A Spatial and Temporal Energetics Analysis of a Baroclinic Disturbance in the Mediterranen

An analysis of the energetics of an extratropical baroclinic depression is performed. The approach is based on the computation of the components of an energy flow for an open atmospheric region in which this disturbance is the major synoptic-scale feature. The local fields of motion and man are partitioned into zonal and eddy terms, so that the resulting four energy forms are the zonal and eddy terms, so that the resulting four energy forms are the zonal and eddy components of the available potential and kinetic energies. The energy transformations, which can be considered to express well-defined physical process and which are stable from a computational point of view, the diabatic generation of available potential energy, and the frictional dissipation of kinetic energy all determine a composite energy flow over the region. Interactions with the surrounding atmospheric volume are also taken into amount in the form of energy transfers. Energies and their transformations and transfers are computed...