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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. D22, 8854, doi:10.1029/2002JD003097, 2003

A preferred scale for landscape forced mesoscale circulations?

Somnath Baidya Roy

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA


Christopher P. Weaver

Center for Environmental Prediction, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA


David S. Nolan

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA


Roni Avissar

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA


Abstract

The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System was used in two previous studies to simulate mesoscale circulations forced by surface heterogeneity in the Central U. S. and Amazonia. In this work, spectral analysis is used to compare the horizontal length scales of these simulated circulations with the scale of the surface heterogeneity. For both cases, the organized mesoscale circulations are confined within a preferred length scale range (10–20 km) that is significantly different from the dominant length scale of the surface heterogeneity. Multiscale landscape patchiness in these two regions tend to produce eddies at a wide range of scales, but the land-atmosphere interaction processes act as a medium-pass filter to select intermediate-scale circulations. This scale of response remains relatively unchanged despite significant day-to-day variations in the synoptic situation and the mean surface heat flux.

Received 30 October 2002; accepted 30 May 2003; published 13 November 2003.

Index Terms: 3307 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Boundary layer processes; 3322 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Land/atmosphere interactions; 3329 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Mesoscale meteorology.

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Citation: Baidya Roy, S., C. P. Weaver, D. S. Nolan, and R. Avissar (2003), A preferred scale for landscape forced mesoscale circulations?, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D22), 8854, doi:10.1029/2002JD003097.