Open AccessMountain Forces and the Atmospheric Energy Budget
Author(s) -
Joseph Egger
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of the atmospheric sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.853
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1520-0469
pISSN - 0022-4928
DOI - 10.1175/2011jas3740.1
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , energy budget , rotation (mathematics) , earth's rotation , rotational energy , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , torque , atmosphere of earth , energy (signal processing) , energy transfer , earth (classical element) , physics , mechanics , geology , meteorology , classical mechanics , geodesy , geometry , astronomy , thermodynamics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , molecular physics
Although mountains are generally thought to exert forces on the atmosphere, the related transfers of energy between earth and atmosphere are not represented in standard energy equations of the atmosphere. It is shown that the axial rotation of the atmosphere must be included in the energy budget in order to resolve this issue. The energy transfer resulting from mountains turns out to be closely related to mountain torques. The energetic effects of a changing rotation of the earth are discussed, as well as those of friction torques and those of the nonspherical shape of the earth.