Thermal compression waves. II: Mass adjustment and vertical transfer of total energy

A fully compressible model is used to simulate the mass adjustment that occurs in response to a prescribed heat source. Results illustrate the role that thermal compression waves have in this process. The vertical mass transport associated with compression waves decreases rapidly with height. Most of the mass transport occurs in the horizontal, with the vertical structure of the disturbance similar to that of a Lamb wave. The vertical transfer of total energy in a thermally driven mixed layer is also examined. It is shown that the upward transport of total energy is accomplished by a compression effect rather than by the exchange of warm and cold air by buoyant thermals. Model results are analysed to determine budgets of total energy, mass and entropy. It is demonstrated that buoyant thermals are predominantly responsible for a transfer of entropy, rather than total energy. In the light of these results the notion of ‘heat transport’ in a fluid is discussed.

[1]  T. M. Georges,et al.  Infrasound from convective storms: An experimental test of electrical source mechanisms , 1976 .

[2]  G. J. Haltiner.  Numerical Prediction and Dynamic Meteorology , 1980 .

[3]  H. Jeffreys.  The Oscillations of the Atmosphere , 1936 .

[4]  Geoffrey Ingram Taylor,et al.  Eddy Motion in the Atmosphere , 1915 .

[5]  Robert G. Fleagle,et al.  An Introduction to Atmospheric Physics , 1980 .

[6]  H. Lamb.  On Atmospheric Oscillations , 1911 .

[7]  Edward N. Lorenz,et al.  Available Potential Energy and the Maintenance of the General Circulation , 1955 .

[8]  George H. Fichtl,et al.  Approximate Equations of Motion for Gases and Liquids , 1969 .

[9]  Roger A. Pielke,et al.  Thermal compression waves. I: Total‐energy transfer , 1994 .

[10]  M. Lighthill,et al.  Waves In Fluids , 2002 .

[11]  Robert M. White,et al.  The Meridional Flux of Sensible Heat over the Northern Hemisphere , 1951 .

[12]  A. Oort.  The Observed Annual Cycle in the Meridional Transport of Atmospheric Energy , 1971 .

[13]  K. Droegemeier,et al.  Numerical Simulation of Thunderstorm Outflow Dynamics. Part I: Outflow Sensitivity Experiments and Turbulence Dynamics , 1987 .

[14]  Y. Feliks,et al.  Spurious mass loss in some mesometeorological models , 1982 .

[15]  R. Lindzen,et al.  Lamb waves in the presence of realistic distributions of temperature and dissipation , 1972 .

[16]  An Investigation of the Development of Cumulonimbus Systems over South Florida. Part I: Boundary Layer Interactions , 1986 .

[17]  R. White.  The meridional eddy flux of energy , 1951 .

[18]  P. A. Sheppard.  Recent research at imperial college , 1949 .

[19]  J. Peixoto,et al.  Global Angular Momentum and Energy Balance Requirements from Observations , 1983 .

[20]  N. Phillips,et al.  Scale Analysis of Deep and Shallow Convection in the Atmosphere , 1962 .

[21]  Donald R. Johnson.  The Available Potential Energy of Storms , 1970 .

[22]  R. B. Montgomery.  VERTICAL EDDY FLUX OF HEAT IN THE ATMOSPHERE , 1948 .

[23]  C. Priestley.  Heat transport and zonal stress between latitudes , 1949 .

[24]  R. Pielke,et al.  Thermally Forced Gravity Waves in an Atmosphere at Rest , 1991 .

[25]  M. E. Nicholls.  A Comparison of the Results of a Two-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of a Tropical Squall Line with Observations , 1987 .