Abstract

The vertical wavenumber and frequency spectra of horizontal wind and temperature in stochastically driven systems with diffusion, either due to uniform background eddy and molecular transport, or due to adjustment processes associated with shear or convective instability, are studied. Because of the dominating role of vertical transport in a stratified fluid, one-dimensional Langevin-type equations could be ascribed to such systems in the vertical direction. The linear equation with uniform diffusion is solved explicitly, and the spectra follow power-law distributions if the stochastic force is Gaussian. The nonlinear equations with gradient (either shear or lapse rate) dependent diffusion coefficients are shown to support scale invariance, and the power-law indices of the spectra are determined from dynamic renormalization group (DRG) analysis under rather general conditions. The exact power-law indices vary with the spectrum of the stochastic force and the nonlinearity of the systems. If the wavenumber spectrum of the force is moderately red (between k ⁰ and k ⁻²), the spectral indices of horizontal wind and temperature and the range of their variability are in general agreement with those inferred from wind and temperature measurements. The indices in both linear and nonlinear cases are confirmed by numerical simulations. This theory may suggest an alternative explanation to the universal vertical wavenumber and frequency spectra and their variability. By relating the universal spectra to systems characterized by stochastic forcing and background diffusion or diffusive adjustment due to shear or convective instability, which are ubiquitous in a stratified fluid, the difficulty to associate the time- and location-independent spectral features directly with the highly time- and location-dependent gravity waves or wave-breaking events is avoided. If such systems are suggestive of the real atmosphere, there is a need to be cautious in making assumptions regarding gravity waves solely based on the universal spectra when analyzing and interpreting wind and temperature observations.

Abstract

Wind generated Pressure inside buildings, normally referred to as “internal pressure” in engineering literature, has a profound effect on the atmospheric pressure measured with indoor barometers during severe storms. The magnitude of the internal pressure is proportional to the dynamic pressure (stagnation pressure) which in turn increases with the square of the wind speed. Normally, this pressure is negative, and it has a magnitude in the neighborhood of 50% of the stagnation pressure. Its value changes drastically when an opening such as a door or window is opened or broken in high winds. The internal pressure also fluctuates readily with the fluctuations of the external pressure when a large opening exists. Surface pressure measurements taken in severe storms may contain serious errors if this internal pressure effect is not corrected. The paper summarizes latest research findings on internal pressure reported in the literature, and explores their implications to meteorology—especially to the study of severe storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Measures to correct or reduce the error generated by internal pressure are also discussed.

Abstract

A new radiation scheme, suitable for two-stream radiation transfer models, was developed for cirrus clouds. Analytical expressions were derived for the extinction and absorption coefficients and the asymmetry parameter. These are functions of the ice particle size distribution parameters, ice particle shapes, and wavelength. The ice particle shapes considered were hexagonal plates and columns, bullet rosettes, and planar polycrystals. These appear to be the principal crystal types found in cirrus clouds. The formulation of radiative properties accounts for the size distribution projected area and the distance radiation travels through ice particles. For absorption, refraction and internal reflection of radiation were parameterized.

By assuming an idealized cirrus cloud, the dependence of the single scatter albedo, reflectance, and emissivity on wavelength, ice particle shape, and size distribution was demonstrated. Reflectance and emissivity exhibited a strong dependence on ice particle shape, with planar polycrystals and bullet rosettes often being twice or more reflective than hexagonal columns and plates.

The radiation scheme was tested with microphysical and radiation measurements from two cirrus cloud field studies. It was shown for both case studies that, by matching observed and predicted albedo-emissivity curves, the radiation scheme could predict the observed mean ice particle size and ice water path (IWP), provided the dominant ice particle shape was known or inferred. Retrieved IWP values differed from measurement-derived values by ≤15% for the first case study and 18% on average for the second case study. Hence, it may be feasible to retrieve realistic IWP estimates from satellite data for a given ice particle shape.

Other radiation schemes have not been able to explain the second case study, which was characterized by relatively high albedos. These high albedos appeared to result from unusually small hexagonal plate crystals having asymmetry parameter values similar to those of cloud droplets.

An improved treatment of the asymmetry parameter was not the primary reason for the good agreement between theory and observations. Rather, key factors appeared to be improved treatments of ice particle photon path, projected area and mass, and the omission of certain physical processes included in Mie theory that may not be appropriate for ice particles.

The radiative properties were predicted from analytical expressions, making this scheme useful for predicting radiative properties in large-scale models without excessive increases in computation time.

Abstract

Because of the randomness associated with sampling from a population of raindrops, variations in the data reflect some undetermined mixture of sampling variability and inhomogeneity in the precipitation. Better understanding of the effects of sampling variability can aid in interpreting drop size observations. This study begins with a Monte Carlo simulation of the sampling process and then evaluates the resulting estimates of the characteristics of the underlying drop population. The characteristics considered include the liquid water concentration and the reflectivity factor; the maximum particle size in each sample is also determined. The results show that skewness in the sampling distributions when the samples are small (which is the usual case in practice) produces a propensity to underestimate all of the characteristic quantities. In particular, the distribution of the sample maximum drop sizes suggests that it may be futile to try to infer an upper truncation point for the size distribution on the basis of the maximum observed particle size.

Resulting paired values, for example, of Z and W for repeated sampling, were plotted on the usual type of log–log scatterplots. This yielded quite plausible-looking Z–R and Z–W relationships even though the parent drop population (and, hence, the actual values of the quantities) was unchanging; the “relationships” arose entirely from the sampling variability. Moreover, if the sample size is small, the sample points are shown to be necessarily displaced from the point corresponding to the actual population values of the variables. Consequently, any assessment of the “accuracy” of a Z–R relationship based on drop size data should include some consideration of the numbers of drops involved in the samples making up the scatterplot.

Abstract

Tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) exhibits a significant interdecadal variation during 1960–2011, with two distinct active and inactive periods each. This study examines changes in TC activity and atmospheric conditions in the recent inactive period (1998–2011). The overall TC activity shows a significant decrease, which is partly related to the decadal variation of TC genesis frequency in the southeastern part of the WNP and the downward trend of TC genesis frequency in the main development region.

The investigation on the factors responsible for the low TC activity mainly focuses on the effect of vertical wind shear and subtropical high on multidecadal time scales. A vertical wind shear index, defined as the mean magnitude of the difference of the 200- and 850-hPa horizontal zonal winds (10°–17.5°N, 150°E–180°) averaged between June and October, is highly correlated with the annual TC number and shows a significant interdecadal variation. Positive anomalies of vertical wind shear are generally found in the eastern part of the tropical WNP during this inactive period. A subtropical high area index, calculated as the area enclosed by the 5880-gpm line of the June–October 500-hPa geopotential height (0°–40°N, 100°E–180°), shows a significant upward trend. A high correlation is also found between this index and the annual TC number, and a stronger-than-normal subtropical high is generally observed during this inactive period. The strong vertical wind shear and strong subtropical high observed during 1998–2011 together apparently lead to unfavorable atmospheric conditions for TC genesis and hence the low TC activity during the period.

Abstract

The problem of water waves propagating over a mud bottom, characterized as a laminar viscous fluid, is treated in several ways. First, two complete models are present, each valid for different lower (mud) layer depths, and second, a boundary layer model is presented as an appendix for the case where the lower layer is thick with respect to the boundary layer.

These models are compared to the shallow water model and experimental results of Gade (1957, 1958) and agree well. The results show that extremely high wave attenuation rates are possible when the thickness of the lower layer is the same order as the internal boundary layer thickness and when the lower layer is thick.

