Surface pressure perturbations produced by an isolated mesoscale topographic barrier. Part I: general characteristics and dynamics

Abstract

It is found that this isolated mesoscale topographic barrier produces both a windward high and lee low at the surface, with the latter generally possessing greater amplitude. The difference in amplitude between these two features lessens for higher Froude numbers. The mesoscale pressure perturbation produced by the barrier is highly correlated with the incoming wind speed averaged over a 100 mb layer centered at 850 mb. A comparison betwen the results of this experiment and linear theory reveals that linear theory does quite well in predicting the shape and amplitude of the mesoscale surface pressure perturbations for higher Froude numbers. -from Authors