Coastally Trapped Disturbances Along the U.S. West Coast: Synoptic and Mesoscale Analysis of 9-12 June 1994.
Abstract
Synoptic and mesoscale analyses were made for a coastally trapped disturbance along the central California coast that occurred on 9 - 12 June 1994. Hourly sea-level pressure analyses were constructed using a Multi-Quadric interpolation technique to blend observations with synthetic observations from the National Meteorological Center mesoscale model in data-void regions over the ocean. In addition to describing the disturbance's evolution in terms of sea-level pressure changes, the 850 mb temperature change and thermal advection were analyzed to determine their influence on the initiation and propagation of the coastally trapped disturbance. Low-level thermal advection was shown to be a key mechanism in initiating the event, in the development of an off-shore low pressure center, and subsequently in changing the nature of the forcing of the disturbance from ageostrophic down-gradient flow to more nearly a response to the existing geostrophic pressure gradient. (MM)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA305748
Entities
People
- Paul S. Oosterling
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School