ALBERT

All Library Books, journals and Electronic Records Telegrafenberg

feed icon rss

Your email was sent successfully. Check your inbox.

An error occurred while sending the email. Please try again.

Proceed reservation?

Export
  • 1
    Publication Date: 2016-04-13
    Description: Hurricanes, like many other atmospheric flows, are associated with turbulent motions over a wide range of scales. Here the authors adapt a new technique based on the isentropic analysis of convective motions to study the thermodynamic structure of the overturning circulation in hurricane simulations. This approach separates the vertical mass transport in terms of the equivalent potential temperature of air parcels. In doing so, one separates the rising air parcels at high entropy from the subsiding air at low entropy. This technique filters out oscillatory motions associated with gravity waves and separates convective overturning from the secondary circulation. This approach is applied here to study the flow of an idealized hurricane simulation with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The isentropic circulation for a hurricane exhibits similar characteristics to that of moist convection, with a maximum mass transport near the surface associated with a shallow convection and entrainment. There are also important differences. For instance, ascent in the eyewall can be readily identified in the isentropic analysis as an upward mass flux of air with unusually high equivalent potential temperature. The isentropic circulation is further compared here to the Eulerian secondary circulation of the simulated hurricane to show that the mass transport in the isentropic circulation is much larger than the one in secondary circulation. This difference can be directly attributed to the mass transport by convection in the outer rainband and confirms that, even for a strongly organized flow like a hurricane, most of the atmospheric overturning is tied to the smaller scales.
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 2
    Publication Date: 2016-10-20
    Description: This paper introduces the Mean Airflow as Lagrangian Dynamics Approximation (MAFALDA), a new method designed to extract thermodynamic cycles from numerical simulations of turbulent atmospheric flows. This approach relies on two key steps. First, mean trajectories are obtained by computing the mean circulation using height and equivalent potential temperature as coordinates. Second, thermodynamic properties along these trajectories are approximated by using their conditionally averaged values at the same height and θe. This yields a complete description of the properties of air parcels that undergo a set of idealized thermodynamic cycles. MAFALDA is applied to analyze the behavior of an atmosphere in radiative–convective equilibrium. The convective overturning is decomposed into 20 thermodynamic cycles, each accounting for 5% of the total mass transport. The work done by each cycle can be expressed as the difference between the maximum work that would have been done by an equivalent Carnot cycle and a penalty that arises from the injection and removal of water at different values of its Gibbs free energy. The analysis indicates that the Gibbs penalty reduces the work done by all thermodynamic cycles by about 55%. The cycles are also compared with those obtained for doubling the atmospheric carbon dioxide, which in the model used here leads to an increase in surface temperature of about 3.4 K. It is shown that warming greatly increases both the energy transport and work done per unit mass of air circulated. As a result, the ratio of the kinetic energy generation to the convective mass flux increases by about 20% in the simulations.
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 3
    Publication Date: 2018-01-19
    Description: This study investigates the atmospheric overturning of the October 2011 MJO event observed during the Cooperative Indian Ocean Experiment on Intraseasonal Variability in the Year 2011 (CINDY)/DYNAMO field experiment using a cloud-permitting numerical model. The isentropic analysis is used to sort the vertical mass transport in terms of the equivalent potential temperature of the air parcels, which naturally decomposes the atmospheric overturning between ascending air with high entropy and subsiding air with low entropy. The circulation is further decomposed into contributions of four main scales: basinwide ascent, meridional overturning, regional overturning, and convection. Results show that the convective scale dominates the upward mass transport while larger scales play an important role both by allowing a deeper overturning and by modulating convective activity. There are substantial changes in the atmospheric overturning during different phases of this MJO event. Increased convective activity at low levels precedes the onset of the MJO by several days. The initiation of the MJO itself is associated with a substantial increase in the atmospheric overturning over the Indian Ocean. The subsequent eastward propagation of the MJO event can be clearly captured by the evolutions of convective-scale vertical mass fluxes at different altitudes. The equivalent potential temperatures of the rising and subsiding air parcels in the convective-scale overturning are also increased in the troposphere during the active phase of the MJO.
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 4
    Publication Date: 2017-09-28
    Description: The relationship between energy transport and kinetic energy generation in a hurricane is analyzed. The hydrological cycle has a negative impact on the generation of kinetic energy. First, in a precipitating atmosphere, mechanical work must also be expended in order to lift water. Second, the injection of water vapor at low relative humidity and its removal through condensation and precipitation reduces the ability of a thermodynamic cycle to generate work. This reduction can be directly quantified in terms of the change in the Gibbs free energy between the water added and removed. A newly developed approach—namely, the mean airflow as Lagrangian dynamics approximation— is used to extract thermodynamic cycles from the standard output of a numerical simulation of a hurricane. While convection in the outer rainbands is inefficient at producing kinetic energy, the deepest overturning circulation associated with the rising air within the eyewall is an efficient heat engine that produces about 70% as much kinetic energy as a comparable Carnot cycle. This confirms that thermodynamic processes play a central role in hurricane formation and intensification and that the thermodynamic cycles in a hurricane are characterized by high generation of kinetic energy that differ significantly from those found in atmospheric convection.
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 5
