Numerical Simulation of Air Flow over Mountains.

Abstract

The nature of the interaction of atmospheric flow with a mountain range of finite length is investigated. An inviscid, adiabatic primitive equation model is used to simulate steady, vertically-unsheared flow past a mountain range; various cases of mountain height and width are analyzed. A similar model for two-dimensional Boussinesq flow past a mountain on an f-plane is solved analytically for comparison to the numerical solution. Results indicate that the atmospheric response is quite similar to that observed in the Boussinesq model. Ridging over the mountains and responses which damp in the vertical are observed in both models. Differences are noted in the magnitude of the response in the vicinity of the mountains and in the position of the downstream trough.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA039649

Entities

People

  • John Lawrence Hayes

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Flow
  • Air Force
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • California
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Equations
  • Flow
  • Geography
  • Grids
  • Latitude
  • Layers
  • Meteorology
  • Simulations
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Topography
  • United States
  • Weather Forecasting

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.