Identification

Title

Two-layer stratified flow past a valley

Abstract

Observations and models of nocturnal katabatic winds indicate strong low-level stability with much weaker stability aloft. When such winds encounter an embedded depression in an otherwise smooth sloping plane, the flow responds in a manner that is largely describable by the inviscid fluid dynamics of stratified flow. Building on earlier work, the present study presents a series of numerical simulations based on the simplest nontrivial idealization relevant to the observations: the height-independent flow of a two-layer stratified fluid past a two-dimensional valley. Stratified flow past a valley has received much less attention than the related problem of stratified flow past a hill. Hence, the present paper gives a detailed review of existing theory and fills a few gaps along the way. The theory is used as an interpretive guide to an extensive set of numerical simulations. The solutions exhibit a variety of behaviors that depend on the nondimensional input parameters. These behaviors range from complete flow through the valley to valley-flow stagnation to situations involving internal wave breaking, lee waves, and quasi-stationary waves in the valley. A diagram is presented that organizes the solutions into flow regimes as a function of the nondimensional input parameters.

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document

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https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7kh0q08

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

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Classification of spatial data and services

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geoscientificInformation

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title

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reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

effective date

2016-10-01T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

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pointOfContact

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