    Publication Date: 2018-10-01
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 6
    Publication Date: 2018-08-15
    Description: This study investigates multiscale atmospheric overturning during the 2009 Indian summer monsoon (ISM) using a cloud-permitting numerical model. The isentropic analysis technique adopted here sorts vertical mass fluxes in terms of the equivalent potential temperature of air parcels, which is capable of delineating the atmospheric overturning between ascending air parcels with high entropy and subsiding air parcels with low entropy. The monsoonal overturning is further decomposed into contributions from three characteristic scales: the basinwide ascent over the Indian monsoon domain, the regional-scale overturning associated with synoptic and mesoscale systems, and the convective-scale overturning. Results show that the convective-scale component dominates the upward mass transport in the lower troposphere while the region-scale component plays an important role by deepening the monsoonal overturning. The spatial variability of the convective-scale overturning is analyzed, showing intense convection over the Western Ghats and the Bay of Bengal while the deepest overturning is localized over northern India and the Himalayan foothills. The equivalent potential temperature in convective updrafts is higher over land than over the ocean or coastal regions. There is also substantial variability in the atmospheric overturning associated with the intraseasonal variability. The upward mass and energy transport increase considerably during the active phases of the ISM. A clear northeastward propagation in the peak isentropic vertical mass and energy transport over different characteristic regions can be found during the ISM, which corresponds to the intraseasonal oscillations of the ISM. Altogether, this study further demonstrates the utility of the isentropic analysis technique to characterize the spatiotemporal variations of convective activities in complex atmospheric flows.
    Print ISSN: 0022-4928
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0469
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 7
    Publication Date: 2020-05-19
    Description: The atmospheric circulation during the South Asian summer monsoon season is analyzed in moist isentropic coordinates. The horizontal mass transport is sorted in terms of its equivalent potential temperature and is separated into the upper- and lower-tropospheric contributions. This technique makes it possible to trace the transport of air parcels over long distances, identify regions of convective motion in the tropics, and assess the impacts of diabatic processes. The goal here is to assess the thermodynamic characteristics of the atmospheric overturning associated with the South Asian monsoon and to connect this thermodynamic structure to horizontal transport. The monsoon is associated with a low-level inflow of warm and moist air, compensated by an upper-tropospheric outflow at high potential temperature. The South Asian monsoon differs, however, from other monsoonal systems in two important ways. First, the ascending air exhibits an unusually high equivalent potential temperature, which results in global lifting of the tropopause during the boreal summer. Second, on a seasonal basis the main monsoon regions appear to be shielded from dry air intrusion from the extratropical regions.
    Print ISSN: 0894-8755
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0442
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 8
    Publication Date: 2018-09-27
    Description: This study examines the linkage between the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) and the South Asian summer monsoon onset through spatiotemporal wave-filtering and composite analyses of observational data sets during 1979–2016. We identify two major factors in determining the summer monsoon onset timing: the background conditions associated with seasonal transitions and the intraseasonal variations associated with an active MJO. The background conditions undergo sharp seasonal transition over the western Indian Ocean two to three pentads before the onset dates, while a typical monsoon onset is often associated with the arrival of the wet phase of the tropical MJO over the Indian Ocean, likely due to the promotion by the MJO-initiated eastward propagating westerly wind anomaly. Conversely, the atmospheric circulation associated with the leading dry phase of a strong MJO during the climatological mean onset dates may lead to a delayed monsoon onset. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
    Print ISSN: 0094-8276
    Electronic ISSN: 1944-8007
    Topics: Geosciences , Physics
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 9
    Publication Date: 2018-01-26
    Description: Simulations of the Indian summer monsoon by the cloud-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at gray-zone resolution are described in this study, with a particular emphasis on the model ability to capture the monsoon intraseasonal oscillations  (MISOs). Five boreal summers are simulated from 2007 to 2011 using the ERA-Interim reanalysis as the lateral boundary forcing data. Our experimental setup relies on a horizontal grid spacing of 9 km to explicitly simulate deep convection without the use of cumulus parameterizations. When compared to simulations with coarser grid spacing (27 km) and using a cumulus scheme, the 9 km simulations reduce the biases in mean precipitation and produce more realistic low-frequency variability associated with MISOs. Results show that the model at the 9 km gray-zone resolution captures the salient features of the summer monsoon. The spatial distributions and temporal evolutions of monsoon rainfall in the WRF simulations verify qualitatively well against observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM), with regional maxima located over Western Ghats, central India, Himalaya foothills, and the west coast of Myanmar. The onset, breaks, and withdrawal of the summer monsoon in each year are also realistically captured by the model. The MISO-phase composites of monsoon rainfall, low-level wind, and precipitable water anomalies in the simulations also agree qualitatively with the observations. Both the simulations and observations show a northeastward propagation of the MISOs, with the intensification and weakening of the Somali Jet over the Arabian Sea during the active and break phases of the Indian summer monsoon.
    Print ISSN: 1680-7316
    Electronic ISSN: 1680-7324
    Topics: Geosciences
    Published by Copernicus on behalf of European Geosciences Union.
    Location Call Number Expected Availability
    BibTip Others were also interested in ...
  • 10
Close ⊗
This website uses cookies and the analysis tool Matomo. More information can be found here...