Abstract
The objective of this study was two-fold: the first to investigate the role of moist convection and nongeostrophic effects on the growth of the monsoon depressions using a linearized multi-level moist primitive equation (PE) model and quasi-geostrophic (QG) model with only vertical shear. The second was to study the nonlinear evolution, growth, movement and detailed energetics of the monsoon depressions using a nonlinear moist global spectral model.
Our linear studies using both models revealed lower as well as upper tropospheric growing modes. For the lower tropospheric modes the shorter scales were found to grow faster. While the PE model showed faster growth rate for shorter scales, as compared to longer scales, the QG model showed less tendency for scale selection. The shorter scales in PE model had phase speeds ranging from 4 to — 1 ms−1 and in QG model from 8 to — 4 ms−1. The nongeostrophic effects were found to be, in general, important. One of the lower tropospheric modes with wavelength 2500 km was found to have many features similar to the observed monsoon depression of the Bay of Bengal.
In the upper troposphere the PE model showed much faster growth rates compared to the QG model. Also the fastest growing mode with a doubling time of 2.5 days had a scale of 6000 km. This was shorter than the scale predicted in the QG model. This mode had many characteristics similar to the observed features of the monsoon upper tropospheric easterly waves.
Using a nonlinear global spectral model, we simulated the monsoon depression around 21°N starting from an antisymmetric heating distribution (with respect to the equator) and with a specific vertical structure with and without basic flows. The model was integrated for a period of five days incorporating a simple form of cumulus heating. The simulated model disturbance showed a pronounced growth and a westward movement in the presence of cumulus heating. The detailed energetics calculations revealed that the baroclinic energy exchange is the primary energy exchange process and cumulus heating is the driving force for the generation of available potential energy.
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Krishnakumar, V., Keshavamurty, R.N. & Kasture, S.V. Moist baroclinic instability and the growth of monsoon depressions— linear and nonlinear studies. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) 101, 123–152 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02840349
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02840349