Mesoscale Dynamics and Its Application in Torrential Rainfall Systems in China

Progress over the past decade in understanding moisture-driven dynamics and torrential rain storms in China is reviewed in this paper. First, advances in incorporating moisture effects more realistically into theory are described, including the development of a new parameter, generalized moist potential vorticity（GMPV） and an improved moist ageostrophic Q vector（Qum）. Advances in vorticity dynamics are also described, including the adoption of a ＂parcel dynamic＂ approach to investigate the development of the vertical vorticity of an air parcel; a novel theory of slantwise vorticity development, proposed because vorticity develops easily near steep isentropic surfaces; and the development of the convective vorticity vector（CVV）as an effective new tool. The significant progress in both frontal dynamics and wave dynamics is also summarized, including the geostrophic adjustment of initial unbalanced flow and the dual role of boundary layer friction in frontogenesis, as well as the interaction between topography and fronts, which indicate that topographic perturbations alter both frontogenesis and frontal structure. For atmospheric vortices, mixed wave/vortex dynamics has been extended to explain the propagation of spiral rainbands and the development of dynamical instability in tropical cyclones. Finally, we review wave and basic flow interaction in torrential rainfall, for which it was necessary to extend existing theory from large-scale flows to mesoscale fields, enriching our knowledge of mesoscale atmospheric dynamics.

Balanced and Unbalanced Components of Moist Atmospheric Flows with Phase Changes

Atmospheric variables(temperature, velocity, etc.) are often decomposed into balanced and unbalanced components that represent low-frequency and high-frequency waves, respectively. Such decompositions can be defined, for instance, in terms of eigenmodes of a linear operator. Traditionally these decompositions ignore phase changes of water since phase changes create a piecewise-linear operator that differs in different phases(cloudy versus non-cloudy). Here we investigate the following question: How can a balanced–unbalanced decomposition be performed in the presence of phase changes? A method is described here motivated by the case of small Froude and Rossby numbers,in which case the asymptotic limit yields precipitating quasi-geostrophic equations with phase changes. Facilitated by its zero-frequency eigenvalue, the balanced component can be found by potential vorticity(PV) inversion, by solving an elliptic partial differential equation(PDE), which includes Heaviside discontinuities due to phase changes. The method is also compared with two simpler methods: one which neglects phase changes, and one which simply treats the raw pressure data as a streamfunction. Tests are shown for both synthetic, idealized data and data from Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model simulations. In comparisons, the phase-change method and no-phase-change method produce substantial differences within cloudy regions, of approximately 5K in potential temperature, due to the presence of clouds and phase changes in the data. A theoretical justification is also derived in the form of a elliptic PDE for the differences in the two streamfunctions.