at low levels. In those earlier studies, the variability in low-level flow was considered to be the critical factor in producing intraseasonal fluctuations in rainfall. The current analysis shows that this vortex can be regarded as an effect of the rainfall (via surface hydrology) as well as a cause.

scholarly journals Numerical Analysis of a Mediterranean “Hurricane” over Southeastern Italy

2008 ◽  
Vol 136 (11) ◽  
pp. 4373-4397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Moscatello ◽  
Mario Marcello Miglietta ◽  
Richard Rotunno
Keyword(s):  
Latent Heat ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Configuration Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Lee Vortex ◽  
Set Up

Abstract The presence of a subsynoptic-scale vortex over the Mediterranean Sea in southeastern Italy on 26 September 2006 has been recently documented by the authors. The transit of the cyclone over land allowed an accurate diagnosis of the structure of the vortex, based on radar and surface station data, showing that the cyclone had features similar to those observed in tropical cyclones. To investigate the cyclone in greater depth, numerical simulations have been performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, set up with two domains, in a two-way-nested configuration. Model simulations are able to properly capture the timing and intensity of the small-scale cyclone. Moreover, the present simulated cyclone agrees with the observational analysis of this case, identifying in this small-scale depression the typical characteristics of a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone. An analysis of the mechanisms responsible for the genesis, development, and maintenance of the cyclone has also been performed. Sensitivity experiments show that cyclogenesis on the lee side of the Atlas Mountains is responsible for the generation of the cyclone. Surface sensible and latent heat fluxes become important during the subsequent phase of development in which the lee-vortex shallow depression evolved as it moved toward the south of Sicily. During this phase, the latent heating, associated with convective motions triggered by a cold front entering the central Mediterranean area, was important for the intensification and contraction of the horizontal scale of the vortex. The small-scale cyclone subsequently deepened as it moved over the Ionian Sea and then maintained its intensity during its later transit over the Adriatic Sea; in this later stage, latent heat release continued to play a major role in amplifying and maintaining the vortex, while the importance of the surface fluxes diminished.

scholarly journals Impacts of Atmospheric Reanalysis Uncertainty on Atlantic Overturning Estimates at 25°N

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (21) ◽  
pp. 8719-8744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen R. Pillar ◽  
Helen L. Johnson ◽  
David P. Marshall ◽  
Patrick Heimbach ◽  
So Takao
Keyword(s):  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Labrador Sea ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Ensemble Mean ◽  
Meridional Overturning ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Average Uncertainty

Atmospheric reanalyses are commonly used to force numerical ocean models, but despite large discrepancies reported between different products, the impact of reanalysis uncertainty on the simulated ocean state is rarely assessed. In this study, the impact of uncertainty in surface fluxes of buoyancy and momentum on the modeled Atlantic meridional overturning at 25°N is quantified for the period January 1994–December 2011. By using an ocean-only climate model and its adjoint, the space and time origins of overturning uncertainty resulting from air–sea flux uncertainty are fully explored. Uncertainty in overturning induced by prior air–sea flux uncertainty can exceed 4 Sv (where 1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) within 15 yr, at times exceeding the amplitude of the ensemble-mean overturning anomaly. A key result is that, on average, uncertainty in the overturning at 25°N is dominated by uncertainty in the zonal wind at lags of up to 6.5 yr and by uncertainty in surface heat fluxes thereafter, with winter heat flux uncertainty over the Labrador Sea appearing to play a critically important role.

scholarly journals Estimating surface fluxes over middle and upper streams of the Heihe River Basin with ASTER imagery

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 4619-4635 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ma ◽  
Y. Ma ◽  
Z. Hu ◽  
B. Su ◽  
J. Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Aster Data ◽  
Land Surface Heat Fluxes

Abstract. Surface fluxes are important boundary conditions for climatological modeling and the Asian monsoon system. Recent availability of high-resolution, multi-band imagery from the ASTER (Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) sensor has enabled us to estimate surface fluxes to bridge the gap between local scale flux measurements using micrometeorological instruments and regional scale land-atmosphere exchanges of water and heat fluxes that are fundamental for the understanding of the water cycle in the Asian monsoon system. A Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) method based on ASTER data and field observations has been proposed and tested for deriving net radiation flux (Rn), soil heat flux (G0), sensible heat flux (H) and latent heat flux (λ E) over heterogeneous land surface in this paper. As a case study, the methodology was applied to the experimental area of the WATER (Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research), located at the mid-to-upstream sections of the Heihe River, northwest China. The ASTER data of 3 May and 4 June in 2008 was used in this paper for the case of mid-to-upstream sections of the Heihe River Basin. To validate the proposed methodology, the ground-measured land surface heat fluxes (net radiation flux (Rn), soil heat flux (G0), sensible heat flux (H) and latent heat flux (λ E)) were compared to the ASTER derived values. The results show that the derived surface variables and land surface heat fluxes in different months over the study area are in good accordance with the land surface status. It is therefore concluded that the proposed methodology is successful for the retrieval of land surface heat fluxes using the ASTER data and filed observation over the study area.

The life cycle of cyclones, dry intrusions and cold fronts and their role in air-sea interaction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vered Silverman ◽  
Shira Raveh-Rubin ◽  
Jennifer Catto
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Extratropical Cyclones ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Cold Fronts ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Frontal Activity ◽  
Transient Events

<p>Air-sea interaction in the midlatitudes is modulated by the passage of extratropical cyclones and their trailing fronts. Particularly strong ocean heat loss (both sensible and latent) is observed in the post-cold frontal region. In this region, airmasses within the dry intrusion (DI) airstream descend slantwise from the upper troposphere towards the cold trailing front. As the cyclone case-to-case variability is high, understanding the co-occurrence of DIs, cold trailing fronts and cyclones is important for understanding the variability of surface fluxes, especially in regions not usually associated with frequent frontal activity.</p><p> </p><p>A climatological study quantifying the co-occurrence of fronts and DIs (Raveh-Rubin and Catto, 2019) found the presence of DIs to be associated with stronger surface heat fluxes. Here the climatological study is extended to account for the cyclone life-cycle by using feature-based identification and tracking in the ERA-Interim dataset, for the 1979-2018 winters. We focus on the relationship between extratropical cyclone characteristics, DIs and cold fronts, their co-evolution throughout the lifetime of a cyclone, and consequently their impact on air-sea interaction.</p><p> </p><p>We show that 65-80% of the extratropical cyclones in the storm track region are matched with DIs, mainly during the early stages of the intensification period. Furthermore, cyclones associated with DIs are longer lived, induce up to 50% stronger precipitation in the frontal regions, and up to 60% stronger evaporation, especially in the DI region of influence, compared to non-DI cyclones. These transient events of strong evaporation induced by DIs account up to 40% of the observed climatology, demonstrating the significant role transient weather systems play in the air-sea interaction, at times through a fairly remote influence of the cyclones.</p>

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