Atmospheric disturbances at 300 hPa are decomposed into normal modes, referred as discrete—spectrum disturbances which can propagate freely in the observed zonal mean flow, and non—modal transient disturbances, refe...Atmospheric disturbances at 300 hPa are decomposed into normal modes, referred as discrete—spectrum disturbances which can propagate freely in the observed zonal mean flow, and non—modal transient disturbances, referred as continuous—spectrum disturbances which are continuously sheared and eventually absorbed by the zonal flow. It is shown that normal modes represent only a small fraction of the observed atmospheric disturbances, while continuous—spectrum disturbances represent the majority of observed disturbances, even when the basic flow is unstable. Daily variabilities of the observed continuous—spectrum disturbances are presented. They are shown to follow the results of wave—packet theory. Calculations suggest that there are abundant sources to excite continuous—spectrum disturbances in the atmosphere.展开更多
文摘Atmospheric disturbances at 300 hPa are decomposed into normal modes, referred as discrete—spectrum disturbances which can propagate freely in the observed zonal mean flow, and non—modal transient disturbances, referred as continuous—spectrum disturbances which are continuously sheared and eventually absorbed by the zonal flow. It is shown that normal modes represent only a small fraction of the observed atmospheric disturbances, while continuous—spectrum disturbances represent the majority of observed disturbances, even when the basic flow is unstable. Daily variabilities of the observed continuous—spectrum disturbances are presented. They are shown to follow the results of wave—packet theory. Calculations suggest that there are abundant sources to excite continuous—spectrum disturbances in the atmosphere.
