Abstract
The horizontal kinetic energy spectrum and its budget are analyzed on the basis of a general circulation model with simplistic parameterizations of radiative and latent heating. A spectral truncation at total wavenumber 330 is combined with a level spacing of either ~200 m or ~1.5 km from the midtroposphere to the lower stratosphere. The subgrid-scale parameterization consists of a Smagorinsky-type anisotropic diffusion scheme that is scaled by a Richardson criterion for dynamic instability and combined with a stress-tensor-based hyperdiffusion that acts only on the very smallest resolved scales. Simulations with both vertical resolutions show a transition from the synoptic −3 to the mesoscale
Current affiliation: Institute of Oceanography, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.