Sensitivities of orographic precipitation to terrain geometry and upstream conditions in idealized simulations

CD Watson; TP Lane

Journal article

Sensitivities of orographic precipitation to terrain geometry and upstream conditions in idealized simulations

CD Watson, TP Lane

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences | Published : 2012

DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-11-0198.1

Abstract

This study examines how variations in relatively simple terrain geometries influence orographic precipitation and its spatial patterns of sensitivity to small changes in upstream conditions. An idealized threedimensional model is used to simulate a moist flow impinging upon three alpine-scale terrain shapes: a straight ridge, a concave ridge, and a convex ridge.Avariety of simulations are conducted to investigate the sensitivity of precipitation patterns to ridge length and upstream thermodynamic and wind conditions for an impinging flow with a nondimensional mountain height of approximately unity. It is found that for the straight and convex ridges, the flow response ismostly linear for the..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Todd Lane Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

C. Watson acknowledges support from a Melbourne Research Scholarship, and T. Lane was funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT0990892). Computing facilities were provided by the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing. We would also like to thank Simon Caine for assistance with the numerical model, Rich Rotunno for useful discussion in the early stages of the study, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of the paper.