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Conceptual models of upper‐level frontogenesis in south‐westerly and north‐westerly flow
Author(s) -
Schultz David M.,
Doswell Charles A.
Publication year - 1999
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.49712555910
Subject(s) - frontogenesis , advection , baroclinity , geology , front (military) , potential vorticity , vorticity , climatology , cold front , positive vorticity advection , meteorology , physics , vortex , mesoscale meteorology , oceanography , thermodynamics
The conceptual model proposed by Shapiro as it is applied to the evolution of an upper‐level frontal zone within a baroclinic wave is reviewed and its limitations are investigated through previous literature and two casestudies presented in this paper. the early stages in the evolutions of these two cases are used to examine specific limitations of this conceptual model: (1) upper‐level frontogenesis in south‐westerly flow that evolves from a state of equivalent barotropy to a state of cold advection along the front, and (2) upper‐level frontogenesis in northwesterly flow with along‐front variation in the sign of the thermal advection, such that warm advection occurs upstream of cold advection in the thermal trough. Vector‐frontogenesis diagnostics for the Lagrangian rate of change of the magnitude and direction of the horizontal potential‐temperature gradient, including tilting due to vertical motion, are derived. These diagnostics are applied to the two cases to examine the maintenance of the potential‐temperature gradient and the development of cold advection along each upper‐level front. the upper‐level front in south‐westerly (north‐westerly) flow was maintained primarily by deformation (tilting) frontogenesis, in agreement with previous research. the increasing cold advection along the upper‐level front in both cases was related to an upstream vorticity maximum. For the case in south‐westerly flow, the pre‐existing vorticity maximum approached a downstream equivalent‐barotropic upper‐level front in a manner similar to an instant occlusion, resulting in cold advection along the length of the upper‐level front. For the case in north‐westerly flow, an intensifying vorticity maximum concentrated the cold advection in the base of the thermal trough, as warm advection developed upstream. These two cases are compared to upper‐level fronts in previous literature and a climatology of upper‐level fronts associated with landfalling cyclones over the eastern North Pacific Ocean. the results indicate that these two cases are typical of early evolutions of upper‐level fronts that can occur in south‐westerly and north‐westerly flow. Therefore, a revised version of the Shapiro conceptual model is presented that represents more accurately the early evolutions exhibited in the present and previous studies.