Abstract
Rossby wave breaking events are examined in the upper troposphere of Southern Hemisphere in winter. Based on "PV thinking" and barotropic wind shear arguments we analyzed the upper tropospheric flow structure.
Four characteristic wind configurations have been classified which dominate the Southern Hemisphere winter wave breaking events, so a strong single subtropical jet and a broken subtropical jet with a weakening between two wind centers. Further a double jet structure upstream or downstream of the subtropical jet are found where the polar jet is linked to the polar vortex.
The expected different behavior of Rossby wave breaking is given for each wind configuration and cases of their realization are presented.
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12th Conference on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics