Modulation of the Great Plains low-level jet and moisture transports by orography and large-scale circulations

Abstract

This paper describes orographic processes that modulate the Great Plains low-level jet (LLJ) and related hydrology of the Mississippi River basin. Mechanical flow deflection by the Rocky Mountains is diagnosed in 50 years of monthly averaged National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) Reanalysis fields and in a series of integrations using a primitive equation version of the Utah Global Model (UGM). Although the mountain profiles are fixed over periods of short-to medium-range climate changes, their influence on the LLJ is not stationary because evolving ambient flows produce changing LLJ responses. Ensembles of medium-range forecasts are made for the 1993 U.S. floods and for the 1988 U.S. drought. The forecasts distinguish some of the observed precipitation differences between these years, but the magnitude of the differences is underestimated. Seasonal and longer-term changes of the ambient flow occur on large scales, while the response of the LLJ occurs on smaller scales that may promote cloud generation and precipitation. Month-long simulations with monthly averaged conditions suggest that the Great Plains LLJ is a component of the large-scale circulation associated with the topography of the western United States. Orography thus provides a scale transfer mechanism that focuses global-scale features into the regional-scale responses. These are relevant to precipitation distribution and to moisture budgets of the larger individual river basins comprising the GCIP domain. A theoretical interpretation of the large-scale, mechanical influence of orography on surrounding low-level circulations is proposed. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.