The Dynamical Aspects of the Climate in the Lower Atmosphere near the Large Scale Mountains-Rocky Mountains Region in Winter

Abstract

In Section 3, wind speed in the vicinity of mountains is shown to be small. The role of Rocky mountains as a barrier to the mean eastward current is also made clear. A pattern of air flow over mountains in a vertical cross section along zonal direction is presented.
The mean state of balance among the force due to pressure gradient, Coriolis force and the force by Reynolds stress and friction is presented in Section 4. The influence of friction on mean air flow is evident near the lower boundary of the atmosphere. The ratio of mean actual wind speed to the mean eostrophic one is 81 to 88 per cent, except near the ground surface. It was impossible to find a certain value as an Austausch coefficient in a shallow layer on the land, though it was about 105 C. G. S. at many places.
In Section 5, it was found that the lower atmosphere in the Rocky mountains region was a source of kinetic energy as well as of available potential energy, in so far as January 1957.