Dr. Lindzen will continue research on a variety of topics in dynamic meteorology, climate dynamics, and geophysical fluid dynamics. Specifically, he will (1) examine the roles of potential vorticity mixing in conjunction with radiative forcing and Hadley circulation dynamics in determining the atmosphere's meridional temperature distribution; (2) further explore the role of gravitational tides on the outer planets; (3) expand a study of this process in the Milankovich mechanism; (4) continue studies of the upper tropospheric water vapor budget and its parameterization; (5) investigate the stationary waves that were forced by the major ice sheets during the last glaciation and their role in observed rapid climate changes; (6) study the nonlinear accommodation of a fluid to the saturation of Rossby waves when their enstrophy exceeds the available mean enstrophy; (7) study the excitation of radiating wave packets by the Orr mechanism; and (8) determine whether barotropic stabilization accounts for the supercritical equilibration of two-level monlinear models of baroclinically unstable flows. The water vapor studies will be conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Center for Ocean-Land- Atmosphere Interaction (COLA) and COLA GCM; the other studies will be conducted mechanistic models of varying complexity. All of these studies will contribute to better understanding of the basic physics of weather and climate and the dynamics of planetary atmospheres. The water vapor studies will contribute to the goals of the Role of Clouds, Energy, and Water in Global Climate Change Program.
