Abstract
During the entire PYREX field experiment, tropospheric wave breaking above the Pyrenean mountain range was neither observed, nor has it been produced in numerical simulations with realistic surface friction. By neglecting the effect of subgrid roughness, we have simulated wave breaking in a number of PYREX cases. We call this potential wave breaking. The fact that breaking is simulated when friction is removed indicates that surface friction plays an active role in suppressing wave breaking in the real atmosphere. Furthermore, wave breaking is not always observed in our simulations with no friction. A synthetic diagram of the breaking and non-breaking cases, as a function of the nondimensional mountain height Nh/U shows only little predictive skill of this parameter.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 167-170 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Contributions to Atmospheric Physics |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 1997 |
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