The propagation of atmospheric Rossby gravity waves in latitudinally sheared zonal flows

Abstract

Using the B-plane approximation we formulate the equations which govern small perturbations in a rotating atmosphere and describe a wide class of possible wave motions, in the presence of a background zonal flow, ranging from ‘moderately high’ frequency acoustic-gravity-inertial waves to ‘low’ frequency planetary-scale (Rossby) waves. The discussion concentrates mainly on the propagation properties of Rossby waves in various types of latitudinally sheared zonal flows which occur at different heights and seasons in the earth’s atmosphere. However, it is first shown that gravity waves in a latitudinally sheared zonal flow exhibit critical latitude behaviour where the ‘intrinsic ’ wave frequency matches the Brunt-Vaisala frequency (in contrast to the case of gravity waves in a vertically sheared flow where a critical layer exists where the horizontal wave phase speed equals the flow speed) and that the wave behaviour near such a latitude is similar to that of Rossby waves in the vicinity of their critical latitudes which occur where the ‘intrinsic’ wave frequency approaches zero. In the absence of zonal flow in the atmosphere the geometry of the planetary wave dispersion equation (which is described by a highly elongated ellipsoid in wave-number vector space) implies that energy propagates almost parallel to the /--planes. This feature may provide a reason why there seems to be so little coupling between planetary scale motions in the lower and upper atmosphere. Planetary waves can be made to propagate eastward, as well as westward, if they are evanescent in the vertical direction. The W.K.B. approximation, which provides an approximate description of wave propagation in slowly varying zonal wind shears, shows that the distortion of the wave-number surface caused by the zonal flow controls the dependence of the wave amplitude on the zonal flow speed. In particular it follows that Rossby waves propagating into regions of strengthening westerlies are intensified in amplitude whereas those waves propagating into strengthening easterlies are diminished in amplitude. A classification of the various types of ray trajectories that arise in zonal flow profiles occurring in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as jet-like variations of westerly or easterly zonal flow or a belt of westerlies bounded by a belt of easterlies, is given, and provides the conditions giving rise to such phenomena as critical latitude behaviour and wave trapping. In a westerly flow there is a tendency for the combined effects on wave propagation of jet-like variations of B and zonal flow speed to counteract each other, whereas in an easterly flow such variations tend to reinforce each other. An examination of the reflexion and refraction of Rossby waves at a sharp jump in the zonal flow speed shows that under certain conditions wave amplification, or over-reflexion, can arise with the implication that the reflected wave can extract energy from the background streaming motion. On the other hand the wave behaviour near critical latitudes, which can be described in terms of a discontinuous jump in the ‘wave invariant’, shows that such latitudes can act as either wave absorbers (in which case the mean flow is accelerated there) or wave emitters (in which case the mean flow is decelerated there).