Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Source of Gravity Waves within a Vortex-Dipole Jet Revealed by a Linear Model

Shuguang Wang Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

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Fuqing Zhang Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

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Print Publication:
01 May 2010
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JAS3327.1
Page(s):
1438–1455
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Abstract

This study develops a linear numerical model to address the source mechanism of the gravity waves generated within a vortex dipole simulated in a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic mesoscale model. The background flow for this linear model is obtained from potential vorticity inversion constrained by the nonlinear balance equation. The forcing imposed in the linear model is derived from an imbalance in the large-scale flow—that is, the forcing or imbalance in the vorticity, divergence, and thermodynamic equations, respectively. The response from the sum of these imbalanced forcings obtained from the linear dynamics shows well-defined gravity wave signals, which compare reasonably well in terms of location, phase, and amplitude with the gravity waves simulated in a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic mesoscale model. It is found that the vorticity forcing, largely due to the advection of balanced relative vorticity, is the leading contributor to the gravity waves in the exit region of the vortex-dipole jet.

* Current affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York

Corresponding author address: Dr. Fuqing Zhang, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Email: fzhang@psu.edu

Abstract

This study develops a linear numerical model to address the source mechanism of the gravity waves generated within a vortex dipole simulated in a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic mesoscale model. The background flow for this linear model is obtained from potential vorticity inversion constrained by the nonlinear balance equation. The forcing imposed in the linear model is derived from an imbalance in the large-scale flow—that is, the forcing or imbalance in the vorticity, divergence, and thermodynamic equations, respectively. The response from the sum of these imbalanced forcings obtained from the linear dynamics shows well-defined gravity wave signals, which compare reasonably well in terms of location, phase, and amplitude with the gravity waves simulated in a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic mesoscale model. It is found that the vorticity forcing, largely due to the advection of balanced relative vorticity, is the leading contributor to the gravity waves in the exit region of the vortex-dipole jet.

* Current affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York

Corresponding author address: Dr. Fuqing Zhang, Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Email: fzhang@psu.edu

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