Identification

Title

WRF simulations of convectively generated gravity waves in opposite QBO phases

Abstract

In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to assess gravity wave forcing of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) in January-February 2006 and 2007. The model domain is configured as a tropical channel with a horizontal grid-spacing of 37 km and a top at 0.1 hPa. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis Interim data provide initial and boundary conditions. In these simulations a large part of the gravity wave spectrum is explicitly simulated. The model is shown to have a realistic representation of tropical precipitation variability, mean tropical ascent, and evolution of the stratospheric zonal mean wind. The high-resolution model outputs are used to compute gravity wave forcing of the QBO. It is shown that gravity waves account for similar to 60% of the total eastward forcing during the westerly shear phase and for similar to 80% of the total westward forcing during the easterly shear phase. These estimates are in agreement with previous evaluations of gravity wave forcing of the QBO. In addition, wave forcing associated with large-horizontal-scale inertia-gravity waves is computed. In the simulations, sufficient vertical resolution in the stratosphere is required to properly resolve large-horizontal-scale inertia-gravity waves near the peak in QBO forcing. In the WRF experiments this wave type represents similar to 30% of the total gravity wave forcing. This suggests that large-horizontal-scale inertia-gravity waves can play an important role in the forcing of the QBO.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7474bgq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-06-30T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact