the baroclinic adjustment is defined as the neutralization of the mean flow by eddies. with the amplitude growth of the baroclinic waves generated by an unstable mean flow, the eddy fluxes increase and act to reduce the meridional temperature gradient or vertical wind shear of the mean flow to subcritical value. this is believed to constitute the basic mechanism of baroclinic adjustment. the co...

The specific scientific objectives of this project are focused on studying the dynamical coupling between meandering baroclinic jets with the deep flow over steep topography. Emphasis is placed on the initialization of baroclinic jets in numerical models and improving our understanding of the life cycle of energetic flow perturbations excited by meandering of baroclinic jets. The gained knowled...

Two-layer equatorial primitive equations for the free troposphere in the presence of a thin atmospheric boundary layer and thermal dissipation are developed here. An asymptotic theory for the resonant nonlinear interaction of long equatorial baroclinic and barotropic Rossby waves is derived in the presence of such dissipation. In this model, a self-consistent asymptotic derivation establishes t...

This paper investigates the effect of baroclinic eddies on the structure of the Hadley cell. Self-consistent calculations of both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric circulations allow an unambiguous estimate of baroclinic eddy effects on the structure of the Hadley cell. Furthermore, a diagnostic analysis allows us to partition the influence of baroclinic eddies into ‘‘direct’’ and ‘‘indirect’’ r...

Fluctuating barotropic flow over sills in stratified water is subjected to baroclinic wave drag and accompanying barotropic to baroclinic energy transfer. In fjords, this process has notable consequences, for instance, tidal retardation across fjord sills, damping of barotropic seiches and enhanced diapycnal mixing in the basin water. These may be computed from simple models only including loca...

The adiabatic transit time of wave energy radiated by an Agulhas ring released in the South Atlantic Ocean to the North Atlantic Ocean is investigated in a two-layer ocean model. Of particular interest is the arrival time of baroclinic energy in the northern part of the Atlantic, because it is related to variations in the meridional overturning circulation. The influence of the Mid-Atlantic Rid...

We propose a nonlinear, quasi-geostrophic, baroclinic model of Jovian atmospheric dynamics, in which vertical variations of velocity are represented by a truncated sum over a complete set of orthogonal functions obtained by a separation of variables of the linearized quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity quation. A set of equations for the time variation of the mode amplitudes in the nonlinear ...

Results from an idealized three-dimensional baroclinic life-cycle model are interpreted in a potential vorticity (PV) framework to identify the physical mechanisms by which frictional processes acting in the atmospheric boundary layer modify and reduce the baroclinic development of a midlatitude storm. Considering a life cycle where the only non-conservative process acting is boundary-layer fri...

It is shown that the interaction of long, weakly nonlinear, quasigeostrophic baroclinic waves can be described by a pair of linearly coupled Korteweg–de Vries equations. Baroclinic energy conversion is investigated as the interaction of interacting upperand lower-layer structures, which are represented by solitary waves. This system exhibits a rich dynamics that is suggestive of atmospheric blo...

This paper presents a study of the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation and its interaction with convectively coupled waves in the context of simple models with crude vertical resolution. One and two baroclinic mode models are tested in both the context of a one-column model and the context of full spatial dependency that permits waves to propagate and interact with the diurnal cycle. It is ...