Tropospheric wave motions with baroclinic basic flow in equatorial latitudes

Abstract

The theoretical investigation of tropospheric wave motions in equatorial latitudes carried out by Rosenthal (1965) is extended to include the vertical shear of the basic current. It is shown that with the inclusion of this effect, the divergence decreases with increasing wavelength, in agreement with the scale analysis of Charney (1963). In addition, the inclusion of shear leads to maximum values of divergence which are in much closer agreement with the divergences in Palmer waves (L ∼ 2 000 km) than when the basic current is invariant with height. The propagation speeds of meteorological waves are also in closer agreement with observations when the shear is included than when it is absent.