Articles | Volume 5, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1299-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1299-2024
Review article
 | 
24 Oct 2024
Review article |  | 24 Oct 2024

The importance of diabatic processes for the dynamics of synoptic-scale extratropical weather systems – a review

Heini Wernli and Suzanne L. Gray

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Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T. and Magnusdottir, G.: Planetary wave breaking and nonlinear reflection: Seasonal cycle and interannual variability, J. Climate, 19, 6139–6152, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3968.1, 2006. a
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Adamson, D. S., Belcher, S. E., Hoskins, B. J., and Plant, R. S.: Boundary-layer friction in midlatitude cyclones, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 132, 101–124, https://doi.org/10.1256/QJ.04.145, 2006. a, b, c, d, e
Aebischer, U. and Schär, C.: Low-level potential vorticity and cyclogenesis to the lee of the Alps, J. Atmos. Sci., 55, 186–207, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1998)055<0186:LLPVAC>2.0.CO;2, 1998. a, b
Agustí-Panareda, A., Thorncroft, C. D., Craig, G. C., and Gray, S. L.: The extratropical transition of Hurricane Irene (1999): A potential-vorticity perspective, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 130, 1047–1074, https://doi.org/10.1256/qj.02.140, 2004. a, b, c
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The science of extratropical dynamics has reached a new level where the interplay of dry dynamics with effects of latent heating in clouds and other diabatic processes is considered central to the field. This review documents how research about the role of diabatic processes evolved over more than a century; it highlights that progress relied essentially on the integration of theory, field campaigns, novel diagnostics, and numerical modelling, and it outlines avenues for future research.
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