ENV100Y5 Lecture : env100 note 42.docx

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: murk

Document Summary

Greenland and its effect on weather and climate: the thermohaline circulation. The greenland flow distortion experiment (gfdex: atmospheric research with an instrumented aircraft, atmospheric research with an instrumented vessel. Retreat of outflow glacier since the end of the little ice age (~1850) Current lateral moraine with evidence of retreat. The interaction of an air parcel with topography depends on: kinetic energy of the air parcel, work required to lift the air parcel over the topography. The froude number (fr) is the ratio of these two quantities. If the fr >1, air parcel has sufficient kinetic energy to do the required work against gravity and can make it over the barrier. If the fr <1, air parcel has insufficient kinetic energy to do the required work against gravity and cannot make it over the barrier. Typical froude numbers for atmospheric flow in the vicinity of greenland are on the order of 0. 1.