The effect of spherical geometry on momentum transports in simple baroclinic flows

✍ Scribed by A. Hollingsworth; A. J. Simmons; B. J. Hoskins

• Book ID: 104574639
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1976
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 620 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710243417

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We consider the baroclinic instability of flows on the sphere. An approximate expression is derived for the momentum fluxes associated with exponentially growing modes. It is shown that the occurrence of these momentum fluxes depends on the Rossby beta‐effect in conjunction with the variation with latitude of the Coriolis parameter in the thermal wind relation and in the vortex stretching term. A physical interpretation of the results is presented.