Nigam, S., and I. M. Held, 1983: The influence of critical latitude on topographically forced stationary waves in a barotropic model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 40 (11), 2610-2622.
Abstract: A nondivergent barotropic model on a sphere is used to study the effects
of a critical latitude on stationary atmospheric waves forced by topography.
Linear and "quasi-linear" calculations are performed with an idealized wavenumber
3 mountain and with realistic topography. Qusai-linear dynamics, where mean
flow changes are due to momentum flux convergence, "form drag" and relaxation
to a prescribed climatological mean flow, produces an S-shaped kink in the
zonal mean absolute vorticity gradient near the critical latitude, resulting
in enhanced reflection. The component of the quasi-linear solution resulting
from enhanced reflection at the calculation with realistic topography and
zonal flow, this reflected component is found to be dominated by a wave
train emanating from the western tropical Pacific and propagating northward
and then eastward across the Pacific Ocean and the North American continent.
This wave train results from the reflection of the Himalayan wave train
at the zero-wind latitude in the tropical winter troposphere.
The vorticity gradients in the monthly mean statistics of Oort (1983) show
structure near the critical latitude similar to that produced in our quasi-linear
model, suggesting that some reflection of incident Rossby waves is likely
in the atmosphere, at least in the western Pacific, and that the wind structure
responsible for this reflection may be created in part by the stationary
Rossby waves themselves.