A theory of fronts in relation to surface stress

✍ Scribed by F. K. Ball

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1960
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 913 KB
• Volume: 86
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708636704

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Surface‐stress terms are introduced into the equations governing the motion of the cold air ahead of a warm front or behind a cold front. Solutions for the steady state indicate that a katafront inversion tends to become horizontal at increasing distances from the front whereas an anafront inversion may continue to slope upwards indefinitely. The depth of cold air will, when the upper flow is curved cyclonically, actually decrease with increasing distance from a cold katafront. It is also shown that the existence of a sharp surface warm front depends on the sudden breakdown of a trailing layer of cold air. The thickness of this layer increases with decrease in latitude and as a result, sharp warm fronts are unlikely to occur at low latitudes. The conclusions concerning cold fronts are in broad agreement with Sansom's (1951) observations.