The Propagation and Breaking of Atmospheric Rossby Waves in Three-Dimensional Flows and Their Effect on the General Circulation

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9615864 Magnusdottir Many aspects of Rossby wave dynamics are still poorly understood. Under this award, Dr. Magnusdottir will investigate how regions of Rossby-wave breaking, where potential vorticity is mixed and nonlinear effects must be taken into account to describe the dynamics, affect the rest of the atmospheric flow. The study will focus on the upper troposphere in the lower latitudes and the stratosphere. At issue is whether planetary waves are absorbed or reflected in the wave-breaking regions. Reflection/absorption behavior is important for understanding of low-frequency variability and, in the stratosphere , it is relevant to sudden warming events. The principal investigator will approach this study by analyzing three dimensional numerical simulations with a mechanistic model used in previous studies. For the research involving the troposphere, the investigation will focus on the impact of using a more realistic depiction of the tropopause and the role of the Hadley cell; for the stratosphere, the focus will be on the role of diabatic processes. Dr. Magnusdottir also will experiment with using different basic states for the numerical simulations and assess the impact. Finally, she will diagnose Rossby wave activity in a more complex general circulation model. ***