TROPOSPHERIC HEAT SOURCES AND SINKS AT WASHINGTON, D.C., SUMMER 1961, RELATED TO THE PHYSICAL FEATURES AND ENERGY BUDGET OF THE CIRCULATION

Abstract

Estimates of atmospheric heating in the troposphere at Washington, D.C., for each successive 12 hr. during June and July 1961, were used to study the relation between local heating and the large-scale features of the circulation, to determine the local production of available potential energy, and to assist in interpreting cloud and radiation data from meteorological satellites. Some interesting inter-connections are found between heating and the circulation: e.g., it is shown that there is a very critical phase relation between heating and the temperature field which is important in determining the generation or destruction of the atmosphere's potential energy. This suggests that special care is needed in designing numerical computations of diabatic heating. A major effort should be directed to interpreting satellite data in terms of the atmospheric heat budget, because such global estimates may be useful (using a procedure suggested in this paper) in determining the world-wide distribution of regions of maintenance or destruction of potential energy.