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Title

Wave-induced boundary layer separation in the lee of the Medicine Bow Mountains. Part II: Numerical modeling

Abstract

Mountain waves and rotors in the lee of the Medicine Bow Mountains in southeastern Wyoming are investigated in a two-part paper. Part I by French et al. delivers a detailed observational account of two rotor events: one displays characteristics of a hydraulic jump and the other displays characteristics of a classic lee-wave rotor. In Part II, presented here, results of high-resolution numerical simulations are conveyed and physical processes involved in the formation and dynamical evolution of these two rotor events are examined. The simulation results reveal that the origin of the observed rotors lies in boundary layer separation, induced by wave perturbations whose amplitudes reach maxima at or near the mountain top. An undular hydraulic jump that gave rise to a rotor in one of these events was found to be triggered by midtropospheric wave breaking and an ensuing strong downslope windstorm. Lee waves spawning rotors developed under conditions favoring wave energy trapping at low levels in different phases of these two events. The upstream shift of the boundary layer separation zone, documented to occur over a relatively short period of time in both events, is shown to be the manifestation of a transition in flow regimes, from downslope windstorms to trapped lee waves, in response to a rapid change in the upstream environment, related to the passage of a short-wave synoptic disturbance aloft. The model results also suggest that the secondary obstacles surrounding the Medicine Bow Mountains play a role in the dynamics of wave and rotor events by promoting lee-wave resonance in the complex terrain of southeastern Wyoming.

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document

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http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d73r0vbg

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eng

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geoscientificInformation

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publication

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2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

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2015-12-01T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2015 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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OpenSky Support

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UCAR/NCAR - Library

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PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

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opensky@ucar.edu

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