Identification

Title

Numerical modeling of gravity wave generation by deep tropical convection

Abstract

Although convective clouds are known to generate internal gravity waves, the mechanisms responsible are not well understood. The present study seeks to clarify the dynamics of wave generation using a high-resolution numerical model of deep convection over the Tiwi Islands, Australia. The numerical calculations presented explicitly resolve both the mesoscale convective cloud cluster and the gravity waves generated. As the convective clouds evolve, they excite gravity waves, which are prominent features of the model solutions in both the troposphere and stratosphere. The source location is variable in time and space but is related to the development of individual convective cells. The largest amplitude gravity waves are generated when the cloud tops reach the upper troposphere. A new analysis technique is introduced in which the nonlinear terms in the governing equations are taken as the forcing for linear gravity waves. The analysis shows that in the present calculation, neither the shear nor the diabatic heating are the dominant forcing terms. Instead, the wave source is most easily understood when viewed in a frame of reference moving with the wind at the level of neutral buoyancy, whereupon the source may be described as a vertically oriented, oscillating convective updraft. This description is consistent with the properties of the modeled stratospheric waves.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cc118q

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2001-05-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2001 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license form the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyright@ametsoc.org.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact