Mountain Meteorology: Naresh Kumar Mountain Meteorology Cell, National Weather Forecasting Centre

Mountain Meteorology
Naresh Kumar
Mountain Meteorology Cell,
National Weather Forecasting Centre
What is mountain meteorology

It is the branch of meteorology that focuses on the
weather and climate of orographic regions.
Orography is the term used to describe undulations on the
surface of the Earth of any size and shape, from small hills
to major mountain ranges that span continents.
When the winds encounter orographic barriers, lee waves
come into the picture.
Lee waves, in meteorology are waves in a stream of air
when the wind moves over mountains.
Cont.
Usually a horizontal turbulence is generated at the lee side
of the first mountain (following the air stream), so called
rotor (circulation of flow about a horizontal or nearly
horizontal axis that is usually associated with flow over the
lee side of a barrier, such as a mountain range).
Lee waves always occur in groups on the lee side of
mountains. In totality, we get the activities in hilly region in
the following figure:
Where mountain has been
shown by 1,
flow of wind by 2,
rotor by 3,
lee waves by 4 and
typical clouds by 5 & 6.
Mountain Wave Turbulence
Cont
Produces the most violent turbulence
Occurs in two regions to the lee of mountains:
a) Near the ground and
b) Near the tropopause
Turbulence at and below mountain top level is
associated with rotors
Turbulence near tropopause associated with breaking
waves in the high shear regions just above and
below trop
Orographic Orographic
lift occurs whenlift
an air mass is
forced from a low elevation to a higher
elevation
as
it
moves
over
rising
orographic barriers.
As the air mass gains altitude it quickly
cools
down
adiabatically
(Adiabatic
changes in temperature occur due to
changes in pressure of a gas while not
adding or subtracting any heat),
which can raise the relative humidity to
100% and create clouds and, under the
right conditions, precipitation.
Cont
Effects of orographic lifting are:
Precipitation
Rain shadowing
Leeward winds
Associated clouds
Cont
Precipitation:
Precipitation induced by orographic lift occurs
in many places throughout the world.
Examples include:
The windward slopes of Khasi & Jayantia Hills see over
11000 mm (Mawsynram located about 15 km north-west
of Cherrapunji in the state of Meghalaya) of rain during
the Southwest Monsoon Season
The Western Ghats that run along India's western
coast.
Cont
Rain Shadow:
The highest precipitation amounts are found slightly
upwind from the prevailing winds at the crests of mountain
ranges, where they relieve and therefore the upward lifting
is greatest.
As the air descends the lee side of the mountain, it warms
and dries, creating a rain shadow.
On the lee side of the mountains, sometimes as little as
25 km away from high precipitation zones, annual
precipitation can be as low as 200 mm per year.
e.g. The Himalayas block moisture from the Tibetan Plateau.
Cont
Leeward winds
Downslope winds occur on the leeward side of mountain
barriers when a stable air mass is carried over the
mountain by strong winds that increase in strength with
height.
Moisture is removed and latent heat released as the air
mass is orographically lifted. As the air mass descends, it
is compression heated. The warm foehn wind (A warm dry
wind coming off the lee slopes of a mountain range,
especially off the northern slopes of the Alps) or
Nor'wester depending on the region,
Cont
Associated clouds:
As air flows over mountain barriers, orographic lift
can create a variety of cloud effects.
Orographic fog is formed as the air rises up the slope and
will often envelope the summit. When the air is humid,
some of the moisture will fall on the windward slope and
on the summit of the mountain
Rotor cloud is sometimes formed downwind and below the
level of the ridge. It has the appearance of the cumulus
cloud type but it is caused by a turbulent horizontal vortex,
i.e. the air is very rough.
Fundamentals of mountain waves

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Basic forces that give rise to gravity waves are buoyancy (Archimedes'
principle states that a fluid will exert an upward force on an object
immersed in it equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object)
restoring forces.
If a stably stratified air parcel is displaced vertically (i.e., as it ascends a
mountain barrier) the buoyancy difference between the parcel and its
environment will produce a restoring force and accelerate the parcel
back to its equilibrium position.
The energy associated with the buoyancy perturbation is carried away
from the mountain by mountain waves.
Mountain waves forced by mountains often breakdown due to
convective overturning in the upper levels of the atmosphere, in doing
so exerting a decelerating (to reduce speed) force on the large-scale
atmospheric circulation, i.e., a drag.
The basic structure of a Mountain wave is determined by the size and
shape of the mountain and by vertical profiles of wind speed and
temperature.
A physical understanding of gravity waves can be got using linear
theory, i.e., the gravity waves are assumed to small-amplitude.
Mountain Waves under Stable Conditions
Inviscid (flow without friction), Adiabatic Governing

