Held, I. M., R. L. Panetta, and R. T. Pierrehumbert, 1985: Stationary external Rossby waves in vertical shear. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 42 (9), 865-883.
Abstract: The structure of stationary Rossby waves in the presence of a mean westerly
zonal flow with vertical shear is examined. There is typically only one
stationary vertical mode, the external mode, trapped within the troposphere.
For more that one tropospheric mode to exist, we find that vertical shears
must be smaller than those usually observed in extratropical latitudes.
The vertical structure, horizontal wavenumber and group velocity of the
external mode, and the projection onto this mode of topographic and thermal
forcing are studied with continuous models (a linear shear profile as well
as more realistic basic states), and a finite-differenced model with resolution
and upper boundary condition similar to that used in GCMs. We point out
that the rigid-lid upper boundary condition need not create artificial stationary
resonances, as the artificial stationary vertical modes that are created
are often horizontally evanescent.
The results are presented in a form which allows one to design the equivalent
barotropic model that captures the external mode's contribution to the stationary
wave field. It is found, in particular, that the wind blowing over the topography
in such a barotropic model should generally be larger than the surface wind
but smaller than the wind at the equivalent barotropic level. Also, the
group velocity of the stationary external mode in realistic vertical shear
is found to be considerably greater than that of the stationary Rossby wave
in the equivalent barotropic model.