The Effects of Condensational Heating on Midlatitude Transient Waves in Their Mature Stage: Control Experiments with a GFDL General Circulation model

Abstract

The effects of condensational heating on midlatitude transient waves in their mature stage are re-examined by comparing moist and dry GFDL spectral general circulation models, both of which have all ocean surfaces with prescribed zonally uniform temperature. The zonal mean states of both models are fixed in time. so as to he identical throughout the time integration. It is found that the transient eddy kinetic energy is significantly enhanced for all wavenumbers by the effect of latent beat release. This increase is primarily due to an increase in baroclinic conversion from the zonal available potential energy and only partly due to the generation of eddy available potential energy by condensational heating.