Effects of Tropospheric Wind Shear on the Spectrum of Convectively Generated Gravity Waves

Abstract

The authors examine the effects of tropospheric wind shear on the phase speed spectrum of gravity waves generated by tropical convection. A two-dimensional cloud-resolving model is used to perform numerous squall line simulations with the vertical shear of the horizontal wind varied in three layers of the troposphere. Several simplified simulations using prescribed heating are also performed to elucidate the interactions of wind shear with thermal forcing. It is found that the dominant phase speed range of convectively generated stratospheric gravity waves is primarily determined by the vertical scale of the tropospheric heating and is then modified by the tropospheric wind. The gravity wave spectrum is especially sensitive to shear in the upper troposphere. Through a mechanism similar to critical level filtering, such shear acts to reduce the momentum flux of waves propagating in the same direction as the storm-relative mean wind. Through interaction with convective turrets, shear in the upper troposphere increases the momentum flux of waves propagating opposite to the storm-relative mean wind (the ?obstacle effect?). The resulting spectrum of momentum fluxes produced by convectively generated gravity waves is generally not symmetric in the east and west directions; the east?west asymmetry depends primarily on the difference between the wind above the storm and the storm's motion. Thus, it is important that the effects of tropospheric wind shear be included in any attempt to parameterize the effects of gravity wave stress and turbulence in general circulation models.