The Application of Classical Atmospheric Tidal Theory
Abstract
The traditional dynamical theory of atmospheric tides is reviewed. The equations presented are modified to take account of infrared cooling. A numerical method is described for efficiently solving these equations for any vertical distributions of basic temperature, cooling rate coefficient, and excitation. The effect of varying basic temperature profiles, cooling rate distributions, and excitations on the diurnal and semidiurnal components of the atmosphere's daily variation is examined. It is found, for example, that the semidiurnal surface pressure oscillation is approximately the same for widely differing basic temperature profiles. It is also found that the diurnal thermotidal fields become unstable above 85 km. We are able to calculate the diurnal contribution to the spatial distribution of vertical velocity and use this information to estimate a lower bound for the turbopause.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A
- Pub Date:
- March 1968
- DOI:
- 10.1098/rspa.1968.0052
- Bibcode:
- 1968RSPSA.303..299L