Wave Response during Hydrostatic and Geostrophic Adjustment. Part II: Potential Vorticity Conservation and Energy Partitioning

Abstract

Abstract This second part of a two-part study of the hydrostatic and geostrophic adjustment examines the potential vorticity and energetics of the acoustic waves, buoyancy waves, Lamb waves, and steady state that are generated following the prescribed injection of heat into an isothermal atmosphere at rest. The potential vorticity is only nonzero for the steady class and depends only on the spatial and time-integrated properties of the injection. The waves contain zero net potential vorticity, but undergo a time-dependent vorticity exchange involving latent and relative vorticities. The energy associated with a given injection may be partitioned distinctly among the various wave classes. The characteristics of this partitioning depend on the spatiotemporal detail of the injection, as well as whether the imbalance is generated by injection of heat, mass, or momentum. Spatially, waves of a scale similar to that of the injection are preferentially excited. Temporally, an extended duration injection preferentially filters high-frequency waves. An instantaneous injection, that is, the temporal Green’s function, contains the largest proportions of the high-frequency waves. The proportions of kinetic, available elastic, and available potential energies that are carried by the various waves are functions of the homogeneous system. For example, deep buoyancy waves of small horizontal scale primarily contain equal portions of available potential and vertical kinetic energy. The steady state contains more available potential energy than kinetic energy at small horizontal scale, and vice versa. These qualities of the wave energetics illustrate the mechanisms that characterize the physics of each wave class. The evolution and spectral partitioning of the energetics following localized warmings identical to those in Part I are presented in order to illustrate some of these basic properties of the energetics. For example, a heating lasting longer than a few minutes does not excite acoustic waves. However, Lamb waves of wide horizontal scale can be excited by a heating of several hours. The first buoyancy waves to be filtered by an extended duration heating are those of the deepest and narrowest structure that have a frequency approaching the buoyancy frequency. The energetics of the steady state depends only on the spatial and time-integrated properties of the warming. However, the energetics and transient evolution toward a given steady state depend on the temporal properties of the warming and may differ widely.