Baroclinic adjustment and midlatitude temperature profiles

A baroclinic adjustment that alters the vertical temperature structure and shows how features of the observed midlatitude temperature structure can be understood in terms of such an adjustment is presented. The formulation of the adjustment and its properties are described, giving a comparison betwe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the atmospheric sciences 1985-01, Vol.42 (16), p.1733-1745
Main Author: Gutowski, W. J., Jr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
General circulation. Atmospheric waves
Meteorology
Meteorology And Climatology
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:A baroclinic adjustment that alters the vertical temperature structure and shows how features of the observed midlatitude temperature structure can be understood in terms of such an adjustment is presented. The formulation of the adjustment and its properties are described, giving a comparison between observed and adjusted profiles. Results from a simple model for the midlatitude atmosphere's vertical temperature structure that display such an adjustment are presented, and a comparison is made between the adjustment and two-layer model stability. The results suggest that vertical heat fluxes from baroclinically unstable waves can produce significant variations of midlatitude lapse rates in both height and time. Midlatitude models that omit these variations may be missing an important aspect of wave-mean flow interaction.
ISSN:0022-4928
1520-0469
DOI:10.1175/1520-0469(1985)042<1733:BAAMTP>2.0.CO;2