Sensitivity of Idealized Moist Baroclinic Waves to Environmental Temperature and Moisture Content

AbstractIdealized simulations are used to examine the sensitivity of moist baroclinic wave growth to environmental temperature and moisture content. With relative humidity held fixed, the surface temperature at 45°N, denoted T0, is varied from 275 to 290 K. As T0 increases, the atmospheric moisture content, moist instability, and moist available potential energy also increase. For the chosen initial configuration, moist waves develop larger eddy kinetic energy Ke than corresponding dry waves, but enhanced diabatic heating at larger T0 does not further increase Ke. This finding is linked to a warm-frontal cyclonic potential vorticity (PV) anomaly that strengthens and shifts downstream at larger T0 owing to increased diabatic heating along the frontal cloud band. This eastward shift feeds back negatively on the parent cyclone by increasing the downstream export of mechanical energy aloft and degrading the phasing between dry baroclinic vertical motion and buoyancy within the warm sector. The latter suppress...