Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Energy of Midlatitude Transient Eddies in Idealized Simulations of Changed Climates

Paul A. O’Gorman California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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Tapio Schneider California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

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Print Publication:
15 Nov 2008
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2099.1
Page(s):
5797–5806
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Abstract

As the climate changes, changes in static stability, meridional temperature gradients, and availability of moisture for latent heat release may exert competing effects on the energy of midlatitude transient eddies. This paper examines how the eddy kinetic energy in midlatitude baroclinic zones responds to changes in radiative forcing in simulations with an idealized moist general circulation model. In a series of simulations in which the optical thickness of the longwave absorber is varied over a wide range, the eddy kinetic energy has a maximum for a climate with mean temperature similar to that of present-day earth, with significantly smaller values both for warmer and for colder climates. In a series of simulations in which the meridional insolation gradient is varied, the eddy kinetic energy increases monotonically with insolation gradient. In both series of simulations, the eddy kinetic energy scales approximately linearly with the dry mean available potential energy averaged over the baroclinic zones. Changes in eddy kinetic energy can therefore be related to the changes in the atmospheric thermal structure that affect the mean available potential energy.

* Current affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Corresponding author address: Paul O’Gorman, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 54-1616, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Email: pog@caltech.edu

Abstract

As the climate changes, changes in static stability, meridional temperature gradients, and availability of moisture for latent heat release may exert competing effects on the energy of midlatitude transient eddies. This paper examines how the eddy kinetic energy in midlatitude baroclinic zones responds to changes in radiative forcing in simulations with an idealized moist general circulation model. In a series of simulations in which the optical thickness of the longwave absorber is varied over a wide range, the eddy kinetic energy has a maximum for a climate with mean temperature similar to that of present-day earth, with significantly smaller values both for warmer and for colder climates. In a series of simulations in which the meridional insolation gradient is varied, the eddy kinetic energy increases monotonically with insolation gradient. In both series of simulations, the eddy kinetic energy scales approximately linearly with the dry mean available potential energy averaged over the baroclinic zones. Changes in eddy kinetic energy can therefore be related to the changes in the atmospheric thermal structure that affect the mean available potential energy.

* Current affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Corresponding author address: Paul O’Gorman, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 54-1616, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Email: pog@caltech.edu

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