Fine structure of a Greenland reverse tip jet: a numerical simulation

Tadayasu Ohigashi; G. W. Kent Moore

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00399.x

Fine structure of a Greenland reverse tip jet: a numerical simulation

Tellus

Volume 61 (2009): Issue 4

By: Tadayasu Ohigashi and G. W. Kent Moore

Open Access

|Jan 2009

Abstract

Reverse tip jets are strong low-level winds with easterly component that form near the southern tip of Greenland. In the present study, a reverse tip jet case which occurred from 21 to 22 December 2000 was examined to clarify its fine structure using a numerical model with a horizontal resolution of 3 km. The reverse tip jet, showing the supergeostrophic wind speed with a maximum wind speed in excess of 45 m s^-1, extended from the east coast of Greenland to the west of Cape Farewell with anticyclonic curvature. A cloud free region coincided with the jet indicated that there was a mesoscale downdraft. Along the eastern edge of the jet, a banded cloud formed between the upstream easterly wind and the colder northerly wind that is a part of the jet and is located along the east coast. This cloud was associated with large gradients in surface wind speed, temperature, moisture, and heat flux. A maximum surface total heat flux of 300Wm^-2 coincided with the location of the jet. It is suggested that the orographic deflection byGreenland’s large-scale topography as well as small-scale downslope winds behind mountains with fiords causes the reverse tip jet.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00399.x | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 512 - 526

Submitted on: Dec 17, 2007

Accepted on: Mar 2, 2009

Published on: Jan 1, 2009

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2009 Tadayasu Ohigashi, G. W. Kent Moore, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 61 (2009): Issue 4