One focus of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) was the study of upper-tropospheric potential vorticity (PV) anomalies that take the form of narrow meridionally elongated troughs termed ‘PV streamers’. A systematic effort was undertaken within the MAP framework to: establish a streamer climatology, develop appropriate instrumentation and undertake a measurement programme to better ascertain their structure, study both their intrinsic dynamics and their modification by the Alps, and perform model experiments to examine their significance for numerical weather prediction. Here an overview is given of the progress made toward achieving these objectives. In particular it is shown that PV streamers translating toward the Alpine region are dynamically distinctive and constitute an identifiable precursor of and contribute seminally to heavy precipitation events on the south side of the Alps and possess rich mesoscale sub-structures that can be examined with novel water vapour absorption lidar instrumentation. It is also shown that the accurate representation of a streamer might well be a critical prerequisite for accurate quantitative prediction of mesoscale precipitation. Copyright 2007 Royal Meteorological Society
Upper-Tropospheric features and the Alps: An overview
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society ; 133 ; 847-865
2007
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
PV-Streamer , Alpen , MAP
MIPAS Observations of Stratospheric and Upper Tropospheric Trace Gases: An Overview
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010
|Tropical upper tropospheric motion field
NTRS | 1985
|Illustrated description of Furka-Upper Alps railroad
Engineering Index Backfile | 1942