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- Resonant gravity-wave drag enhancement in linear stratified flow over mountainsPublication . Teixeira, M. A. C.; Miranda, P. M. A.; Argaín, José Luís Almaguer; Valente, M. A.High-drag states produced in stratified flow over a 2D ridge and an axisymmetric mountain are investigated using a linear, hydrostatic, analytical model. A wind profile is assumed where the background velocity is constant up to a height z(1) and then decreases linearly, and the internal gravity-wave solutions are calculated exactly. In flow over a 2D ridge, the normalized surface drag is given by a closed-form analytical expression, while in flow over an axisymmetric mountain it is given by an expression involving a simple 1D integral. The drag is found to depend on two dimensionless parameters: a dimensionless height formed with z(1), and the Richardson number, Ri, in the shear layer. The drag oscillates as z(1) increases, with a period of half the hydrostatic vertical wavelength of the gravity waves. The amplitude of this modulation increases as Ri decreases. This behaviour is due to wave reflection at z(1). Drag maxima correspond to constructive interference of the upward- and downward-propagating waves in the region z < z(1), while drag minima correspond to destructive interference. The reflection coefficient at the interface z = z(1) increases as Ri decreases. The critical level, z(c), plays no role in the drag amplification. A preliminary numerical treatment of nonlinear effects is presented, where z(c) appears to become more relevant, and flow over a 2D ridge qualitatively changes its character. But these effects, and their connection with linear theory, still need to be better understood.
- Drag produced by trapped lee waves and propagating mountain waves in a two-layer atmospherePublication . Teixeira, M. A. C.; Argaín, José Luís Almaguer; Miranda, P. M. A.The surface drag force produced by trapped lee waves and upward propagating waves in non-hydrostatic stratified flow over a mountain ridge is explicitly calculated using linear theory for a two-layer atmosphere with piecewise-constant static stability and wind speed profiles. The behaviour of the drag normalized by its hydrostatic single-layer reference value is investigated as a function of the ratio of the Scorer parameters in the two layers l2/l1 and of the corresponding dimensionless interface height l1H, for selected values of the dimensionless ridge width l1a and ratio of wind speeds in the two layers. When l2/l1 1, the propagating wave drag approaches 1 in approximately hydrostatic conditions, and the trapped lee wave drag vanishes. As l2/l1 decreases, the propagating wave drag progressively displays an oscillatory behaviour with l1H, with maxima of increasing magnitude due to constructive interference of reflected waves in the lower layer. The trapped lee wave drag shows localized maxima associated with each resonant trapped lee wave mode, occurring for small l2/l1 and slightly higher values of l1H than the propagating wave drag maxima. As l1a decreases, i.e. the flow becomes more non-hydrostatic, the propagating wave drag decreases and the regions of non-zero trapped lee wave drag extend to higher l2/l1. These results are confirmed by numerical simulations for l2/l1 = 0.2. In parameter ranges of meteorological relevance, the trapped lee wave drag may have a magnitude comparable to that of propagating wave drag, and be larger than the reference single-layer drag. This may have implications for drag parametrization in global climate and weather-prediction models. Copyright (c) 2012 Royal Meteorological Society