Abstract
Although there have been many observational and modeling studies of gravity waves excited by topograpghy, the detailed structure and its changes in real world are still poorly understood. The interaction of topography and background flow are described in details for a better understanding of the gravity waves observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery over Nanling Mountains. The evolutionary process and spatial structure of gravity waves were investigated by using almost all available observational data, including MODIS satellite imagery, the Final Analyses (FNL) data issued by National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the aerosol backscattering signal data from Lidar, the surface observational data and the sounding data of Nanling mountain regions. In order to study its development mechanism, choosing the initial sounding of Jiangxi Gaizhou station located in the upstream of Nanling regions, and using the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS), the numerical simulation was performed. It is shown that the ARPS model reproduced the main features of gravity waves reasonably well, where the gravity waves and turbulent mixed layer are consistent with the satellite image and the aerosol backscattering signal from Lidar observation. It is well-known that gravity wave-induced turbulence and thus turbulent mixing could affect the local composition of chemical species, which plays a significant role in the formation of low visibility and precipitation associated with local orography.
Highlights
The study of flow over mountains and associated with gravity waves has a long history going back to the pio-How to cite this paper: Li, Z.L. and Zhou, J. (2014) Analyses and Numerical Modeling of Gravity Waves Generated by Flow over Nanling Mountains
It is concluded that lee waves are mainly determined by boundary layer depth, and the interaction of flow and boundary layer lead to the forming of lee waves, and the wave characters are subject to the evolution of boundary layer
Gravity waves have been documented in several areas of the earth atmosphere, and the availability of satellite imagery has made possible the detection of mountain wave cloud formation
Summary
The study of flow over mountains and associated with gravity waves has a long history going back to the pio-How to cite this paper: Li, Z.L. and Zhou, J. (2014) Analyses and Numerical Modeling of Gravity Waves Generated by Flow over Nanling Mountains. The study of flow over mountains and associated with gravity waves has a long history going back to the pio-. (2014) Analyses and Numerical Modeling of Gravity Waves Generated by Flow over Nanling Mountains. The extensive review of gravity wave dynamics have been given by Smith (1979, 2002) [4] [5], Durran (1990) [6], P. The cases of flow over an isolated two-dimensional hill or three-dimensional hill have been the subject of most researches, such as Smith (1979) [4], Smolarkiewicz and Rotunno (1989) [10], Queney (1948) [1], have stressed the important influence of hills on the atmospheric flow at both the synoptic scale and the meso-scale. Suzuki et al (2010, 2011 and 2013) [11]-[13] investigated the vertical propagation of waves from the lower atmosphere into the upper atmosphere
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