HR: 11:20h
AN: A22B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Energy of midlatitude transient eddies in idealized simulations of changed climates
AU: * O'Gorman, P A
EM: pog@caltech.edu
AF: Caltech, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
AU: Schneider, T
EM: tapio@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech, 1200 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States
AB: As the climate changes, changes in static stability, meridional temperature gradients, and availability of moisture for latent heat release may exert competing effects on the energy of transient eddies in the midlatitude storm- tracks. We examine how the eddy energy changes as the climate changes in simulations with an idealized moist general circulation model. To mimic the effects of changes in greenhouse gas forcing, we vary the optical thickness of the longwave absorber in the model over a wide range. The eddy energy has a maximum for a climate with mean temperature similar to that of present-day Earth, with significantly smaller values both for warmer and for colder climates. The eddy energy scales linearly with the dry mean available potential energy averaged over the baroclinic zones. Changes in eddy energy can therefore be related to the changes in the atmospheric thermal structure that affect the mean available potential energy.
UR: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~pog /publications.html
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 3319 General circulation (1223)
DE: 3379 Turbulence (4490)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting