THE MOBILE POLAR-HIGH - A NEW CONCEPT EXPLAINING PRESENT MECHANISMS OF MERIDIONAL AIR-MASS AND ENERGY EXCHANGES AND GLOBAL PROPAGATION OF PALEOCLIMATIC CHANGES

被引:61
作者
LEROUX, M
机构
[1] Laboratoire de Géographie Physique-CNRS URA 260, Professeur Université J. Moulin -, 69239 Lyon 02
关键词
D O I
10.1016/0921-8181(93)90041-L
中图分类号
P9 [自然地理学];
学科分类号
0705 ; 070501 ;
摘要
Air-mass and energy transportation is chiefly made by large lenses of cold air, the Mobile Polar Highs, the key factor of meridional air exchanges, which organize migratory units of circulation in troposphere low levels. Mobile Polar Highs (MPHs) originate in the downwards airmotion in high latitudes. The cold air injection organizes a dipolar vortex of very large size (2000/3000 km), the anticyclonic side of this vortex (precisely the MPH) is thin, about 1.5 km thick, by reason of cold air density. Mobile Polar Highs migrate roughly eastwards, with a meridional component towards the tropical zone, through the middle latitudes where they are responsible for weather variability and for rain-making conditions. Their own thermo-dynamic evolution and relief divide them into fragments, and they supply the low-layer of the trade circulation, and eventually the monsoon (previously trade) circulation of a cross-equatorial drift. Eastwards movement and disposition of relief govern the MPHs paths and determine distinct aerological domains; in one of these domains, China is precisely located at the eastern Asian exit of MPHs, stopped by the Himalaya/Tibet range, on their southern side during their eastwards migration. Power of the MPH, connected with its density, as observed in winter in the present conditions, is a function of the initial temperature, namely of the polar radiative conditions. It is precisely in the high latitudes that radiation balance and temperature changes are the most important, at all scales of time, from the seasonal to the palaeoclimatic scale, while in tropical latitudes the changes are comparatively always weak. Two modes of troposphere general circulation are a result of this mechanism: (1) A rapid mode of circulation, connected with a cold situation in polar latitudes, is characterized by strong and extended MPHs and strong winds at all latitudes and all levels. (2) A slow mode of circulation, connected with a warm situation in polar latitudes,is characterized by weak and less extended MPHs, and weak winds at all latitudes and all levels. Insolation and surface boundary conditions of high latitudes are the key control of MPHs dynamics, and therefore the key control of palaeoclimatic changes.
引用
收藏
页码:69 / 93
页数:25
相关论文
共 137 条
[1]   THE ARCTIC - A KEY TO WORLD CLIMATE [J].
ABELSON, PH .
SCIENCE, 1989, 243 (4893) :873-873
[2]  
ALAVOINE S, 1991, MEM LAB GEOGR PHYS U
[3]  
ANDERSON JR, 1989, MON WEATHER REV, V117, P2672, DOI 10.1175/1520-0493(1989)117<2672:ADSOPB>2.0.CO
[4]  
2
[5]  
Andrews J. T., 1982, QUATERNARY SCI REV, V1, P1
[6]  
[Anonymous], CLIMATES AUSTR NZ
[7]  
ATKINSON GD, 1971, USAF240 TECH REP
[8]  
BANE JM, 1990, B AM METEOROL SOC, V71, P514, DOI 10.1175/1520-0477(1990)071<0514:PFCASI>2.0.CO
[9]  
2
[10]  
BARBIER E, 1991, MEM LAB GEOGR PHYS U