Abstract
General Circulation Models do not produce sufficient westerly momentum source in the upper stratosphere, yielding a weak penetration of the westerly winds of the Semiannual Oscillation below the stratopause during equinox. Since the observed spectrum of meteorological quantities is “red” in frequency and zonal wavenumber, it is generally assumed that a large contribution to the momentum forcing in the middle atmosphere comes from the planetary scales and that additional momentum forcing can be supplied by small-scale gravity waves. The latter, being beyond the resolution of current numerical models, need to be parameterized.
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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Sassi, F., Garcia, R.R. (1997). Maintainance of the Tropical Oscillations of Zonal-Mean Winds in the Middle Atmosphere by Convectively-Forced Gravity Waves. In: Hamilton, K. (eds) Gravity Wave Processes. NATO ASI Series, vol 50. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60654-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60654-0_9
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