Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
3.21.
Suppose that the wind speeds given in Problem 3.20 are each in error by
±
10%. What would be the percentage error in the calculated horizontal
divergence in the worst case?
3.22.
The divergence of the horizontal wind at various pressure levels above a
given station is shown in the following table. Compute the vertical velocity
10
−
5
s
−
1
)
Pressure (hPa)
∇·
V
(
×
1000
+
0.9
850
+
0.6
700
+
0.3
500
0.0
300
−
0.6
100
−
1.0
at each level assuming an isothermal atmosphere with temperature 260 K
and letting w
=
0 at 1000 hPa.
3.23.
Suppose that the lapse rate at the 850-hPa level is 4 K km
−
1
. If the tem-
perature at a given location is decreasing at a rate of 2 K h
−
1
, the wind is
westerly at 10 m s
−
1
, and the temperature decreases toward the west at a
rate of 5 K/100 km, compute the vertical velocity at the 850-hPa level using
the adiabatic method.
MATLAB EXERCISES
M3.1.
For the situations considered in problems M2.1 and M2.2, make further
modifications in the MATLAB scripts to compute the vertical profiles of
density and of the static stability parameter S
p
defined in (3.7). Plot these
in the interval from z
15 km. You will need to approximate
the vertical derivative in S
p
using a finite difference approximation (see
Section 13.3.1).
=
0toz
=
M3.2.
The objective of this exercise is to gain an appreciation for the diff-
erence between trajectories and streamlines in synoptic-scale flows. An
idealized representation of a midlatitude synoptic disturbance in an atmo-
sphere with no zonal mean flow is given by the simple sinusoidal pattern
of geopotential,
sin [k (x
(x, y, t)
=
0
+
−
ct)] cos ly
