Open AccessRossby wave dispersion on the C‐grid
Author(s) -
Thuburn J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.148
Subject(s) - rossby wave , discretization , dispersion (optics) , grid , wavelength , rossby radius of deformation , rossby number , scale (ratio) , meteorology , inertial wave , physics , mechanics , geology , geophysics , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , wave propagation , optics , mathematics , geodesy , mathematical analysis , turbulence , mechanical wave , longitudinal wave , quantum mechanics
Some spatial averaging of the Coriolis terms is unavoidable on the staggered C‐grid, and the resulting artifical slowing of near‐grid‐scale inertial waves in numerical models is well‐known. A poor treatment of near‐grid‐scale Rossby waves might also be expected. It is shown here that numerical Rossby wave dispersion on the C‐grid is sensitive to the details of the discretization of the Coriolis terms, and that quite good Rossby wave dispersion can be obtained even for near‐grid‐scale meridional wavelengths. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society