On the Momentum Budget of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

Journal Article · Tue Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-18-0088.1· OSTI ID:1487310

Garcia, Rolando R. ^[1]; Richter, Jadwiga H. ^[1]

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1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

Abstract This study documents the contribution of equatorial waves and mesoscale gravity waves to the momentum budget of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) in a 110-level version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model. The model has high vertical resolution, 500 m, above the boundary layer and through the lower and middle stratosphere, decreasing gradually to about 1.5 km near the stratopause. Parameterized mesoscale gravity waves and resolved equatorial waves contribute comparable easterly and westerly accelerations near the equator. Westerly acceleration by resolved waves is due mainly to Kelvin waves of zonal wavenumber in the range k = 1–15 and is broadly distributed about the equator. Easterly acceleration near the equator is due mainly to Rossby–gravity (RG) waves with zonal wavenumbers in the range k = 4–12. These RG waves appear to be generated in situ during both the easterly and westerly phases of the QBO, wherever the meridional curvature of the equatorial westerly jet is large enough to produce reversals of the zonal-mean barotropic vorticity gradient, suggesting that they are excited by the instability of the jet. The RG waves produce a characteristic pattern of Eliassen–Palm flux divergence that includes strong easterly acceleration close to the equator and westerly acceleration farther from the equator, suggesting that the role of the RG waves is to redistribute zonal-mean vorticity such as to neutralize the instability of the westerly jet. Insofar as unstable RG waves might be present in the real atmosphere, mixing due to these waves could have important implications for transport in the tropical stratosphere.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1487310
• Journal Information: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Vol. 76 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 0022-4928
• Publisher: American Meteorological Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English