HY-513 Hydrometeorology and Climate Change

Assignment 4
Total Points - 20
Due on 1st April 2019
Instructor - Jaya Khanna
Department of Hydrology, IIT, Roorkee, India

March 14, 2019

Getting used to vector calculus and estimating Coriolis force

This problem aims at making you write down and use the expressions for gradient, divergence
and curl. How do we understand atmospheric dynamics? through a study of wind motion...
But, we have seen in the class that wind motion is governed by vector calculus between the
forcing agents (like the angular motion of the Earth and pressure gradient force) and the
initial wind motion. So it is crucial that you understand how its done. There are a couple
exercises where you will get to use these relationships to estimate the Coriolis force, PGF
and frictional drag. (7 points)

~ and divergence ∇
Problem 1. (a) Write the expressions for gradient of a scalar ∇T ~ · V~ and
~ × V~ of a vector. Express these using all the three components of the vectors (both
curl ∇
~ and V~ ). (1 point)
∇

~
~ ×V
(b) Show that the Coriolis force is always perpendicular to wind direction. Use only Ω
for Coriolis force (i.e. ignore the multiplicative factor −2ρ). In your calculations represent

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 ~ as = Ωx x̂ + Ωy ŷ + Ωz ẑ. Do not consider a local co-ordinate
the Earth’s angular velocity Ω
system - i.e. derive a general expression for the Coriolis force. Also make use of the value of
~·B
a dot product between two vectors: A ~ = |A||B|Cosθ, where θ is the angle between the

two vectors. (3 points)

(c) At a station located at 43o N, the near surface wind speed is 10 m/s and is directed across
the isobars from high toward low pressure at an angle 20o . Calculate the magnitude of the
frictional drag force and the horizontal pressure gradient force (per unit mass). (3 points)

Impact of meridional temperature gradient (∂T /∂y) on the speed of the jet stream
Temperature impacts thickness of an atmospheric layer between two pressure levels. A cold
region will have a shallower atmospheric layer thickness than a warm region. And if there
are two atmospheric layers (one in the equator and one in the poles) and both have different
thicknesses because of their temperature differences then air will flow from the region of
higher thickness to lower thickness. Geostrophicity bends the resulting wind in the right
direction in the northern hemisphere. The more difference in thickness below a pressure
level the stronger will be the jet stream at that level. Conversely if a cold atmosphere can
compensate for the lost thickness by heating up sufficiently above some pressure level then
the jet stream can even subside. This is what we will learn in this problem. (6 points)

Problem 2. (a) During winter in the troposphere at 30o latitude, the zonally averaged
temperature gradient is -0.75 K per degree of latitude and the zonally averaged geostrophic
wind at the Earth’s surface is almost zero. Estimate the mean zonal wind at the jet stream
level 250 hPa. Make sure you use SI units. 1 degree of latitude is about 110 kms. (2 points)

(b) The jet stream subsides above this level, i.e. the zonal wind speed becomes zero above
this level. We will try to find out why should this be. Estimate the meridional temperature
gradient between 250 hPa and 75 hPa at 30o latitude given the geostrophic wind at 250 hPa
is the jet stream you estimated in (a), and that the wind speed at 75 hPa is zero. (2 points)

(c) Now compare your result with the sign of the meridional temperature gradient at 75 hPa
in this figure - http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/ swsheaps/cf-plot-2.1.75/i mages/guide2.png.

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Can you comment on if your answer agrees with observations or not, at least in terms of the
sign? (1 point)

(d) It is observed that within the troposphere the meridional temperature gradient is more
negative in the winter hemisphere. Based on this information can you guess in what season
would the jet stream be strongest? (1 point)

Take away from this exercise: In order to have any zonal geostrophic wind (u) or jet
stream at any altitude in the atmosphere you need to have an average negative meridional
temperature gradient (dT/dy<0) below that altitude. If the temperature gradient is zero,
then the jet stream or the zonal wind won’t exist. So if observations show that the jet
stream is absent at around 75 hPa then the atmosphere is doing something to revert the jet
stream above 250 hPa so that it keeps on reducing and ultimately becomes zero at around
75 hPa. In order to explain this observation the polar atmosphere must be warming up above
250 hPa so as to give a positive meridional temperature gradient. Hence, there is basically a
compensation for all the low-level (between 1000 hPa and 250 hPa) polar cooling by a heating
between 250 hPa and ∼75 hPa which gives a net zero jet stream at around 75 hPa.

Revisiting the thermodynamic equation

Equation 33 in my lecture slides is another form of the thermodynamic equation. Compare
it with the FLT that we studied in the ‘Atmospheric Thermodynamics’ part of this course.
Previously we had used the FLT to estimate how would the atmosphere look like under
adiabatic processes, i.e. dQ=0, or when there are no external sources of heat. Adiabatic
means heating/cooling purely because of compression/expansion of an air parcel. We had
found that under adiabatic processes (or pseudo-adiabatic processes when condensational
heating is considered) the atmosphere has a lapse rate which can either be given by the
dry or the moist adiabatic lapse rates. Also that was a static picture in which we were
not explicitly considering the motion of a rising air parcel. We only considered how would
the air parcel behave in a given environmental setting. But, an atmosphere does not only
have adiabatic processes. In fact it seldom has purely adiabatic processes because there is
some radiative absorption and heating at all levels in the atmosphere. So, the dQ term

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cannot be neglected. Eqn 33 does just that - it retains a general form of the diabatic heating
term J. Additionally it approximates the vertical wind in this equation so that we get a
direct relationship between thermodynamics and dynamics, i.e. between heating and vertical
motion. This exercise will make you understand how this relationship is formed and how to
utilize the resulting equation. (7 points)

Problem 3. (a) Look at equation 33 from the lecture slides. We converted ω =dP/dt
into w =dz/dt using the equation for hydrostatic balance. But remember the equation for
hydrostatic balance relates ∂P and ∂z. So, we can not directly convert dP/dt to dz/dt.
Using the chain rule for differentiation show that: (2 points)

∂P
ω= + U · ∇P − ρgw.
∂t

In the atmosphere (especially the extra-tropics) the first two terms on the RHS are found to
be small (but not negligible). So we just assume they can be ignored and we arrive at the
approximate relationship ω = −ρgw. In a GCM the full equation will be retained.

(b) Now re-write equation 33 using the horizontal and vertical temperature advection terms
(use chain rule on dT/dt). Express this equation in terms of the dry adiabatic and observed
atmospheric lapse rates. (2 points)

∂T J
= −U · ∇T + (Γd − Γenv )w + .
∂t cp

(c) Consider the case of a tropical atmosphere. In the tropics horizontal temperature gradi-
ents are negligible (see climatology of near surface air temperatures: http://berkeleyearth.org/land-
and-ocean-data/). In such a case show that any source of diabatic heating (J) will result
in a net increase in temperature and also a non-zero vertical wind. (1 point)

(d) For this same case of the tropics, assume that the time rate of change of temperature is
observed to be zero, but there is a net source of diabatic heating. Show that this will result
in a vertical velocity as long as the atmospheric lapse rate is not equal to the dry adiabatic
lapse rate. What is the condition for the atmosphere to remain stable i.e. w<0? (2 points)