Atmospheric and environmental Physics

PH3022 6

Waves in the Atmosphere

Perturbation method Properties of wave Shallow water gravity wave Planetary Rossby wave

Perturbation method
All field variables are separated into two parts (a) a basic state part and (b) a deviation from the basic state

Assumptions
Basic state variables must satisfy the governing equations when perturbations are set to zero The perturbation fields must be small enough so that all terms in the governing equations that involve products of the perturbations can be neglected

Perturbation method
If the terms that are products of the perturbation variables are neglected, the nonlinear governing equations are reduced to linear differential equations in the perturbation variables inn which the basic state variables are specified coefficients The equations can then be solved by standard methods to determine the character and structure of the perturbations in terms of the known basic state

Perturbation method
For equations with constant coefficients the solutions are sinusoidal in character Solution determines propagation speed, vertical structure, conditions for growth or decay of waves Useful in studying the stability of a given basic state flow with respect to small superposed perturbations

Atmospheric waves
Perturbations in the atmosphere can be represented as Fourier series of sinusoidal components. If L is distance around latitude circle, s is planetary wave number (an integer designating number of waves around latitude circle) then:

Atmospheric waves

 For a group of waves added together each component has its own wavenumber and phase speed Waves in which the phase speed varies with k are called dispersive. Various sinusoidal components originating at a given location are found in different places at a later time For non-dispersive waves phase speeds are independent of the wave number

Vorticity
Absolute vorticity is sum of the vorticity of air relative to Earth and Earths vorticity (relative vorticity+coriolis parameter) Absolute vorticity will change if air mass is stretched or compressed. But if it is divided by the vertical spacing between levels of constant entropy (or potential temperature) then the result is a conserved quantity of adiabatic flow called potential vorticity

 is called stream function. Velocity of flow can be represented as partial derivatives of stream function at a given point