On the Orographically Generated Low-Level Easterly Jet and Severe Downslope Storms of March 2006 over the Tacheng Basin of Northwest China

Abstract

A high-latitude low-level easterly jet (LLEJ) and downslope winds, causing severe dust storms over the Tacheng basin of northwestern China in March 2006 when the dust source regions were previously covered by snow with frozen soil, are studied in order to understand the associated meteorological conditions and the impact of complex topography on the generation of the LLEJ. Observational analyses show the development of a large-scale, geostrophically balanced, easterly flow associated with a northeastern high pressure and a southeastern low pressure system, accompanied by a westward-moving cold front with an intense inversion layer near the altitudes of mountain ridges. A high-resolution model simulation shows the generation of an LLEJ of near-typhoon strength, which peaked at about 500 m above the ground, as well as downslope windstorms with marked wave breakings and subsidence warming in the leeside surface layer, as the large-scale cold easterly flow moves through a constricting saddle pass and across a higher mountain ridge followed by a lower parallel ridge, respectively. The two different airstreams are merged to form an intense LLEJ of cold air, driven mostly by zonal pressure gradient force, and then the LLEJ moves along a zonally oriented mountain range to the north. Results indicate the importance of the lower ridge in enhancing the downslope winds associated with the higher ridge and the importance of the saddle pass in generating the LLEJ. We conclude that the intense downslope winds account for melting snow, warming and drying soils, and raising dust into the air that is then transported by the LLEJ, generated mostly through the saddle pass, into the far west of the basin.