DOWN-SLOPE WINDSTORMS ON AN F-PLANE

The effect of the earth's rotation on down-slope windstorms induced by a mountain range, which is uniform in the north-south direction, in a n eastward uniform environmental flow with a constant buoyancy frequen cy is analytically investigated. The velocity field is assumed to be u niform in the north-south direction. After an appropriate non-dimensio nalization, the non-dimensional Coriolis parameter f becomes small. To the O(f) approximation, the wind speed component in the east-west dir ection is not altered by the rotation, and the same down-slope windsto rms occur as in the non-rotational case. On the other hand, the wind s peed component in the north-south direction, which is everywhere unifo rm in the non-rotational case, is altered by the rotation. At the leew ard foot of an east-west symmetric mountain profile, the southward win d component is increased by the rotation.