3 resultados para Storm surges
em CaltechTHESIS
Resumo:
I. Foehn winds of southern California.
An investigation of the hot, dry and dust laden winds
occurring in the late fall and early winter in the Los Angeles
Basin and attributed in the past to the influences of the desert
regions to the north revealed that these currents were of a
foehn nature. Their properties were found to be entirely due
to dynamical heating produced in the descent from the high level
areas in the interior to the lower Los Angeles Basin. Any dust
associated with the phenomenon was found to be acquired from the
Los Angeles area rather than transported from the desert. It was
found that the frequency of occurrence of a mild type foehn of this
nature during this season was sufficient to warrant its classification
as a winter monsoon. This results from the topography of
the Los Angeles region which allows an easy entrance to the air
from the interior by virtue of the low level mountain passes north
of the area. This monsoon provides the mild winter climate of
southern California since temperatures associated with the foehn
currents are far higher than those experienced when maritime air
from the adjacent Pacific Ocean occupies the region.
II. Foehn wind cyclo-genesis.
Intense anticyclones frequently build up over the high level
regions of the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau which lie between
the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains to the west and the Rocky
Mountains to the east. The outflow from these anticyclones produce
extensive foehns east of the Rockies in the comparatively low
level areas of the middle west and the Canadian provinces of
Alberta and Saskatchewan. Normally at this season of the year very
cold polar continental air masses are present over this territory
and with the occurrence of these foehns marked discontinuity surfaces
arise between the warm foehn current, which is obliged to slide over
a colder mass, and the Pc air to the east. Cyclones are
easily produced from this phenomenon and take the form of unstable
waves which propagate along the discontinuity surface between the
two dissimilar masses. A continual series of such cyclones was
found to occur as long as the Great Basin anticyclone is maintained
with undiminished intensity.
III. Weather conditions associated with the Akron disaster.
This situation illustrates the speedy development and
propagation of young disturbances in the eastern United States
during the spring of the year under the influence of the conditionally
unstable tropical maritime air masses which characterise the
region. It also furnishes an excellent example of the superiority
of air mass and frontal methods of weather prediction for aircraft
operation over the older methods based upon pressure distribution.
IV. The Los Angeles storm of December 30, 1933 to January 1, 1934.
This discussion points out some of the fundamental interactions
occurring between air masses of the North Pacific Ocean in connection
with Pacific Coast storms and the value of topographic and
aerological considerations in predicting them. Estimates of rainfall
intensity and duration from analyses of this type may be made and
would prove very valuable in the Los Angeles area in connection with
flood control problems.
Resumo:
This thesis advances our understanding of midlatitude storm tracks and how they respond to perturbations in the climate system. The midlatitude storm tracks are regions of maximal turbulent kinetic energy in the atmosphere. Through them, the bulk of the atmospheric transport of energy, water vapor, and angular momentum occurs in midlatitudes. Therefore, they are important regulators of climate, controlling basic features such as the distribution of surface temperatures, precipitation, and winds in midlatitudes. Storm tracks are robustly projected to shift poleward in global-warming simulations with current climate models. Yet the reasons for this shift have remained unclear. Here we show that this shift occurs even in extremely idealized (but still three-dimensional) simulations of dry atmospheres. We use these simulations to develop an understanding of the processes responsible for the shift and develop a conceptual model that accounts for it.
We demonstrate that changes in the convective static stability in the deep tropics alone can drive remote shifts in the midlatitude storm tracks. Through simulations with a dry idealized general circulation model (GCM), midlatitude storm tracks are shown to be located where the mean available potential energy (MAPE, a measure of the potential energy available to be converted into kinetic energy) is maximal. As the climate varies, even if only driven by tropical static stability changes, the MAPE maximum shifts primarily because of shifts of the maximum of near-surface meridional temperature gradients. The temperature gradients shift in response to changes in the width of the tropical Hadley circulation, whose width is affected by the tropical static stability. Storm tracks generally shift in tandem with shifts of the subtropical terminus of the Hadley circulation.
We develop a one-dimensional diffusive energy-balance model that links changes in the Hadley circulation to midlatitude temperature gradients and so to the storm tracks. It is the first conceptual model to incorporate a dynamical coupling between the tropical Hadley circulation and midlatitude turbulent energy transport. Numerical and analytical solutions of the model elucidate the circumstances of when and how the storm tracks shift in tandem with the terminus of the Hadley circulation. They illustrate how an increase of only the convective static stability in the deep tropics can lead to an expansion of the Hadley circulation and a poleward shift of storm tracks.
The simulations with the idealized GCM and the conceptual energy-balance model demonstrate a clear link between Hadley circulation dynamics and midlatitude storm track position. With the help of the hierarchy of models presented in this thesis, we obtain a closed theory of storm track shifts in dry climates. The relevance of this theory for more realistic moist climates is discussed.
Resumo:
The object of this report will be to make a complete study of the water that is wasted in the storm drains of Pasadena and determine if there is any practical way of conserving this water.