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Radiative modification of selected vertical temperature distributions
Author(s) -
Staley D. O.,
Jurica G. M.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49709440107
Subject(s) - troposphere , radiative cooling , inversion (geology) , hydrostatic equilibrium , radiative transfer , atmospheric sciences , lapse rate , moisture , potential vorticity , potential temperature , environmental science , tropopause , geology , climatology , meteorology , vorticity , physics , vortex , paleontology , structural basin , quantum mechanics
Radiative cooling rates at closely spaced vertical intervals were determined by the Brooks method applied to several types of soundings. Other cooling processes were neglected, and a new temperature distribution at a later time was determined by forward integration of the cooling rate. By repeating the procedure, temperature distributions were obtained at two‐hour intervals up to 24 hours. The initial temperature distributions included: (a) a relatively moist inversion in the middle troposphere, (b) relatively dry inversions in lower and middle troposphere, within which moisture decreased rapidly upwards, (c) a relatively dry inversion in the upper troposphere, and (d) a smooth temperature distribution having a large moisture inversion. The distribution of cooling rates tended to wipe out the inversion with high moisture throughout (case (a)), and extremes of cooling decreased substantially over the 24‐hr period. In the vicinity of the relatively dry inversions in lower and middle troposphere (case (b)), cooling rates were relatively constant over the 24‐hr period, and so distributed as to maintain the inversion and substantially increase the hydrostatic stability in the lower part of the inversion. Radiative destabilization was noted after a few hours below the bases of the lower two dry inversions (case (b)) and just above the top of the moisture inversion in case (d). The distributions of radiative cooling in the vicinity of a dry frontal zone are consistent with the orientation of isentropes with respect to the frontal zone in vertical cross‐section. Potential vorticity, because of its proportionality to hydrostatic stability, must undergo substantial changes in the vicinity of dry frontal zones.