Dw. Waugh et al., NONLINEAR, BAROTROPIC RESPONSE TO A LOCALIZED TOPOGRAPHIC FORCING - FORMATION OF A TROPICAL SURF ZONE AND ITS EFFECT ON INTERHEMISPHERIC PROPAGATION, Journal of the atmospheric sciences, 51(11), 1994, pp. 1401-1416
The nonlinear response of a barotropic, nondivergent, spherical flow r
epresentative of the upper troposphere (but without a tropical Hadley
cell) to localized, extratropical topographic forcing is examined usin
g high-resolution contour surgery calculations. The response is shown
to vary greatly with forcing amplitude and can be significantly differ
ent from the linear response. At large amplitude, Rossby wave breaking
occurs in the tropics irrespective of the direction of the equatorial
winds, and leads to small-scale stirring and the formation of a ''tro
pical surf zone,'' which inhibits the meridional propagation of the di
sturbance.