The influence of tropospheric static stability on upper-level frontogenesis

Marcel Saute

doi:10.3402/tellusa.v45i3.14867

The influence of tropospheric static stability on upper-level frontogenesis

Tellus

Volume 45 (1993): Issue 3

By: Marcel Saute

Open Access

|Jan 1993

Abstract

Upper-level frontogenesis in an inviscid, dry and adiabatic fluid forced by confluence is investigated by means of a two-dimensional semi-geostrophic model using the specific volume as an isentropic vertical coordinate. The initial conditions are specified given an analytical continuous potential vorticity field in the presence of a temperature contrast at the ground, the lower boundary condition requiring an appropriate treatment because the ground intersects the first levels of the model. The paper has concentrated on the rôle of the horizontal variations of low and middle tropospheric potential vorticity in the intensification of the upper-level jet-front system. Destabilization of the cold air mass relative to the warm air mass yields an appreciable increase of the strength of the upper-level jet. Several meteorological situations characterized by such variations of static stabilities have been described elsewhere.

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