Equations
Conservation of
momentum
energy
mass
Du
2
Bk u
Dt
DB
2
0 B
Dt
u 0
Flow Past an 2D Obstacle

u n 0 on z h( x)
h
w u
x
z h ( x )
n
z h(x)
Linear gravity-wave theory

Assumptions:
Consider two-dimensional airflow in an x-z plane over a
ridge
Waves are linear, i.e. small amplitude
Ridge is sufficiently narrow that the Coriolis force can be
neglected
WKBJ assumption: scale heights of background quantities
such as density, temperature, and velocity, are longer than
a gravity wave vertical wavelength.
Steady-state
Boussinesq flow: density differences are sufficiently small
to be neglected, except where they appear in terms
multiplied by g
Atmosphere is inviscid
Cont
The linearized momentum
equation can be reduced to
a single equation for the
vertical velocity
Scorer parameter
w w 2
2 l w 0
2
x
z
2
2
2
N
1
U
2
l 2
U U z 2
U (z ) is the speed of the basic state flow

N (z ) is the Brunt-Vaisala or buoyancy frequency
See Smith 1979;Houze 1993; Palmer et al. 1986
N
l
U
Cont
Consider an infinite periodic ridge in which h
k 2 / L
h0 sin kx
i.e. sinusoidal terrain
is the horizontal wavenumber with L the width of the ridge
Solutions to the previous

momentum equation can be
written as
w Re Ae i kx mz Bei ( kx mz )
A and B are complex coefficients and Re denotes the real part
m 2 l 2 k 2 is the vertical wavenumber

Defining
m l 2 k 2 i
the solution may
be written as
w Re eikx Ae
Be
w Re Ae i kx mz Be i kx mz
w Ae
sin kx
k l
or
U /L N
k l
or
U /L N
Upper boundary condition implies B=0
Radiation condition implies B=0 (i.e., the

w A sin( kx mz ) perturbation energy flux must be upward)
Cont
k>l (i.e. narrow-ridge case)
k<l (i.e. wider mountains)

(or equivalently U/L>N, i.e. high frequency)(or equivalently U/L<N, i.e. low frequency)
Evanescent solution (i.e. fading away)
Wave solution
waves decay exponentially with height energy/momentum transported upwards
waves propagate without loss of amplitude
vertical phase lines
phase lines tilt upstream as z increases
no momentum transport
w Ae
sin kx
w A sin( kx mz )
uw 0
Durran, 2003
Mountain flow regimes

Flow processes governed by horizontal and
vertical scales (in absence of rotation)
h
Non-dimensional height: Nh/U

U: upstream velocity
h: mountain height
N: Brunt-Vaisala frequency
linear/flow-over regime (Nh/U small)
non-linear/blocked regime (Nh/U large)
Non-dimensional mountain length: NL/U
L: mountain length
waves cannot propagate (NL/U small)
waves can propagate (NL/U large)
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Mountain Meteorology

What is mountain meteorology

Mountain Wave Turbulence

Fundamentals of mountain waves

Mountain Waves under Stable Conditions

Inviscid (flow without friction), Adiabatic Governing

Flow Past an 2D Obstacle

Linear gravity-wave theory

U (z ) is the speed of the basic state flow

See Smith 1979;Houze 1993; Palmer et al. 1986

Consider an infinite periodic ridge in which h

i.e. sinusoidal terrain

is the horizontal wavenumber with L the width of the ridge

Solutions to the previous

A and B are complex coefficients and Re denotes the real part

m 2 l 2 k 2 is the vertical wavenumber

Upper boundary condition implies B=0

Radiation condition implies B=0 (i.e., the

k<l (i.e. wider mountains)

Mountain flow regimes

Non-dimensional height: Nh/U

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