Occurrence frequency of subcritical Richardson numbers assessed by global high-resolution radiosonde and ERA5 reanalysis

Shao, Jia; Zhang, Jian; Wang, Wuke; Zhang, Shaodong; Yu, Tao; Dong, Wenjun

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12589-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12589-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12589-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 19

Research article

|

10 Oct 2023

Research article |

| 10 Oct 2023

Occurrence frequency of subcritical Richardson numbers assessed by global high-resolution radiosonde and ERA5 reanalysis

Jia Shao, Jian Zhang, Wuke Wang, Shaodong Zhang, Tao Yu, and Wenjun Dong

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12589-2023-supplement

Data sets

ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) ECMWF https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/ecmwf-reanalysis-v5

Download

Article (14303 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is indicated by the critical value of the Richardson (Ri) number, which is usually predicted to be 1/4. Compared to high-resolution radiosondes, the threshold value of Ri could be approximated as 1 rather than 1/4 when using ERA5-based Ri as a proxy for KHI. The occurrence frequency of subcritical Ri exhibits significant seasonal cycles over all climate zones and is closely associated with gravity waves and background flows.