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  • Numerical Simulation of Mountain Waves over the Southern Andes. Part I: Mountain Wave and Secondary Wave Character, Evolutions, and Breaking
Title: Numerical Simulation of Mountain Waves over the Southern Andes. Part I: Mountain Wave and Secondary Wave Character, Evolutions, and Breaking
Abstract This paper addresses the compressible nonlinear dynamics accompanying increasing mountain wave (MW) forcing over the southern Andes and propagation into the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) under winter conditions. A stretched grid provides very high resolution of the MW dynamics in a large computational domain. A slow increase of cross-mountain winds enables MWs to initially break in the mesosphere and extend to lower and higher altitudes thereafter. MW structure and breaking is strongly modulated by static mean and semidiurnal tide fields exhibiting a critical level at ~114 km for zonal MW propagation. Varying vertical group velocities for different zonal wavelengths λ x yield initial breaking in the lee of the major Andes peaks for λ x ~ 50 km, and extending significantly upstream for larger λ x approaching the critical level at later times. The localized extent of the Andes terrain in latitude leads to “ship wave” responses above the individual peaks at earlier times, and a much larger ship-wave response at 100 km and above as the larger-scale MWs achieve large amplitudes. Other responses above regions of MW breaking include large-scale secondary gravity waves and acoustic waves that achieve very large amplitudes extending well into the thermosphere. MW breaking also causes momentum deposition that yields local decelerations initially, which merge and extend horizontally thereafter and persist throughout the event. Companion papers examine the associated momentum fluxes, mean-flow evolution, gravity wave–tidal interactions, and the MW instability dynamics and sources of secondary gravity waves and acoustic waves.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1853000 1647354
NSF-PAR ID:
10288240
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
Volume:
77
Issue:
12
ISSN:
0022-4928
Page Range / eLocation ID:
4337 to 4356
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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