On the dynamics of the East African Jet. II: Jet transients

A barotropic, primitive equation model on an equatorial beta plane is used to investigate the transient behavior of the East African jet. Both analytic and numerical solutions provide insight into the jet response to a diurnal fluctuation in the friction coefficient over land and to temporal variations in the upstream (eastward) and southern boundary forcings. Results indicate that the diurnal variation in the strength of the surface drag over land can account for the observed increase in the speed and westward shift of the jet core during the night. The observed large variations in the meridional wind just offshore and in the zonal wind field are not explained by the theory. In contrast to the diurnal variations in the finestructure of the jet, time-dependent variations in the upstream and southern boundary forcings can produce changes in the large-scale features of the jet. For either type of transient perturbation, the change in the jet speed can be significant and may explain the observed jet surges. In the case of southern. boundary forcing, this result demonstrates that eastward propagating, middle-latitude disturbances can have a significant effect on the flow at the equator in the presence of an impermeable western boundary.

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Copyright 1979 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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Author Bannon, P.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 1979-11-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-17T18:02:47.512216
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:16390
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Bannon, P.. (1979). On the dynamics of the East African Jet. II: Jet transients. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7tb182m. Accessed 31 July 2025.

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