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Observational evidence from instrumented aircraft, Doppler radar and rawinsondes suggest low-level, mountain-parallel jets are a common wintertime feature along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Range and extending into the California Valley. It is proposed that the formation and maintenance of the low-level jet is a result of the pressure field created by the damming of stable air as it is forced up against the steep mountain barrier. Numerical experiments, using a two-dimensional (x, z) primitive equation model incorporating terrain representative of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, are carried out to test this assertion.
Thomas R. Parish (Thu,) studied this question.