Category Archives: Waves

A Different Kind Of Turbulence

By Miguel Teixeira It might be thought that turbulence is essentially the same everywhere. However, its mixing efficiency depends not only on its intensity (as might be expected intuitively), but also on more subtle properties, such as its anisotropy (which … Continue reading

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Seasonal Forecasting and the 2018 European Heatwave

By Len Shaffrey The summer of 2018 has been one of the warmest on record in the UK and Europe. Warm temperatures over the summer led to impacts on agriculture, water resources and human health. One interesting question is how predictable … Continue reading

Posted in Atlantic, Atmospheric circulation, Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Environmental hazards, Historical climatology, Hydrology, Numerical modelling, Seasonal forecasting, Waves | Leave a comment

Is it a normal season this year for tropical cyclones in the Western North Pacific?

By Xiangbo Feng  The Western North Pacific (WNP) is the most active area for tropical cyclones (TCs).  The number of TCs occurred in the WNP so far (end of October) this year is 26 – just the average number of … Continue reading

Posted in Atmospheric circulation, Climate, Climate modelling, earth observation, ENSO, Equatorial waves, Historical climatology, Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), Numerical modelling, Seasonal forecasting, Tropical cyclones, Waves, Weather forecasting, Western North Pacific, Wind | Leave a comment

How the Hadley Cells work

By Gui-Ying Yang The Hadley Cell, named after British meteorologist George Hadley who discovered this tropical atmospheric overturning circulation, is one of the basic concepts in weather and climate. Figure 1 shows the zonal mean overturning circulation in a latitude height … Continue reading

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, earth observation, Equatorial waves, extratropical cyclones, Tropical convection, Waves, Wind | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Exploring the impact of Gulf Stream temperature biases on the global atmospheric circulation

By Robert Lee The climate state in numerical models often have differences when compared to a climatology from observations. These differences are often termed ‘biases’ and can be considered as a kind of error or deficiency in the model. These … Continue reading

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Heat waves of the past decade in Chinese mega-cities: a quick review

By Ting Sun Although cities are often already warmer than their rural surroundings (the well-known “urban heat island” effect), heat waves (HWs), excessively hot periods, will not only enhance the urban and rural temperatures but also exacerbate the contrast between … Continue reading

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The physics behind a physics scheme

By Alan Grant When I joined the Met Office (or, as it was then, The Meteorological Office), I was posted to the boundary layer group. I spent a number of years investigating the atmospheric boundary layer, using data from aircraft … Continue reading

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Mountain waves, ship waves and duck waves

By Miguel Teixeira There is a striking resemblance between some waves generated in the atmosphere in flow over isolated mountains and wave patterns in the wakes of ships, boats, or even ducks swimming in a pond. Typically, these waves are … Continue reading

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