Abstract

The distribution of latent heating released by mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) plays a crucial role in global energy and water cycles. To investigate the characteristics of MCS latent heating, five years (2014–19) of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ku-band Precipitation Radar observations and latent heating retrievals are combined with a newly developed global high-resolution (~10 km, hourly) MCS tracking dataset. The results suggest that midlatitude MCSs are shallower and have a lower maximum precipitation rate than tropical MCSs. However, MCSs occurring in the midlatitudes have larger precipitation areas and higher stratiform rain volume fraction, in agreement with previous studies. With substantial spatial and seasonal variability, MCS latent heating profiles are top-heavier in the middle and high latitudes than those in the tropics. Larger magnitudes of latent heating in the stratiform regions are found over the ocean than over land, which is the case for both the tropics and midlatitudes. The larger magnitude is related to a larger precipitating area/volume rather than a higher storm height or more intense convective core typically associated with land systems. A majority of midlatitude MCSs have a relatively high (>70%) stratiform fraction while this is not the case for tropical MCSs, suggesting that midlatitude MCSs tend to produce more stratiform rain while tropical MCSs are more convective. Importantly, the results of this study indicate that storm intensity, latent heating, and rainfall are different metrics of MCSs that can provide multiple constraints to inform development of convection parameterizations in global models.

Abstract

The sizes of the tropical cyclones (TCs) occurring over the western North Pacific (WNP) and the North Atlantic between 1991 and 1996 are estimated to establish a database for the study of the climatology of TC size and the physical processes responsible for the size changes of TCs. Wind data from the scatterometer onboard the European Remote-Sensing Satellites 1 and 2 (ERS-1 and ERS-2) form the data source for defining the TC size. The size of a TC is defined as the mean radius at which the relative vorticity decreases to 1 × 10⁻⁵ s⁻¹. The mean TC size is found to be 3.7° lat for WNP TCs and 3.0° lat for those in the North Atlantic. Such a difference in size between the two basins is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The mean TC size in the WNP is also found to vary seasonally, with a value larger in the late season (October and November) than in midsummer (July and August). These results generally agree with those from previous studies using other measures of size. The size changes (increasing or decreasing) of some TCs are also identified. The high-resolution surface wind data from the ERS satellites are shown to be a valuable tool in the study of TC sizes.

Abstract

The remote impact of tropical Pacific and North Atlantic climate forcing on the tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability is assessed using both a traditional statistical correlation method and a model-aided dynamic method. Consistently, both assessment methods suggest that the remote impact contributes to nearly half of the variance of the tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability at interannual and decadal time scales. In the meantime, the other half of the sea surface temperature variability is generated predominantly in the tropical Atlantic climate system, with local ocean–atmosphere coupling playing a critical role. Furthermore, the leading sea surface temperature variability modes seem also to originate predominantly internally in the tropical Atlantic climate system. The main effect of the remote impact is therefore an enhancement of the variance of these variability modes. This model study also shows some differences between the statistical and dynamic assessment methods, which may have implications on the methodology of the assessment as well as the dynamics of the system.

Abstract

This study examines the interdecadal variability of the tropical cyclone (TC) tracks over the western North Pacific (WNP) during the 1960–2005 period. An empirical orthogonal function analysis of the 10-yr Gaussian-filtered annual frequency of TC occurrence shows three leading modes of TC occurrence patterns. The first mode is related to the variation of TC activity in the areas near Japan and its east. The second mode is characterized by a northeast–southwest dipole of TC occurrence anomalies along the southeast coast of China and an east–west dipole near Japan and its east. The third mode is similar to the second mode, except for the absence of the east–west dipole. These patterns are shown to be related to the decadal changes in the prevailing TC tracks.

Two characteristic flow patterns related to the first and third modes of TC occurrence pattern are identified. The first pattern is characterized by a north–south dipole of 500-hPa geopotential anomalies over the WNP. Such a pattern may affect the strength and westward extension of the subtropical high and the midlevel steering flow and hence the TC occurrence pattern. The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is found to display a similar dipole-like structure. The decadal variability of TC tracks may therefore be partly attributed to the PDO signal. The second characteristic pattern shows a series of anomalous midlevel atmospheric circulations extending from the sea east of Japan to the south coast of China, which may explain the other part of the decadal variations.