A simplified barotropic model on the sphere is used to investigate the extent to which random fluctuations in the background zonal wind field inhibit the meridional dispersion of quasi-stationary planetary waves away from a localised source. It is found that perturbations to the background flow of magnitude comparable to those observed in Nature can significantly enhance the meridional trapping of planetary wave energy. It is proposed that these weather-like fluctuations may provide another mechanism to explain the observed focusing of wave energy into midlatitude waveguides.
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12th Conference on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics