Preliminary Estimates of Energy Conversion in a Weak Disturbance in the Easterlies

Abstract

The possible roles of the boundary flux of potential energy and the basic tropical easterly current in maintaining weak, quasi-steady, linear, lower tropospheric disturbances were examined for several map times utilizing the data from the Marshall Islands and adjacent areas. Although the results are approximate, it could be said, to a reasonable extent, that the boundary flux process and the vertical circulation associated with these disturbances tended to consume kinetic energy. Further, estimation of the energy exchange at 700 mb between the disturbance and the zonal current established the latter as a source only during the last two map times of the study. These provisional findings very indirectly suggest the importance of meso- and convective scales of motion in maintaining such quasi-linear disturbances.