Dynamics of horizontal buoyant jets

Abstract

A single-layer model is used to construct the theory of straight-line jets. In addition to stationary states, the evolution of such jets admits transverse pulsations. The theory predicts that the period for warm jets pulsations is longer than the period of inertial oscillations caused by the Earth's rotation, while for cold jets pulsations, it is shorter. Thus, only warm jets can have a noticeable effect on the synoptic range of the wind-speed spectrum, generating into it additional spectral peaks. Within such an approach, every a single jet is described by a self-similar compactly localized solution that can be considered as a constant-shear band.