The Superposition of Eastward and Westward Rossby Waves in Response to Localized Forcing

Rossby waves are a principal form of atmospheric communication between disparate parts of the climate system. These planetary waves are typically excited by diabatic or orographic forcing and can be subject to considerable downstream modification. Because of differences in wave properties, including vertical structure, phase speed, and group velocity, Rossby waves exhibit a wide range of behaviors. This study demonstrates the combined effects of eastward-propagating stationary barotropic Rossby waves and westward-propagating very-low-zonal-wavenumber stationary barotropic Rossby waves on the atmospheric response to wintertime El Niño convective forcing over the tropical Pacific. Experiments are conducted using the Community Atmosphere Model, version 4.0, in which both diabatic forcing over the Pacific and localized relaxation outside the forcing region are applied. The localized relaxation is used to dampen Rossby wave propagation to either the west or east of the forcing region and isolate the alternate direction signal. The experiments reveal that El Niño forcing produces both eastward- and westward-propagating stationary waves in the upper troposphere. Over North Africa and Asia the aggregate undamped upper-tropospheric response is due to the superposition and interaction of these oppositely directed planetary waves that emanate from the forcing region and encircle the planet.

Multi-peak breather stability in a dissipative discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation

We study the stability of breather solutions of a dissipative cubic discrete NLS with localized forcing. The breathers are similar to the ones found for the Hamiltonian limit of the system. In the case of linearly stable multi-peak breathers the combination of dissipation and localized forcing also leads to stability, and the apparent damping of internal modes that make the energy around multi-peak breathers nondefinite. This stabilizing effect is however accompanied by overdamping for relatively small values of the dissipation parameter, and the appearance of near-zero stable eigenvalues.

Meridional trapping and zonal propagation of inertial waves in a rotating fluid shell

Inertial waves propagate in homogeneous rotating fluids, and constitute a challenging and simplified case study for the broader class of inertio-gravity waves, present in all geophysical and astrophysical media, and responsible for energetically costly processes such as diapycnal and angular momentum mixing. However, a complete analytical description and understanding of internal waves in arbitrarily shaped enclosed domains, such as the ocean or a planet liquid core, is still missing. In this work, the inviscid, linear inertial wave field is investigated by means of three-dimensional ray tracing in spherical shell domains, having in mind possible oceanographic applications. Rays are here classically interpreted as representative of energy paths, but in contrast to previous studies, they are now launched with a non-zero initial zonal component allowing for a more realistic, localized forcing and the development of azimuthal inhomogeneities. We find that meridional planes generally act in the shell geometry as attractors for ray trajectories. In addition, the existence of trajectories that are not subject to meridional trapping is here observed for the first time. Their dynamics was not captured by the previous purely meridional studies and unveils a new class of possible solutions for inertial motion in the spherical shell. Both observed behaviours shed some new light on possible mechanisms of energy localization, a key process that still deserves further investigation in our ocean, as well as in other stratified, rotating media.

Impulsive fluid forcing and water strider locomotion

This paper presents a study of the global response of a fluid to impulsive and localized forcing; it has been motivated by the recent laboratory experiments on the locomotion of water-walking insects reported in Hu, Chan & Bush (Nature, vol. 424, 2003, p. 663). These insects create both waves and vortices by their rapid leg strokes and it has been a matter of some debate whether either form of motion predominates in the momentum budget. The main result of this paper is to argue that generically both waves and vortices are significant, and that in linear theory they take up the horizontal momentum with share 1/3 and 2/3, respectively.This generic result, which depends only on the impulsive and localized nature of the forcing, is established using the classical linear impulse theory, with adaptations to weakly compressible flows and flows with a free surface. Additional general comments on experimental techniques for momentum measurement and on the wave emission are given and then the theory is applied in detail to water-walking insects.Owing to its generality, this kind of result and the methods used to derive it should be applicable to a wider range of wave–vortex problems in the biolocomotion of water-walking animals and elsewhere.

A High-Resolution Modeling Study of the 24 May 2002 Dryline Case during IHOP. Part I: Numerical Simulation and General Evolution of the Dryline and Convection

Results from a high-resolution numerical simulation of the 24 May 2002 dryline convective initiation (CI) case are presented. The simulation uses a 400 km × 700 km domain with a 1-km horizontal resolution grid nested inside a 3-km domain and starts from an assimilated initial condition at 1800 UTC. Routine as well as special upper-air and surface observations collected during the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) are assimilated into the initial condition. The initiation of convective storms at around 2015 UTC along a section of the dryline south of the Texas panhandle is correctly predicted, as is the noninitiation of convection at a cold-front–dryline intersection (triple point) located farther north. The timing and location of predicted CI are accurate to within 20 min and 25 km, respectively. The general evolution of the predicted convective line up to 6 h of model time also verifies well. Mesoscale convergence associated with the confluent flow around the dryline is shown to produce an upward moisture bulge, while surface heating and boundary layer mixing are responsible for the general deepening of the boundary layer. These processes produce favorable conditions for convection but the actual triggering of deep moist convection at specific locations along the dryline depends on localized forcing. Interaction of the primary dryline convergence boundary with horizontal convective rolls on its west side provides such localized forcing, while convective eddies on the immediate east side are suppressed by a downward mesoscale dryline circulation. A companion paper analyzes in detail the exact processes of convective initiation along this dryline.

A High-Resolution Modeling Study of the 24 May 2002 Dryline Case during IHOP. Part II: Horizontal Convective Rolls and Convective Initiation

In Part I of this paper, the timing and location of convective initiation along a dryline on 24 May 2002 were accurately predicted, using a large 1-km-resolution nested grid. A detailed analysis of the convective initiation processes, which involve the interaction of the dryline with horizontal convective rolls, is presented here. Horizontal convective rolls (HCRs) with aspect ratios (the ratio of roll spacing to depth) between 3 and 7 develop in the model on both sides of the dryline, with those on the west side being more intense and their updrafts reaching several meters per second. The main HCRs that interact with the primary dryline convergence boundary (PDCB) are those from the west side, and they are aligned at an acute angle with the dryline. They intercept the PDCB and create strong moisture convergence bands at the surface and force the PDCB into a wavy pattern. The downdrafts of HCRs and the associated surface divergence play an important role in creating localized maxima of surface convergence that trigger convection. The downward transport of westerly, southwesterly, or northwesterly momentum by the HCR downdrafts creates asymmetric surface divergence patterns that modulate the exact location of maximum convergence. Most of the HCRs have a partially cellular structure at their mature stage. The surface divergence flows help concentrate the background vertical vorticity and the vorticity created by tilting of environmental horizontal vorticity into vortex centers or misocyclones, and such concentration is often further helped by cross-boundary shear instability. The misocyclones, however, do not in general collocate with the maximum updrafts and, therefore, the points of convective initiation, but can help enhance surface convergence to their south and north. Sequences of convective cells develop at the locations of persistent maximum surface convergence, then move away from the source with the midlevel winds. When the initial clouds propagate along the convergence bands that trigger them, they grow faster and become more intense. While the mesoscale convergence of dryline circulation preconditions the boundary layer by deepening the mixed layer and lifting moist air parcels to their LCL, it is the localized forcing by the HCR circulation that determines the exact locations of convective initiation. A conceptual model summarizing the findings is proposed.