THE DYNAMICS OF LONG WAVES IN A BAROCLINIC WESTERLY CURRENT

Abstract

Previous studies of the long-wave perturbations of the free atmosphere have been based on mathematical models which either fail to take properly into account the continuous vertical shear in the zonal current or else neglect the variations of the vertical component of the earth's angular velocity. The present treatment attempts to supply both these elements and thereby to lead to a solution more nearly in accord with the observed behavior of the atmosphere. By eliminating from consideration at the outset the meteorologically unimportant acoustic and shearing-gravitational oscillations, the perturbation equations are reduced to a system whose solution is readily obtained. Exact stability criteria are deduced, and it is shown that the instability increases with shear, lapse rate, and latitude, and decreases with wave length. Application of the criteria to the seasonal averages of zonal wind suggests that the westerlies of middle latitudes are a seat of constant dynamic instability. The unstable waves are similar in many respects to the observed perturbations: The speed of propagation is generally toward the east and is approximately equal to the speed of the surface zonal current. The waves exhibit thermal asymmetry and a westward tilt of the wave pattern with height. In the lower troposphere the maximum positive vertical velocities occur between the trough and the nodal line to the east in the pressure field. The distribution of the horizontal mass divergence is calculated, and it is shown that the notion of a fixed level of nondivergence must be replaced by that of a sloping surface of nondivergence. The Rossby formula for the speed of propagation of the barotropic wave is generalized to a baroclinic atmosphere. It is shown that the barotropic formula holds if the constant value used for the zonal wind is that observed in the neighborhood of 600 mb.