Nontraditional hypsometric equation (original) (raw)
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Abstract
This study corrects the hypsometric equation by restoring the nontraditional terms to relax the hydrostatic approximation. The nontraditional terms include one Coriolis term and two metric terms in the vertical momentum equation. The hypsometric equations with and without the nontraditional correction are used to calculate the geopotential height of pressure levels using more than 300,000 selected tropical rawinsonde profiles. With westerlies between two pressure levels, the thickness of the layer increases, which reduces the upward pressure gradient forces to balance the upward nontraditional Coriolis forces; the opposite is true for easterlies. Hence, zonal winds are negatively correlated with traditional geopotential height biases aloft. At 500 hPa, for example, traditional geopotential height error in the tropical troposphere is on the order of at least 0.5 m, which is considerable with respect to geopotential height variability in tropical large-scale flow, on the order of 10 to 15 m.
Publication:
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Pub Date:
January 2020
DOI:
arXiv:
Bibcode:
Keywords:
- cosine Coriolis;
- Eötvös;
- geopotential height;
- hypsometric;
- nontraditional Coriolis;
- quasi-hydrostatic;
- radiosonde;
- rawinsonde;
- Physics - Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
E-Print:
10 pages, 3 figures, This is the accepted version of an article that has been published in final form