Analysis of the atmosphere behaviour in the proximities of an orographic obstacle

Abstract

The atmospheric behaviour near an orographic obstacle has been thoroughly studied in the last decades. The first papers in this field were mainly theoretical, being more recent the laboratory experiments which represented that behaviour in ideal conditions. The numerical simulations have been addressed lately thanks to the development of computers. But the study of meteorology in complex terrain has lacked experiments in the atmosphere to understand the real influence the relief has on it. In this paper the problem has been considered from the last perspective, and so, seasons of measure of the atmospheric variables within the boundary layer have been organized with the goal of checking existing theories and bringing right conclusions from real experiment in the atmosphere. Controverted aspects of linear and nonlinear theories, as the location of critical points upwind and downwind of an orographic obstacle, will be analyzed. The results obtained show a large adequacy between the forecasted behaviour and the experimentally detected.