A review of: “A perspective of physics,volume 2. Selections from 1977 comments on modern physics by sir Rudolf Peierls. ISBN 0 677 12400 7. Lib. Cong. Cat. Card 77-17657. xxxiv + 259 p. Price $30.00. Published by Gordon and Breach.”

Abstract

The thermally forced circulation of a stably stratified atmosphere in a valley is studied by aid of a simple numerical model. The model is based on the Boussinesq-equations for shallow convection. A diabatic heating is prescribed at slopes of the valley. To better understand the model's response to this heating the linearized basic equations are solved analytically and numerically for cases with highly idealized orography. The most conspicuous features of observed valley wind systems are represented in these solutions.

Next, numerical experiments with more complicated orography are described. The influence of the nonlinear terms and of the dissipative terms is considered. Various shapes of the valley and different localities of the heating are prescribed. It turns out that most of the computed features can be understood on the basis of the linear theory.