A comparison between available potential and kinetic energy estimates for the southern and northern hemisperes

Abstract

A study is made of the zonal and eddy components of the quasi-geostrophic available potential and kinetic energies based on southern hemisphere data for the twelve-month period May 1972 to April 1973 and at the four levels 1000, 500, 300 and 200 mb. Each component is found to show a late winter maximum and a summer minimum; however, their annual cycles appear less pronounced than those given by Wiin-Nielsen (1967) for the northern hemisphere. The eddy energies are subdivided into components associated with eddies of longitudinal wave numbers one to fifteen. The eddy spectra appear to follow simple power laws over the range of the smaller waves (n ≥ 7): kinetic energy appears to follow a −3 relationship but the exponents for the available potential energy spectra are found to be closer to −4.