Momentum and Energy Transport by Gravity Waves in Stochastically Driven Stratified Flows. Part II: Radiation of Gravity Waves from a Gaussian Jet

Abstract

Abstract Interaction between the midlatitude jet and gravity waves is examined, focusing on the nonnormality of the underlying linear dynamics, which plays an essential role in processing the wave activity and selecting structures that dominate wave momentum and energy transport. When the interior of a typical midlatitude jet is stochastically forced, waves with short horizontal wavelength are trapped inside the jet and deposit momentum and energy at jet interior critical levels. Longer waves transport momentum and energy away from the jet, and the resulting momentum flux divergence produces a significant deceleration of the tropospheric and lower-stratospheric jet. This induced drag is found to depend on the shape of the jet and on the horizontal wavelength of the excited waves, reaching a maximum at wavelength λx = 20 km and leading to a deceleration O(1) m s−1 day−1 for a stochastic forcing rate of 0.1 W m−2 distributed over the height of the jet. This deceleration is robust to changes in static stability but is reduced when the stochastic forcing is correlated over too long a time. Implications of gravity wave absorption for middle-atmosphere circulation are discussed, focusing on differences implied for acceleration of the winter and summer midlatitude upper-stratospheric jets. The tropospheric flow is found not only to passively filter transiting waves, but also to amplify portions of the wave spectrum in conjunction with the distributed forcing, leading to enhanced gravity wave momentum and energy fluxes in agreement with observations linking middle-atmosphere enhanced variance with regions of high jet velocities.