Stochastic dynamics of the midlatitude atmospheric jet

Abstract The innate tendency of the background straining field of the midlatitude atmospheric jet to preferentially amplify a subset of disturbances produces a characteristic response to stochastic perturbation whether the perturbations are internally generated by nonlinear processes or externally imposed. This physical property of enhanced response to a subset of perturbations is expressed analytically through the nonnormality of the linearized dynamical operator, which can be studied to determine the transient growth of particular disturbances over time through solution of the initial value problem or, alternatively, to determine the stationary response to continual excitation through solution of the related stochastic problem. Making use of the fact that the background flow dominates the strain rate field, a theory for the turbulent state can be constructed based on the nonnormality of the dynamical operator linearized about the background flow. While the initial value problem provides an explanation f...

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