The effects of friction and heating of convective condensation in the baroclinic instability problem

By using theΒ-plane, two-layer quasi-geostrophic baroclinic model, this paper discusses the baroclinic instability problem concerning the effects of friction and heating of convective condensation. By linear analysis it is shown that the combination ofβ effect, friction and convective heating brings about the asymmetric phenomenon of margin curves. The convective heating plays a role in the increased baroclinic instability. As the heating increases (m*→1), the short wave cutoff can increase infinitely. Besides, the numerical integration of the finite-amplitude equations shows that the trajectory on the phase plane oscillates periodically in the case of non-dissipation. When the friction dissipation is considered, the trajectory of phase decays and oscillates to the equilibrium. The stronger convective heating not only makes the unstable wave length shorter and the amplitude of the equilibrium decrease, but also makes multiple equilibrium into single equilibrium.