On the role of thermal expansion and compression in large-scale atmospheric energy and mass transports

Nicholls, Melville E.; Pielke Sr., Roger A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15975-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15975-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15975-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 21

Research article

|

07 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 07 Nov 2018

On the role of thermal expansion and compression in large-scale atmospheric energy and mass transports

Melville E. Nicholls and Roger A. Pielke Sr.

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Nov 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 18 Apr 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'review', Anonymous Referee #1, 17 May 2018
- AC1: 'Reply to referee #1', Mel Nicholls, 30 Jun 2018
RC2: 'Reviewer's comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 19 Jun 2018
- AC2: 'reply to referee #2', Mel Nicholls, 05 Jul 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Mel Nicholls on behalf of the Authors (26 Aug 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (01 Sep 2018) by Heini Wernli

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (09 Sep 2018)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (17 Sep 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of

On the role of thermal expansion and compression in large scale atmospheric
energy and mass transports [Revised]

By M. E. Nicholls and R. A. Pielke

I feel there is still much to be clarified on this topic, along the lines of
points 2 (relation to balance and adjustment), 4 (how would the results look
using a fully mass and energy conserving numerical model), and 6 (the relation
between energy and entropy budgets), in my original review. Nevertheless, the
authors have addressed the most problematic points in the original manuscript,
and I think the work is of sufficient interest to justify publication. I point
out below a couple of small points that ought to be addressed.

1. Wave energy (p4 line 19, also reply to point 2 of my original review).
For a compressible fluid the wave energy should include the potential, internal,
and kinetic contributions (e.g., Lighthill 1978, Phillips 1990). For an acoustic
wave (i.e., compression wave) the internal contribution is significant and
it does not make sense to discuss the `wave energy' without including that
contribution.

2. P13 line 39, P18 line 30, The idea of a Rossby radius associated with the
Lamb wave is well known. For example, it is mentioned in Gill (1982) p207.

@book{gill1982,
author = {A. E. Gill},
title = {Atmosphere-{O}cean {D}ynamics},
publisher = {Academic Press},
year = {1982},
address = {New York},
pages = {662pp}}

@book{lighthill1978,
author = {J. Lighthill},
title = {Waves in {F}luids},
year = {1978},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
pages = {504pp}}

@misc{phillips1990,
author = {N. A. Phillips},
title = {Dispersion processes in large-scale weather prediction},
year = {1990},
howpublished = {World {M}eteorological {O}rganization {R}eport {N}o. 56},
url = {https://library.wmo.int/pmb_ged/wmo_700_en.pdf},
pages = {126}}

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (17 Sep 2018) by Heini Wernli

AR by Mel Nicholls on behalf of the Authors (27 Sep 2018) Author's response

ED: Publish as is (05 Oct 2018) by Heini Wernli

AR by Mel Nicholls on behalf of the Authors (12 Oct 2018)

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Short summary

The current understanding of atmospheric energy and mass transports is that the general circulation moves energy and mass from place to place in a relatively slow manner at the speed of the winds. This study challenges this view and provides evidence that considerable transfer can occur at the speed of sound. This transport mechanism is probably not adequately represented in current global models, which potentially could be a source of error that has yet to be evaluated.